Авва Макарий и вор

Однажды авва Макарий застал в своей келье вора, который грузил его вещи на стоявшего у кельи осла. Не подав вида, что он хозяин этих вещей, преподобный стал молча помогать увязывать поклажу. Отпустив его с миром, блаженный сказал себе:

— Мы ничего не внесли в этот мир, ясно, что ничего не можем и унести отсюда. Да будет благословен Господь во всём!

Read also

Triumph of Orthodoxy – why this feast belongs to artists

There is a small icon in the British Museum – just thirty-seven centimeters high. It is from this modest board that one should begin speaking about what happened in March 843.

Buried alive: How hegumen Athanasius outwitted kings and Jesuits

He was killed three times – defrocked, put in shackles, and shot. We reconstruct the chronicle of the saint's feat based on documents.

Stories about the early Church: The state of clergy in the first centuries

Sources from this period present a rather mixed picture of the state of the clergy. To form a clearer understanding of it, let us examine three aspects: education, morality, and material support.

The mathematics of a knot: why the prayer rope remains a silent weapon

An object a passerby might mistake for decoration is given to a monk at his tonsure as a spiritual sword. What lies hidden in the nine interweavings of a single knot?

Silver candlesticks: How mercy becomes the price of a soul’s salvation

We often think of forgiveness as an easy gesture – a light motion of the heart, a simple “it’s fine,” a quick letting go. But a scene from Victor Hugo’s novel reveals a different truth: another person’s freedom always costs something. And the coin of that purchase is very often our own silver.

Brotherhoods: A network against the empire

In 1596, Orthodoxy in Ukraine was declared “dead.” But while elites were drifting into Catholic cathedrals, ordinary townsmen built a structure that outplayed both empire and Jesuits.