Like a book, an article can be soft. Small, sluggish, dry, dull, stupid, useless – in a word, stillborn. Or, as the English say: in vain. In order not to waste time on such an article as a certain continental one, I will go straight to the point; I read the Egyptian Paterik. It took 30 years (1992 – 2022) but it was worth it!

Here’s the bottom line. It is an apocryphal document (i.e. without an author), a large volume (556 pages in Romanian paper translation; Reîntregirea publishing house, 2014, Alba Iulia, ISBN 978-606-509-257-0. Or 412 pages in the network that anyone can hack , also good, though of much lesser merit), is basically a compilation of stories from the fourth century. This paterik (there are more, but this is the first, it is an exemplary paterik) experienced great popularity in the Orthodox space and an explosion of popularity in Romania between 1991 and 1998 (approximately). I worked hard to read it cover to cover. 30 years.

The book can easily be narrated by a person without a sense of religiosity, as I probably am. The action, the epic thread, is repeated and can be divided (roughly) into four: the interaction between the avves; interaction between teachers and students; miracles; interaction between avves and demons.

(In parentheses: the main characters of the book are so-called “Abbas”, that is, Christian sages, as a rule, without positions – ranks? – in the church hierarchy. Abbas are simply seekers of truth, people from all walks of life. , detached from the “struggle of life ” in the desert, in the depths of the Egyptian desert. I think that for the average Romanian reader, the closest/familiar figure is Daniel the Recluse. In general, the abves are not unsympathetic characters, at least at the beginning of each story, as long as each abve follows the Socratic path: “I know , that I know nothing.” Later, as the action progresses, each avva becomes less and less digestible—at least from my perspective.sight).

I have nothing to comment (i.e. nothing intelligent) about the interaction between the avves. Wise men among themselves. Let me take a note – like what? It is also difficult to say something about the interaction between the abvas and the students, because almost all of them “open” with the same question of the student: “What should I do?”. In our world, where we all have answers to questions that no one asks us, such a question sounds simply disarming. Pupils-paterics – each in his own way – there are ONEŞTI; I can respect that. He said: “That which cannot be spoken, must be kept silent.” I miss no opportunity to give you an opportunity to explain to me who said it!

Miracles are another matter. It seems to me that the miracles of religions, all of them, hide other meanings. Let’s take an example from Paterik: “Many of his students also told about the fact that once they were brought fish, the cook fried it, brought it to the cellar, and when the cellarer was in need, he left the stable, leaving the fish in a bowl, ordering a small child to guard the happy Gelasi her for an hour until he returns. And the greedy child began to eat fish without any hesitation. So, entering the cellar and finding him eating, being angry with the child who was sitting, he kicked him without counting, and from some diabolical act, having received a blow to the heart and fainted, he died. And the cellarer, seized with fear, put him on the bed and, covering him, fell at the feet of Abba Gelasius, telling him about what had happened. He commanded that no one should be told, ordering him also this, that when the evening came and all sat down, he should carry it to the altar, and set it before the altar, and go out thence. And when the old man came to the altar, he sat down to pray. And during the nocturnal singing, the brothers gathered, the old man came out, followed by the child, not knowing anyone except him and the cellarer, until his end. To be honest, that sounds a lot like covering up a crime to me. But, of course, no one can know what really happened there.

An interesting part of the book is the interaction of priests with demons. As I said at the beginning: the great trouble of the British is utilitarianism. So, here’s what I can do for you: to save time, download the pdf version of Crutch to your laptop and work with the command Control F. In the “Search” window, type the word “devils” (in lower case) and you can read the most meaningful passages of this ancient book – from which you can understand what you want, according to the faculties, the words of Viktor Balos. Of course, a person with a theological education will understand something differently than a person with another education (or even without an education, why not?), but that is not the point. So as not to waste time, here is a nice excerpt (pleasantly, à la français): “Abba Macarius was told that when he went to the church to read the commandment, he saw a crowd of demons near the cell of one of the brothers, some of whom imagined themselves to be women. uttering obscene words, others were children who spoke words of reproach, others played, and others changed into various forms.’ I dwell only on this perfectly innocent passage, although the text groans with possible examples (that is, exploits of devils; in technical language – “temptations”), but my intention is by no means to make the readers laugh. What interest would I have?

I am interested in the following two questions, which I have not understood: how could communism fail in such a state, despite the enormous resources it had at its disposal? This is the first question. And the second: is my people stupider than other peoples, or is it just a matter of historical disorientation?

Primo: What did communism offer? Please, apart from other chatter (a better and fairer world, etc.)? Well, Educated Romania, that’s what he’s up to! That is, on the horizon of 1948, let’s say: we kill the current educated class and put in its place people from below, comrades of healthy origin, and from their children we raise another educated class. About the “Vlad Țepeș” program, so to speak. This other educated class was supposed to be more or less my generation. And when communism collapsed, where did the new “educated” class come from? We, the children of communism, have shown ourselves to be absolutely non-communist. I hit the churches! Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro