Saint Silouan the Athonite

This book presents the life and teaching of Saint Silouan the Athonite as portrayed by his disciple Saint Sophrony the Athonite.

In the autumn of 1892, Saint Silouan, being a young peasant then with the name Simeon from the province of Tambov reached Mt Athos. Although he was unlearned and ignorant in the ordinary sense – two winters at the village school were all he could boast of in the way of scholarship – tireless inner striving gave him a personal experience of Christianity identical with that of many of the early ascetic Fathers.

Saint Sophrony went to Mt. Athos in 1925 and there, at the Monastery of St. Panteleimon, became amanu­ensis to Staretz Silouan whose writings were pencilled in laborious, unformed characters on odd scraps of paper.