Nil Sorsky

David Goldfrank, a specialist in Russian studies, is Professor of History at Georgetown University. His previous translation and study of fifteenth-century Russian monasticism, The Monastic Rule of Iosif Volotsky, was first published in 1983 and revised and reissued in 2 .

• Table of ContentsAuthor’s Preface   xiTable of Bibliographic Abbreviations   xviiTransliteration from Cyrillic Letters   xxTechnical Abbreviations in the Footnotes   xxiPart I: Toward a Study of Nil SorskyI. The Little We Know 3 Omega as Alpha   3The Shadows of the Kremlin   4The Northern Beacon   8The Holy Mount    13The Quiet Kelliot   18A Busy ‘Abode of Stillness’   20Publish Lest They Peris  h 23Four and Twenty Saints Lives   24The Church at Large   30II. A Tentative Top Ten   33The Maybe Mentor   33The Congenital Connection    36The Compatible Companion   37The Best of the Bookmen   39The Loose Cannon   42The Man in the Middle   44The Ardent Ascetic   46 The Unexpected Bedfellow    48The Colonizing Coenobite   55Once a Boyar . . .   58III. The Written Legacy   62Texts and Structures   62Centrality of Sources   68The Acolyte as Adapter   80Literary Devices   83Technical Terms   86A Bit on Nil’s Hesychasm   95Further on Nil’s Non-Possession   97Nil’s Nil in a Nutshell   100Epilogue: Win Some, Lose Some   101Love’s Labors Lost?   101Making It   102Preface to the Translations   105Part II: Nil Sorsky’s Original TextsThe Predanie   113The Ustav    124Exposition of the Chapters   125Foreword   1261. On the Differences of the Mental Campaigns   1312. On Our Combat . . . Prayer and Stillness   1373. On How to Fortify Oneself   1544. On Control of Every Activity   1585. On the . . . Eight Principle . . . Urges   1621. On Gluttony   1632. On Fornication   1673. On Avarice   1724. On Wrath   1735. On Sadness   1756. On Despondency   1777. On Vainglory   1828. On Pride   184 6. In General, Against All Urges   1897. On Remembrance of Death   1918. On Tears   2029. On the Guarding of These Things   21010. On Detachment and True Carefreeness   21311. On Appropriate Measures   219The Three Epistles   229To Vassian Patrikeev   231To Gurii Tushin   238To German Podol’nyi   245A Little Epistle   250The Sobornik Apologiai   251Foreword   251Postscript   253The Testament   255AppendicesAppendix I. The Nil Polev / Nil Sorsky Codex   259Appendix II. The Predanie Addenda   270Appendix III. The Zave˚t of Innokentii Okhliabinin   273Appendix IV. Index of Biblical Citations   277Bibliography   281Index   324

[A]n exemplary edition and translation.The Catholic Historical Review