This collection
has been compiled in order to enable the reader to touch the spiritual
experience of the Christian East. Collected here are three-hundred sayings of
over fifty Orthodox saints from Palestine, Syria, Egypt, Greece, Russia,
Serbia, Montenegro, and Georgia. Since the Western Church was part of the
family of Orthodox Churches for the first thousand years after the birth of
Christ, you may also find in our compilation the sayings of saints who lived in
the territory of contemporary Italy, England, France, and Tunis. All of this is
part of the spiritual inheritance of the Orthodox Church. The earliest of these
sayings was written in the second half of the first century. The most recent
was written in the second half of the twentieth century. No matter where they
lived, when they lived, or who they were, the Orthodox Saints speak of a single
spiritual reality, and therefore their sayings harmoniously complement one
another. In the nineteenth century, St. Ignatius Brianchaninov made this
observation: “When on a clear fall night I gaze upon the clear heavens,
illumined by innumerable stars that send out a single light, then I say to
myself: thus are the writings of the holy fathers. When on a summer’s day I
gaze upon the wide sea, covered with a multitude of distinct waves, driven by a
single wind to a single end, a single pier, then I say to myself: such are the
writings of the fathers. When I hear a well-ordered choir, in which different
voices sing a single hymn in shimmering harmony, then I say to myself: such are
the writings of the fathers.” I believe that this small collection of Patristic
aphorisms will be interesting and useful not only for Orthodox Christians, but
even for everyone who values what is genuine.
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