We spent 10 days on Mount Athos. Peter Mamonov returned from there a changed man.

We spent 10 days on Mount Athos. Peter Mamonov returned from there a changed man. At first, he would even run to the sea between services and smoke there. But then, he quit instantly.

"I can't," he said. "I press my lips against the holy relics, I receive Communion... and then I put that filth in my mouth!" And just like that, he stopped smoking.

Later, when his friends would sometimes jokingly remind him:

"You went to Mount Athos, and you quit smoking there..."

He would snap back:

"People don't go to Mount Athos to quit smoking!"

He was truly concerned with the essence of things, and everything else that happened in his life was a consequence of that.

It was the same with drinking: his struggle was precisely about whether his soul could choose the better path: to be with God, rather than wallowing in vomit. He would stand in the church, walking towards Communion, and then the devil would twist him so much that he could end up drinking. There were even some truly terrible incidents. And then he would kneel, simply begging for forgiveness, his whole body trembling:

"Lord, help me! I don't want to! I can't!"

Hieromonk Kosma Afanasiev