The Egyptian Thebaid was the place of ascetic struggle for the first among monastic Fathers, St. Anthony the Great, along with thousands of monks and nuns who followed. The Northern Thebaid–the Russian and “desert and ” of the forested, marshy North–offered an equal number of monks and nuns a place to seek their salvation in the footsteps of great monastic Fathers of more recent times, such as St. Sergius of Radonezh, St. Cyril of White Lake and St. Nilus of Sora. Though the sanctity of the Fathers of the Egyptian desert–elemental and mighty–and the stark brightness of the southern nature is quite distinct from the sanctity of the Russian desert dwellers–quiet and lofty–and the aquarelle soft tones of the Russian northern nature, there is the same and “noetic activity, and ” the same silence. The Russian spiritual tradition of the 14th to 17th centuries, presented in THE NORTHERN THEBAID, is identical in essence with the entire Byzantine tradition of spirituality. Chronicled in strikingly individual portrayals, THE NORTHERN THEBAID offers vivid and clear insights into the psychology of a saint. It features an introduction by Prof. I.M. Kontzevitch, 12 spiritual biographies and a preface by Fr. Seraphim Rose. This edition is a facsimile of the original edition, which was hand-printed by Fr. Seraphim and his monastic brothers in the forests of Northern California.

The Northern Thebaid: Monastic Saints of the Russian North by Fr. Seraphim Rose (2004-01-01) PDF

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