Passions and Virtues

St. Paisios of Mount Athos taught that the spiritual life is a lifelong struggle against the passions – not through willpower alone, but through the cooperative action of divine grace and human effort. His teaching on the passions and their corresponding virtues, concentrated in Volume 5 of the Spiritual Counsels (Passions and Virtues), draws on the entire patristic ascetical tradition while remaining characteristically practical and pastoral. For the Elder, the goal is not the mere suppression of passions but their transformation into virtues through repentance, humility, and the grace of the Holy Spirit.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox | Athonite

What Are the Passions?

The Patristic Framework

St. Paisios stands firmly within the patristic understanding of the passions (pathe) as disordered movements of the soul that have become habitual through repeated consent. The passions are not identical with the natural capacities of the soul – desire (epithymia), anger (thymos), and reason (logistikon) – but are distortions of those capacities away from their proper objects and toward created things or the self.

The Elder’s teaching echoes the foundational work of Evagrius of Pontus (345–399), who first systematized the eight principal “evil thoughts” (logismoi) from which the passions develop, and St. John Climacus (c. 579–649), whose Ladder of Divine Ascent maps the progressive struggle against the passions as an ascending path toward God. St. Paisios frequently recommended the Ladder to visitors and spiritual children (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3, Spiritual Struggle; Hieromonk Isaac, Elder Paisios of Mount Athos).

He taught that the passions are not natural to the human person as created by God. God made human nature good – “God does not endow man with weaknesses, but with powers” – so that the passions are not original constituents of the soul but the corruption and misdirection of its good God-given powers, wounds inflicted by the Fall, deepened by personal sin, and healed by grace (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues).

The Elder’s Approach: Practical and Compassionate

What distinguishes St. Paisios’s teaching from a merely academic treatment of the passions is his deeply pastoral approach. He did not approach the passions as a theologian constructing a system but as a spiritual physician diagnosing and treating the illnesses of the soul. He would often say that each person has their own particular weakness and that the spiritual struggle must be tailored to the individual, the devil striking at each person where the defenses are weakest (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues; Hieromonk Isaac, Elder Paisios of Mount Athos).

He also insisted that the struggle against the passions must begin with self-knowledge – a person must first come to know his own weaknesses, passions, and tendencies before he can fight them effectively (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues).

The Principal Passions

St. Paisios did not develop a unique taxonomy of the passions but worked within the received tradition, drawing especially on the Evagrian-Climacean scheme. His treatment in Volume 5 addresses the major passions with characteristic vividness.

Pride (Hyperephania)

For the Elder, as for the entire patristic tradition, pride is the root of all the passions and the most dangerous spiritual illness. Pride is the soul’s claim to self-sufficiency, the refusal to acknowledge dependence on God and indebtedness to others.

St. Paisios taught that pride takes many forms, from the obvious (boasting, arrogance, contempt for others) to the subtle (spiritual pride, the secret conviction that one is more advanced than others, the refusal to accept correction). He warned especially against spiritual pride – the pride that masquerades as piety – which he considered more dangerous than carnal sins because it is harder to detect and repent of (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues, section on pride).

He often used vivid analogies for the emptiness of pride: the prideful thought “puffs us up,” yet the soul of the proud person is like a tin with a small hole through which the air escapes and the food stored inside (the virtue) spoils. True stature comes not from self-inflation but from the fullness of divine grace, which dwells only in the humble (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues).

The patristic sources he echoes here include:

St. John Climacus: “Pride is denial of God, an invention of the devil, contempt for men” (Ladder, Step 23)
Evagrius: Pride is the last of the eight principal thoughts, appearing after the monk has made progress against the others (Evagrius, Praktikos, on the eight thoughts)
St. Isaac the Syrian: “Blessed is the man who knows his own weakness, because this knowledge becomes to him the foundation, the root, and the beginning of all goodness” (Isaac the Syrian, Ascetical Homilies, Homily 8, trans. Holy Transfiguration Monastery)

Vainglory (Kenodoxia)

Vainglory – the passion for human praise and recognition – is closely related to pride but distinct from it. Where pride is the soul’s internal claim to self-sufficiency, vainglory is the desire for others to affirm that claim. St. Paisios taught that vainglory corrupts even good deeds by redirecting them from God’s glory to the self’s glory.

He observed that vainglory is especially dangerous for those in spiritual life because it can attach itself to prayer, fasting, and charitable works. A person may fast rigorously but take secret pleasure in being recognized as an ascetic. The Elder counseled hiding one’s spiritual labors from others, teaching that the spiritual life prospers only when a person despises the advertisement of his own works; vainglory leaves the soul inwardly empty (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues).

He drew on Christ’s teaching in Matthew 6:1–6 (doing alms, prayer, and fasting in secret) and on St. John Climacus’s treatment of vainglory as the companion of all the virtues – it follows every good deed like a shadow (Ladder, Step 22).

Anger (Orge / Thymos)

St. Paisios addressed anger with particular frequency, as it was one of the most common struggles among those who came to him for counsel – both monastics and laypeople. He distinguished between righteous indignation (anger at injustice, at the violation of God’s commandments) and the sinful passion of anger (rage directed at persons, irritability, resentment).

He taught that anger most often arises from wounded self-love (philautia): we become angry when our will is crossed, when we are not treated as we think we deserve, when others fail to meet our expectations. The cure for anger is therefore closely linked to the cure for pride – humility and the acceptance of God’s will in all things (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, section on anger).

Practical counsels he offered for dealing with anger included:

Do not respond immediately when provoked; allow time for the initial wave of anger to pass
Remember your own sins and weaknesses before judging the person who provoked you
Pray for the person who angered you – prayer transforms the heart’s disposition
Recognize that the other person may be suffering; interpret their behavior with “good thoughts” (kali logismoi)

(St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5; Vol. 3, Spiritual Struggle)

Lust (Porneia)

On the passion of lust, St. Paisios spoke with characteristic directness but also with great delicacy and compassion. He understood sexual temptation as one of the strongest passions, especially for the young, and never shamed those who struggled with it. He did, however, insist on the gravity of the struggle and the necessity of vigilance.

He taught that lust begins in the thoughts and in the senses – what the eyes see, what the mind dwells on. For this reason, he emphasized the guarding of the senses (phylake ton aistheseon) and the practice of nepsis (watchfulness over thoughts) as the first line of defense. He warned against unnecessary exposure to provocative images and environments, which he saw as especially dangerous in the modern world (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, section on lust; Vol. 1, With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man).

For monastics, he taught that the struggle against lust is primarily won through prayer, fasting, and physical labor, combined with humility – recognizing one’s weakness and relying on God’s help rather than on one’s own strength. For laypeople in marriage, he taught that the marital relationship, blessed by the Church, provides a proper channel for the sexual impulse, but even within marriage the passion of lust (as disordered desire) must be transformed by love and self-control (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 4, Family Life).

Avarice (Philargyria)

Avarice – the love of money and material possessions – is a passion that St. Paisios addressed both in its obvious form (greed, hoarding) and in its subtler manifestations (anxiety about the future, inability to trust God for material needs, attachment to comfort).

The Elder himself lived in extreme material poverty throughout his life on Mount Athos, often giving away whatever was given to him. His own example was his most powerful teaching on this subject. He would say that when a person detaches from material things, God provides abundantly – but when a person clings to possessions out of fear, they are never satisfied (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 1, With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man; Hieromonk Isaac, Elder Paisios of Mount Athos).

He connected avarice directly to a lack of faith, teaching that one who truly trusts God as a loving Father – “as a young child with God as your Father” – has no cause to be consumed with anxiety over material things, while an abundance of material goods distances a person from God (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 1, With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man). He frequently cited Christ’s teaching in Matthew 6:25–34 on not worrying about food and clothing.

Gluttony (Gastrimargia)

St. Paisios taught that gluttony is not simply overeating but a broader enslavement to the appetites of the body. It includes eating too much, eating at the wrong times, being excessively choosy about food, and allowing the desire for food to dominate one’s thoughts.

He treated fasting as the primary remedy for gluttony – not as punishment but as a training of the will to subordinate bodily appetites to the spirit. He emphasized discernment and moderation in fasting, however, warning against excessive fasting that leads to physical breakdown or to spiritual pride, and counseling that the enemy can exploit a loss of balance in either direction – through indulgence or through immoderate austerity (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3, Spiritual Struggle).

He often pointed out that the struggle against gluttony is closely linked to the struggle against lust – the Fathers consistently teach that overindulgence of the stomach feeds the passions of the flesh (cf. St. John Climacus, Ladder, Step 14, on the stomach as the gateway to the passions below).

Sloth (Akedia)

Sloth (akedia) – spiritual listlessness, boredom, the “noonday demon” of the desert tradition – was a passion St. Paisios recognized as particularly insidious because it attacks the will to struggle itself. A person overcome by sloth does not merely fail to pray or fast; they lose the desire to do so, the sense that the spiritual life matters at all.

He taught that sloth is combated by:

Beginning with small, manageable spiritual tasks and building gradually
Physical activity and manual labor (the body’s energy drives away lethargy of the soul)
Remembrance of death – recalling that our time is limited and every moment matters
The cultivation of gratitude, which reawakens the soul’s sense of wonder and engagement

(St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3, Spiritual Struggle; Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues)

He connected sloth to the modern condition of comfort and convenience: when life is too easy, the soul becomes lazy. The ascetical discipline – fasting, vigils, physical labor – exists in part to keep the soul alert and engaged (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 1, With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man).

How the Passions Operate: Roots and Interconnections

Self-Love (Philautia) as the Root

Following St. Maximus the Confessor, St. Paisios identified self-love (philautia) as the mother of all the passions. Self-love is the disordered prioritization of the self – its comfort, its pleasure, its honor, its will – above God and neighbor. From self-love spring all the other passions:

Pride: the exaltation of self
Avarice: the hoarding for self
Lust: the indulgence of self
Anger: the defense of self
Sloth: the comfort of self

(St. Maximus the Confessor, Four Hundred Texts on Love, where self-love is named “the mother of the passions”; St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues)

The Chain of Passions

St. Paisios taught that the passions do not operate in isolation but form interconnected chains. One passion feeds another:

Gluttony feeds lust (overindulgence of the body inflames carnal desire)
Vainglory feeds pride (the habit of seeking human approval inflates the ego)
Anger feeds resentment, which feeds spiritual blindness
Sloth leads to distraction, which opens the door to all the other passions

Understanding these connections is essential for effective spiritual struggle. The Elder would often help a person identify the root passion from which their particular struggles stemmed, rather than treating only the symptoms (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5; Vol. 3).

The Corresponding Virtues

Virtue as the Transformation of Passion

St. Paisios taught – in accordance with the patristic tradition, particularly St. Maximus the Confessor and St. Gregory Palamas – that the goal of the spiritual life is not the destruction of the soul’s natural powers but their transformation and redirection. The same natural energy (dynamis) that, when distorted, becomes a passion can, when properly oriented, become a virtue:

Passion	Corresponding Virtue
Pride	Humility (tapeinophrosyne)
Vainglory	Love of God’s glory (doing all things for God, not for human praise)
Anger	Meekness (praotes) and righteous zeal
Lust	Chastity (sophrosyne) and pure love
Avarice	Generosity (eleemosyne) and trust in God
Gluttony	Temperance (enkrateia) and fasting
Sloth	Zeal (prothymia) and spiritual alertness

The Cultivation of Virtues

The Elder emphasized that virtues are not acquired merely by willpower but through the cooperation of grace and effort. Key principles he taught:

Begin with humility: Without humility, no virtue is genuine. Humility opens the soul to grace; pride blocks it. The Elder taught that God withholds the virtues from a person until he humbles himself, and that humility makes the devil “crumble into dust” (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues; cf. “Humility Destroys the Devil,” Vol. 1, With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man).
Work on the opposite virtue: When assaulted by a particular passion, cultivate its opposite. When anger arises, practice gentleness. When greed assails, give generously. This is a standard patristic technique, taught by Evagrius and John Climacus, which St. Paisios applied with characteristic concreteness.
Use “good thoughts” (kali logismoi): The Elder’s distinctive emphasis on interpreting everything and everyone in the best possible light is a powerful tool for cultivating virtues. By choosing to think well of others, one cultivates love, patience, and humility simultaneously (see logismoi.md for detailed treatment).
Pray for the virtue you lack: Ask God directly for what you need. The Elder emphasized that genuine prayer for a specific virtue is always heard.
Accept trials as training: Difficult circumstances and difficult people are the gymnasium in which virtues are strengthened. The Elder taught that God allows a relative or a fellow worker to cause us problems precisely in order to exercise our patience and humility (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3, Spiritual Struggle).

The Struggle as Lifelong: Not Perfection but Direction

Progress, Not Perfection

One of the Elder’s most pastorally important teachings was his insistence that the spiritual life is about direction, not perfection. He told those who came to him discouraged by their repeated falls that the person who struggles to the best of his ability, “who falls and rises again and again,” is one whom God will never abandon (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3, Spiritual Struggle).

He used the analogy of a soldier in battle: the important thing is not that the soldier is never wounded but that he keeps fighting, keeps getting back on his feet after every blow. The moment a soldier stops fighting, the battle is lost (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3, Spiritual Struggle).

He also taught that God measures not the absolute level of virtue achieved but the effort expended relative to each person’s capacities and circumstances. A person with a fierce temperament who achieves even a small measure of meekness may have struggled harder than a naturally gentle person who appears outwardly calm (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues).

The Role of Grace

St. Paisios was emphatic that human effort alone is insufficient to uproot the passions. The passions are healed primarily by divine grace, which enters the soul through the sacraments (especially Confession and the Eucharist), through prayer (especially the Jesus Prayer), and through the exercise of humility. Human effort creates the conditions for grace to work – clearing the ground, so to speak – but the actual healing is God’s work.

He taught that a person should do what lies within his own power and entrust to God those things that cannot be achieved by human means, confident that God will do what is best (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3, Spiritual Struggle). (The maxim often quoted in this connection – “do what you can, and God will do what you cannot” – is a widely circulated synergy proverb rather than a phrase distinctive to the Elder.) This teaching stands squarely within the Orthodox doctrine of synergy (synergeia) – the cooperation of divine grace and human freedom in salvation (see Orthodoxy Guide: Soteriology).

The Passions as Teachers

In a characteristically paradoxical teaching, St. Paisios sometimes spoke of the passions as teachers – not in the sense that sin is good, but in the sense that the experience of struggling against the passions teaches humility, dependence on God, and compassion for others. A person who has never struggled with a particular passion may lack compassion for those who do. The Elder taught that God sometimes permits certain passions to linger precisely to keep the person humble and dependent on His grace (St. Paisios, Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5, Passions and Virtues).

This teaching echoes St. Paul’s experience of the “thorn in the flesh” (2 Corinthians 12:7–9) and the patristic principle that God’s “grace is sufficient” even in the midst of ongoing struggle.

Patristic Sources the Elder Draws On

St. Paisios’s teaching on the passions and virtues is deeply rooted in the following patristic sources, which he frequently referenced or recommended:

Evagrius of Pontus (345–399): The foundational systematizer of the eight principal thoughts (logismoi) that develop into passions. St. Paisios followed the Evagrian tradition in understanding the passions as arising from thoughts that are consented to and become habitual (Evagrius, Praktikos; Antirrhetikos).
St. John Climacus (c. 579–649): The Ladder of Divine Ascent was one of the texts St. Paisios most frequently recommended, urging visitors to read it slowly and attentively, a little at a time (Hieromonk Isaac, Elder Paisios of Mount Athos). Climacus’s treatment of each vice and virtue as a step on the ladder toward God shaped the Elder’s own approach.
St. Isaac the Syrian (7th century): The Ascetical Homilies profoundly influenced St. Paisios, particularly Isaac’s teaching on humility as the foundation of all virtue, on the knowledge of one’s own weakness as the beginning of wisdom, and on the mercy of God as greater than all human sin.
St. Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662): The Centuries on Love shaped the Elder’s understanding of self-love (philautia) as the root of the passions and of the transformation (not destruction) of natural powers as the goal of the ascetical life.
St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (1749–1809): The co-compiler of the Philokalia and a fellow Athonite, whose works on spiritual combat – especially Unseen Warfare (his Orthodox adaptation of Scupoli’s Spiritual Combat) – belong to the neptic tradition St. Paisios valued.
The Philokalia: The great collection of neptic and ascetical texts compiled by Sts. Macarius of Corinth and Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain. St. Paisios drew on its teachings throughout his counsel, particularly the texts on watchfulness (nepsis), the guarding of the nous, and the Jesus Prayer.

References

St. Paisios of Mount Athos. Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 3: Spiritual Struggle. Souroti, Thessaloniki: Hesychasterion of St. John the Theologian.
St. Paisios of Mount Athos. Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 5: Passions and Virtues. Souroti, Thessaloniki: Hesychasterion of St. John the Theologian.
St. Paisios of Mount Athos. Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 1: With Pain and Love for Contemporary Man. Souroti, Thessaloniki: Hesychasterion of St. John the Theologian.
Hieromonk Isaac. Elder Paisios of Mount Athos. Chalkidiki: Holy Monastery of St. John the Theologian, 2012.
St. Paisios of Mount Athos. Spiritual Counsels, Vol. 4: Family Life. Souroti, Thessaloniki: Hesychasterion of St. John the Theologian.
Evagrius of Pontus. Praktikos and Antirrhetikos. 4th century.
John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent (Step 22 on vainglory, Step 23 on pride). 7th century.
Isaac the Syrian. The Ascetical Homilies of Saint Isaac the Syrian (Homily 8 on knowledge of one’s weakness). Trans. Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Boston: Holy Transfiguration Monastery, 1984.
Maximus the Confessor. Four Hundred Texts on Love (Centuries on Love). In The Philokalia, Vol. 2, trans. Palmer, Sherrard, Ware.
Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain. Unseen Warfare. Adapted from Lorenzo Scupoli.
The Philokalia. Compiled by Sts. Macarius of Corinth and Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain. 5 vols.