Section 07: Sophrony and Essex
The disciple who made St. Silouan known to the world. This section covers Archimandrite (now St.) Sophrony Sakharov (1896–1993) — Silouan’s disciple, biographer, and editor — and the Monastery of St. John the Baptist at Tolleshunt Knights, Essex, which he founded in 1959 as the living transmission of his elder’s witness.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Athonite; canonized 1987)
Without Sophrony, the world would likely never have heard of St. Silouan. An almost unlettered peasant-monk who left only notebooks, Silouan was made known through one disciple who combined deep ascetic experience with the formation of a Moscow painter and a Paris theological education. The book Sophrony assembled (Russian, 1948) founds everything later written about Silouan.
Contents
| File | Topic |
|---|---|
| The Disciple | Sophrony (Sakharov), 1896–1993: the Moscow artist, the Paris emigration and St. Sergius Institute, Athos from 1925, the meeting with Silouan in 1930 and the eight years of spiritual fathership, the hermit years after Silouan’s death, the return to Paris in 1947, the publication of the Silouan book, the priesthood and the writing |
| Essex Monastery | The Monastery of St. John the Baptist, Tolleshunt Knights, Essex (founded 1959): the double community, the distinctive Jesus-Prayer typikon, its role as Silouan’s living transmission, Sophrony’s later works and death (1993), Sophrony’s own canonization (Ecumenical Patriarchate, November 27, 2019), and Essex today under the continuation of Archimandrite Zacharias (Zacharou) |
How to Use
- Read The Disciple first: it explains how Silouan’s words reached us at all, and why the book bearing Silouan’s name is structured as it is (Part One, Sophrony’s account; Part Two, Silouan’s own writings).
- Read Essex Monastery to see how the discipleship became an institution — and how the disciple followed the elder into the calendar of the saints (Silouan’s 1987 glorification; Sophrony’s in 2019).
A discipline runs through this section and the next: the developed theology of personhood is Sophrony’s elaboration upon Silouan’s experience, attributed to Sophrony-developing-Silouan rather than to Silouan simpliciter.
Cross-References
- For Silouan’s own life and writings, see Section 01: Life and Context
- For the theology Sophrony built on this foundation, see Section 08: Theology of Personhood
- For a parallel disciple-transmits-elder dynamic, see St. Paisios: Spiritual Lineage
References
- Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov). Saint Silouan the Athonite. Trans. Rosemary Edmonds. Tolleshunt Knights / Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1991.
- Nicholas V. Sakharov. I Love Therefore I Am: The Theological Legacy of Archimandrite Sophrony. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2002.
- Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Synodal decision canonizing Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), November 27, 2019.