A Story of Agapit Pechersky, Anastasia Novykh [best free e reader .txt] 📗

his best years in the Athos. He was happy to have finally reached the Athos, as the elder had told him in his vision. He was happy to have an opportunity to pray to God by the prayer given to him in the vision, to live for it, and to be one on one with Him amid that magnificent nature. In the daytime he visited monastic temples, learned the new language as well as the monks’ way of living. While in the evenings he prayed diligently, often seeing off a sunset with the prayer and meeting an early sunrise. It was only two years later that Antipa was accepted a hegumen of one of the monasteries and was professed as a monk, being baptized Antony, in honor of Venerable Anthony the Great, in Egypt, who had led selfless life, solely living in caves for a long time.
“Antony mistook the hegumen of this monastery for the ‘Lamp,’ the elder had told him in his vision. In turn the hegumen, as ought to be done by the one being in holy orders, began teaching Antony of the monastic life. In a few years Antony managed to reach such a spiritual progress, so ‘devoted himself to acting in virtues’ that many people ‘made spiritual use of him’. Even the monks were amazed at such a rapid strengthening of his spirit and will. The hegumen had a vision that Antony would participate in the rise of Christianity in Rus and that Antony was destined to prepare the Abode for the very Holy Spirit. The hegumen considered it a sign and sent him hurriedly to Rus, to the city of Kiev.
“That time Antony was about thirty. After reaching Kiev Antony visited monasteries being built by Greek monks, who came along with Metropolitan Michael for Baptizing of Rus. However, Antony did not want to stay in any of those monasteries. So he walked around mountainous environs. Ultimately he found a small cave, dug by Varangians in the past, and he settled down in it. But he did not live for long there. As soon as Svyatopolk came into power after Vladimir’s death, bloodshed and persecution started again. Antony returned to the Athos, where in diligent prayers he reached a great age.
“Although Antony did live according to the monastery order, still he had a special holiday in his spiritual zeal. He noticed that each year on the day of that memorable vision of the distinctive elder, starting from the very early morning he felt an unusual fit of energy. The feeling of the very spiritual lift, he experienced after the vision, returned to him anew. It remained for a week and then passed away again. So, Antony began to perceive these days as a special feast for his soul. During this week he endeavored to secluding himself, fasting, and praying to God with even greater diligence. The result was astounding. This extraordinary feeling of inspiration increased manifold and grew stronger year after year.
“Comprehending ecclesiastical writings afterwards, Antony was more frequently coming to the conclusion that in the memorable vision he had seen Archangel Gabriel himself, the proclaimer of joy and salvation, harbinger and servant of God's omnipotence of miracles and God’s mysteries, – only in a bit unconventional to the ecclesiastical notion appearance.
“The main events in Antony’s spiritual life, however, began when he was past sixty. Once there was a rumor among the fraternity that their monastery was to be visited shortly by a certain mysterious persona. And considering the elders’ instructions, they were preparing for a visit of an important spiritual guest indeed. As Antony related afterwards to Agapit himself, he had thought then that arrival of some incredibly authoritative spiritual elder had been expected. Thus, it was such an amazement for him to see – instead of an elder – a good-looking fair-haired young man. Perhaps, the only unusual notion about him were his keen eyes, shining beyond his years with some profound wisdom and inspired glitter. However, Antony was even more astonished with the reverence and deep respect that some of the elders of the Athos showed to this young man. He could not realize why his sojourn at that place was covered with some sort of veil of impenetrable mystery. Who was he to have been paid so many compliments and so much attention? He did not seem to be a monk, although he had been leading such spiritual talks, to which even their wise leaders listened to with delight. What was more, that guy turned to be quite an enlightened man. He had a perfect command of several languages. Besides, Antony was pleasantly surprised that this respectable guest was a Russian by birth and, as it turned out later, he knew Kiev and its surroundings well. And that young man’s name was Agapit.
“Even when Antony was introduced to him personally, he was unable to get used to the fellow’s simple manner of speaking to him – such an ease despite all the importance of that person for the Athos and all the deep respect that the elders showed to the young man. But, perhaps, the most striking was the simplicity and lucidity with which Agapit explained wisdom of holy fathers. As for his interpreting of the Teachings of Jesus, Antony could listen to him for hours, for Agapit spoke so simply and clearly, using such examples and in such detail, as if he had been a witness to those events of millennial remoteness. And those stories urged Antony to read available ecclesiastical writings again and again.
“During the time that Agapit stayed at the Athos, Antony befriended with him. In spite of his youth, Agapit had quite a store of knowledge, including knowledge of medicine. And he imparted some of this knowledge to Antony. Agapit was also well up, speaking our language, in physics, chemistry, cognition of natural phenomena, as well as in human studies – philosophy, politics, religion. It was a pleasure to talk to him on various matters. And these conversations left some inexplicable pleasant feeling in one’s soul.
“Antony became friends with Agapit despite considerable disparity in age. And in this friendship Antony discovered entirely new outstanding Personality of Agapit when he began to initiate him into secrets of the great science of ‘the White Lotus Art’. It was by word of Agapit that Antony first learnt about the previous human race of Alt-Land, about the underground Temple of Lotus built during those times on the territory of Kiev soil, and about the burden that Jesus had given to Andrew the First-Called for that place. Many a secret and much a knowledge did Agapit impart to him.
“After a time they parted. Agapit was to go to the capital of Byzantium and to the East from there. But he promised Antony that he would see him again and ‘foretold’ their meeting on Kiev’s soil, in the place marked in the past times of Alt-Land.”
“Is there really a marked place there?” inquired Kostya, evidently willing to hear continuation.
“Of course,” replied Sensei. “This place is even mentioned in the Gospel of Andrew the First-Called...”
“Andrew the First-Called?!” Andrew roused himself, as if having heard this name only now.
“And who is he?” Ruslan asked lazily scratching his side.
Sensei smiled looking at him and pronounced: “Andrew is one of the closest disciples of Jesus. He was among the first ones, whom Jesus accepted as disciples, while preaching in Palestine.”
“Hmm.., is there a Gospel of Andrew the First-Called?” asked Nikolai Andreevich with surprise. “I’ve read the Bible and heard about Andrew. As for his gospel ... I don’t recollect. Maybe this book was not included in the Bible? There is now – how much – four, five Gospels, isn’t it?”
“Four,” answered Sensei and after a silence added: “Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Although they were all written by..,” but leaving it unsaid, he continued: “Indeed, there is no Gospel of Andrew the First-Called in the Bible. Not all gospels were included in the Bible, but only those that were selected by the emperor Constantine and his assistants to fulfil tasks posed before them. The remaining gospels were simply rejected because they interpreted matters by no means convenient and beneficial to them. And even the selected ones were fairly edited according to the situation of those times and to claiming Christianity as a state religion.
“Since 364, when the ‘New Testament’ was approved as such, and till the date when the Bible was first published, the text also had been edited numerous times. Plus inaccuracies in translation played their part. You know, the Bible had been written in Hebrew, with an insignificant part in Aramaic, while the ‘New Testament’ was in Greek. So, between the first printed book, published in 1455, and the one, which had been edited in 364, there lays a world of difference. Plus corrections that were made further. As a result we have now what we have. Nonetheless, much valuable and needed for people information has reached our times,” emphasized Sensei. “And again, speaking of gospels, besides those canonized by church, there are dozens of apocryphal gospels.”
Ruslan knitted his brows and asked in a businesslike tone: “What is apo... apo... well, that... critics?”
“Apocrypha are works of literature that were not accepted by church or by priesthood as holy books. In general the word ‘apocrypha’ originates from Greek ‘apokryhos,’ which means ‘mysterious,’ ‘secret’. And primarily it was attributed to works of a Christian group, who called themselves the Gnostics, and who tried to keep their teachings in secret.”
“Right,” nodded Nikolai Andreevich. “By the way, I’ve read that an entire library of Christian Gnostics’ writings was found in 1946 in the South of Egypt.”
“Absolutely correct,” confirmed Sensei. “Among other works of literature there were found Gospels of Thomas, of Philip, of Truth, the Apocryphal writing of John. And some time earlier there had been found on papyri in Egypt some abstracts of unknown gospels written in different versions...”
“Well, what an surprise for priests!” giggled Eugene. “These bookies ain’t gotten accepted, but they just keep finding them. Such a real trooble with all this ancient ‘pulp literature.”
Sensei and the guys smiled.
“The problem is the apocrypha are divided into ‘allowable’ and so-called ‘forbidden’. The ‘forbidden’ ones were surely sought to be eliminated. By the way, the first official list of ‘forbidden’ books was made in Eastern Roman empire in the 5th century A.D. Naturally, after such a ‘vandalism’ the descendants were left merely with some book titles and quotations, cited in works of Christian writers of the 2-4 centuries, who had been arguing with those books... Though, everything goes as always,” Sensei shrugged his shoulders.
“Yes, that’s sad,” murmured Nikolai Andreevich. “But it’s the history of mankind. Why was it necessary to destroy it? The book could lay for the time being. Let the descendants make unbiased judgment.”
“You see, the matter is,” Sensei began explaining: “some of these books were valuable indeed, because they reflected true Teaching of Jesus in the form, initially given by him. Therefore, they left indifferent not a single human soul, because the true Teaching of Jesus enabled people to become free from any and all fears of this world. They started to realize that body is perishable; soul is immortal. People ceased being hostages and slaves of material world illusions of being. They understood that only God is above them. They realized how short life is and how temporary the conditions are, which their present body is constrained in. They knew that this life, howsoever long it may seem – is but one instant, in which their soul remains. They became aware that any worldly power, whether those of politics or religious organizations, is limited to power over bodies only. These rulers worship their own ‘god,’ who was given power on the Earth, over its matter, but not over soul. For soul belongs only to the true One