Homilies from the Menaion for Every Day of the Year: October 5

The Month of October

Day 5

36. To Young Monks on the Fact that It Is None Other Than the Devil Who Compels Them to Leave Their Cells Unnecessarily and Go Outside the Monastery Enclosure

(From the Life of Venerable Matthew the Clairvoyant)

Our word today is addressed to you, young monks, and this is what we will say to you. You know that your monastic calling, among its various obligations, also imposes upon you the obligation of maintaining solitude. When you have attended the service and fulfilled one obedience or another, go to your cell and do not leave it without necessity. There, either continue to labor as much as the Lord gives you strength, or pray again, or meditate upon God—upon His greatness, holiness, wisdom, goodness, and righteousness; remember death, the fearful Judgment, Paradise, and Hell. What do you think, monks? Is this obligation important for you or not? I do not know what you will say, but for our part we think that this too is an important obligation; and why we think so, you will now hear from us.

Venerable Matthew, called the Clairvoyant, who lived in the Monastery of the Caves, had the custom, after the conclusion of Matins, of being the last to leave the church. Once, after coming out of the church, he sat beneath the semantron in order to rest for a little while. At that time he saw a multitude of demons coming from the monastery gates, and among them one who was especially boasting before the others. The Venerable asked: “Where are you going?” The demon who was boasting before the others replied: “For the monk Michael.” Then the Elder, making the sign of the cross over himself, went to his cell. When dawn began to break, Matthew, understanding what the vision meant, said to his disciple: “Go and ask whether the monk Michael is in his cell or not.” The disciple went, and was told that Michael had gone outside the monastery enclosure after Matins. After this, the Venerable told the abbot and the senior brethren about his vision. The abbot admonished Michael, and thereafter Matthew began to exhort all the monks not to leave their cells, but, remaining in them, to continually meditate upon God and pray for the forgiveness of their sins.

Therefore, we consider the obligation of solitude important for you, monks, because, as you have seen from the account we have given, it is none other than the devil who teaches a monk to leave his cell without particular necessity; whoever leaves his cell thus falls into the snares of the enemy, and consequently the devil even gains power over such a person. Indeed, this is how it must necessarily be. A monk leaves his cell without necessity, and before you know it, he himself has fallen and has led another either into idle talk or into judging others. He goes outside the monastery enclosure—even worse. Before you know it, he has defiled both his sight and his hearing and returns to his cell already far different from the person who left it. From this it is clear that it is not merely our own assumption, but a truth itself, that the obligation of maintaining solitude is an important obligation for a monk, and that therefore he must treat it with strict seriousness. And if this is so, then you too should all hold fast to it in the same way, and everything will be well. “Speech is silver,” says the proverb, “but silence is golden.” Amen.

Questions for Discussion 36:

1. Where did Venerable Matthew the Clairvoyant sit to rest after coming out of the church?

2. What did the Elder do when he learned where the demons were going, before he went to his cell?

3. Where, according to Matthew’s disciple, had the monk Michael gone?

4. What did Matthew exhort all the monks to do after the abbot had admonished Michael?

5. What, according to Matthew’s exhortation, should the monks do while remaining in their cells?

 

Source: The Cheti-Minei: Homilies for Every Day of the Year (Book 1: September, October, November) by Archpriest Viktor Guryev. Publication of the Russian Panteleimon Monastery on Mount Athos, 1896. Translated by John Sanidopoulos.