Review on: Monk Markell (2016) Spiritual Experience of the Elder Joseph the Hesychast. Moscow: Moscow Church of Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra, 2016. 208 p.

Abstract

This book by Monk Markellos, inhabitant of the Athonite monastery of Caracallus, is dedicated to the spiritual experience of one of the most brilliant ascetics of the 20th century, St Joseph Isikhast. On the basis of his own and the saintly patristic experience St Joseph left us a teaching about the ascent of man to deification. The Patriarchate of Constantinople canonised him as a saint on 9 March, 2020. In the Russian Church and in other local Churches his veneration is widespread, but no synodic canonization has yet taken place. In this connection the studies of the ascetic experience of St Joseph in the context of the patristic heritage remain relevant. One of the first such studies is the reviewed book of Monk Markell in Russian translation. The third edition of the book is reviewed. The translation is from the Greek edition of Πνευματικαί ἐμπειρίαι Γέροντος Ἰωσήφ τοῦ Ἠσυχαστοῦ by A. M. Krukov. Before that he had translated the book of Monk Joseph "Starets Joseph Isikhast", in which the work of Starets Joseph Isikhast himself "The Ten-Voice Spiritual Trumpet" was published for the first time in Russian.