The Virtue of Endurance

By Novice Patrick

A talk delivered on the occasion of the Name Day of Archimandrite Akakios, Abbot of the St. Gregory Palamas Monastery.

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Your Eminence, Your Grace, Father Akakios, our much revered spiritual Father, beloved Fathers and Brothers:

Of all those who belong to this sacred community, I, who am undoubtedly the most unworthy and who am so inexperienced in the monastic life, have been asked to deliver some remarks on the occasion of the Name Day of our Abbot and spiritual Father, Archimandrite Akakios. Nonetheless, I shall do my best to fulfill the obedience that I have been given, asking only that you forgive me for the inadequacy of what I am going to say.

The Fathers of the Church declare to us with a single voice that to possess one virtue is to possess them all; in other words, they affirm the unity of the virtues. It would, therefore, be possible to select any virtue for an address such as this, and thereby to encompass all the remaining virtues. In view of the fact that the Saint whose name Father Akakios bears is so noted for his endurance of hardships, I have chosen to speak about the virtue of endurance. In so doing, I shall also mention some of the other virtues that St. Akakios acquired in the course of his monastic life, and in particular his unflinching obedience.

Holy Scripture has much to tell us about the virtue of endurance. In the Gospel according to St. Matthew, our Saviour has this to say about the virtue of endurance in the last days: "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (St. Matthew 24:13). This text is especially appropriate for us who are living in the end times of apostasy, and above all for us who have sought refuge in this Holy Monastery and have thereby to a greater or lesser extent died to the world. The holy Patriarch Job has become proverbial for his patient endurance of all the ills that God permitted him to suffer. Let us not forget the holy Prophet Jeremiah, who was flung into a foul-smelling pit for daring to preach the word of the Lord to King Zedekiah, or the countless ordeals endured by the holy Apostle Paul for the sake of the Gospel. The same Apostle gives eloquent testimony to the value of endurance in the context of his discourse on the virtue of faith in his Epistle to the Hebrews: "And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment; they were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword; they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth" (11:36-38).

We also learn much about endurance from the Lives of the Saints, and nowhere more so than from the Life of St. Akakios. This blessed man suffered so many torments, both mental and physical, at the hands of his cruel and irascible Elder that most people find it hard to believe anyone to be capable of tolerating such abuse for any length of time. St. Akakios, however, endured this ill-treatment not only in silence and obedience, but also for a period of nine years. As St. John Climacos recounts in The Ladder, he regarded his innumerable blows and wounds as gains rather than losses. We are not told much else about his life, but we know all that is necessary, for the true significance of his sufferings emerged only after his holy repose. When asked by a venerable Elder whether he was dead, he replied from the grave with this question: "How is it possible, Holy Father, for a man who does obedience to die?" Even in death St. Akakios continued to show obedience, a virtue intimately connected with that of endurance, and one which in this case wrought a miracle that was perhaps still greater than his posthumous response: the repentance of his Elder, who built himself a cell beside the grave of his spiritual son and spent the remainder of his life reproaching himself for committing murder.

Father Akakios is constantly reminding us that obedience is a channel through which Divine Grace can work miracles, if only we submit to it willingly. Another example of the wonders that obedient endurance can bring about is to be found in the Evergetinos. There was once an Elder who lived as a hermit outside Alexandria; he had a reputation for being hot-tempered and mean-spirited. A certain young man who wished to repent for the sins he had committed while living in the world, on hearing of this irascible hermit, decided to stay with him and serve his needs. In return for this the Elder insulted him every day by calling him a dog. Seeing his patience and humility, God granted him a dream six years after he had submitted himself to this Elder. In this dream someone was holding a large sheet of paper one half of which was covered with writing and the other half was blank. The young monk was told that God had wiped out half his sins; now it was up to him to keep struggling in order to wipe out the rest.

Nearby there lived another Elder, who, in contrast to the mean-spirited Elder, was a spiritual man. He learned that although the latter was quite indifferent to the sufferings of his disciple and continually harassed him without any justification, the disciple would make prostrations before him and ask his forgiveness. He was also informed of the remarkable dream. Every time he came across the young monk, the spiritual Elder asked him whether he had gained anything that day and succeeded in wiping anything from the sheet of paper. The disciple would weep if he had not, on a given day, experienced any insult, spitting, or other maltreatment from his Elder.

Six years later the young monk reposed. Soon after this the spiritual Elder saw him in a vision standing with the Martyrs and making supplication to God on behalf of his Elder, saying: "Just as Thou hadst mercy on me through him, have mercy on him for the sake of me, Thy servant." Forty days later the disciple took his Elder with him to the place of repose. "Behold," says the Gerontikon, "what grace they gain who endure afflictions for the sake of God" (Hypothesis XXXVII.C).

We can see from all this that the virtue of endurance encompasses those of obedience, humility, and love, among others. Both St. Akakios and the young disciple showed unquestioning obedience to their respective Elders, never even thinking of leaving them for easier situations. The young disciple had the humility to ask forgiveness from his Elder in spite of the harsh treatment inflicted on him. St. Akakios showed humility when rebuked for not allowing a dead monk to share his grave. The young disciple expressed love for his Elder by beseeching God to have mercy on him.

Father Akakios, our much revered spiritual Father:

According to St. John Climacos, one who possesses patient endurance "will never be cowardly, nor avoid labour" (Ladder, Step 26.77). In your many years as a monk, and especially as Abbot of this Holy Monastery, you have amply displayed the virtue of endurance in both these respects. It takes great courage to be an Old Calendarist in our days. Together with Archbishop Chrysostomos and Bishop Auxentios you have had to put up with all kinds of insults and slanders, whether from ignorant, prejudiced people or from our supposedly Orthodox brethren. When you were in Ohio and in your early years here in Etna you witnessed mindless acts of vandalism against the Monastery property and experienced petty interference even from those who are charged with upholding the law. You have borne all this tribulation with exemplary patience and longsuffering. As for labours, who can recount the many hours, days, weeks, and months that you have spent in building this Monastery, or the many times that you slept on the floor or denied yourself other comforts for the sake of establishing a secure basis for traditional Orthodoxy in this country? Or again, the many letters of counsel you have written to your spiritual children far and wide?

There is, however, a third aspect of endurance in which you shine, and that is forbearance. With all of us members of this Brotherhood you have exceptional patience, despite all the ways in which we disappoint you and even cause you grief by our inattentiveness, disobedience, slothfulness, or whatever it may be. You are a true father to us, for as St. Paul says, again in the Epistle to the Hebrews: "[Those] whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. ...If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?" (12:6-10). It is precisely in being subject to you as our spiritual Father that we place ourselves in subjection to our Heavenly Father, and thus do we have life.

In conclusion, Father, cease not to intercede before the Lord on our behalf that we become worthy spiritual sons. Forgive us all, and myself in particular, for all the times we have saddened you, in whatever way. Thank you for your paternal love and concern, without which this Brotherhood would not exist at all. May God grant you many years!

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XIII (1996), No. 1, pp. 44-47.