Saint Theophan the Recluse is known as a Russian monk and prominent religious thinker who explored the subject of spiritual life. The cross-cutting themes of his writings were spiritual life and acquiring experiential knowledge of God through incessant prayer. He left a rich legacy of works that expressed these complex ideas in plain language understandable for most people. His outstanding education and ascetic life as a monk contributed to making these ideas relevant to practice. In one of his works on the spiritual life, he wrote: "Mercilessness to oneself, readiness to perform any favour to others and the surrender of oneself entirely to the Lord with a prayerful abiding in Him - these are the creators of the spiritual life."
Saint Theophan the Recluse was born into the family of a priest, received a brilliant education in theology and achieved remarkable successes as a professor of the Theological Academy and member of the Russian Mission to the Near East. During his mission, he perfected his knowledge of Greek to study and translate the works of the church fathers. But his heart desired the life of a monk, and he finally retired to a monastery. There, he lived a strict and ascetic life, and later became a recluse, seeing no visitors, but exchanging letters with many Christians who wrote to him for spiritual advice.
The most prominent works of St Theophan include a collection of the classical works of the church fathers titled “Philokalia”, selections from St Ephraim the Syrian called “Spiritual Psalter”; and The Path to Salvation, an exposition of Orthodox spirituality.
