Elder Sergei of Vanves

When I was in seminary, I never heard anyone make mention of Elders (now Saints) Paisios of Athos or Porphyrios of Kavsokalivia. Yet these holy ones were living at that time (1986–89), though not known to most in America. This is often how it goes. We hear of the holy ones after their repose.

Elder Sergei of Vanves is no exception, at least for me. Where is Vanves anyway? France! I had heard of holy Elders from Greece, Russian, Serbia, Romania, and so forth – but France?

I have decided to start this series on Contemporary Holy Elders with one that likely few have heard about. He is also rare in that he, although a monastic, served a parish in the world. The primary source for his life and teachings is from the book, Elder Sergei of Vanves: Life and Teachings, by the respected Orthodox author, Jean-Claude Larchet.

The Life of the Elder

This man of God was born Kyrill G. Shevich on July 21, 1903. Of Venetian nobility, his grandfather had moved to Russia in 1752. Kyrill’s father, George, a senior officer in the Russian Army, had a personal friendship with Czar Nicholas II, and eventually was made a general. In addition to his own country’s language, Kyrill grew up learning French, German, and English.

In 1923, Kyrill’s family moved to Paris. As a young man, Kyrill was active in intellectual and religious circles, attending meetings of the Fellowship of St. Alban and St. Sergius, taking courses in patristics, Church history and theology at Oxford University, and attending discussion groups that included Vladimir Lossky. As a young man he wrote articles about the socio-political situation in the new Soviet Union, but eventually concluded that the survival of the Church in Russia required non-involvement in the political sphere. Later, as a priest, he renounced all political ideology and he “never judged anyone or anything except along the lines of spiritual and moral concerns.”

Increasingly attracted to the spiritual life, he would spend long hours in prayer and faithfully attend church services, remaining profoundly still and deep in prayer. At this time his spiritual father was Father Afanassy, a monk from Valaam Monastery. Another of his spiritual sons, the future Metropolitan Anthony Bloom, described Fr. Afanassy (+1943) as “a remarkable man, of absolute simplicity, who lived off of nothing” and gave away the little that he had to any in need.

During a two-year period in Berlin, Kyrill worked at a bank where, in his free time, he read and copied out the works of the Church Fathers, his favorites being the Desert Fathers and the Ladder of Divine Ascent, which he copied out in its entirety.

In 1938, he wrote Saint Silouan the Athonite, who gave him a blessing – in the last letter he wrote before his repose – to enter the monastic life. The Saint gave him the following advice, which he later lived out: “Go and tell the people as much as possible: Repent!”

His desire was to become a monk on Mount Athos, but God’s providence prevented this when World War II began. On account of his previous association with the Young Russians movement, he was arrested in May 1940 by the French government and interned at the concentration camp in Vernet. Here, according to the Elder’s own testimony, beatings were a daily occurrence, people died from lack of medical treatment, and most had to sleep without a blanket at below-zero temperatures. After his release, he was arrested again in June of 1941 by the Germans, and sent to another camp. During this ordeal he constantly read and meditated on the whole of the Bible, as well as deepening his practice of the Jesus Prayer. In this he was directed by an extraordinary fellow captive, Fr. Seraphim, who apparently had the gift of unceasing prayer.

Being released from the second camp, Kyrill took his monastic vows on November 18, 1941, with the name Sergius (St. Sergius of Valaam). He lived with his spiritual father, Archimandrite Stefan, the rector of the Holy Trinity Church in Vanves, who initiated him into the spiritual tradition of Valaam Monastery. Fr. Sergius naturally became involved in the life of the parish, showing great compassion and love for others, a compassion and devotion that helped to pull an iconographer (George Kroug) out of serious psychological anguish and despair. Fr. Sergei was recognized by a number of psychiatrists as having a gift for healing depression.

Fr. Sergei was ordained a deacon on September 11, 1945, and a priest the following day. He was assigned as the rector of Holy Trinity, succeeding his spiritual father, who was reassigned to a parish in Paris. He was also made igumen of the Skete of the Holy Spirit in Le-Mesnil-Saint-Denis, a male monastery. By October a small female monastic community also formed around Fr. Sergei. Hieromonk Sergei now split his time between the Skete and the church at Vanves.

Elder Sergei was a tireless pastor and liturgist. Despite the great diversity of the people in his parish, he was able to maintain an atmosphere of unity and brotherhood. He was fully committed to the liturgical life of the Church, maintaining the integrity of the Church’s typikon with precision and without omissions. During Great Lent, services took eight hours of his day. He served quietly, with simplicity and humility, and without pretension. Because of the great number of departed he wished to commemorate, he would begin the proskomedia (service of preparation) at 8:30 a.m., although the Liturgy began at 11:00 a.m.

The Elder became a much sought-after confessor. Vladimir Lossky and Leonid Ouspensky became his spiritual sons, as well as several men who became metropolitans and bishops in our day. Among these are two current Athonite abbots of great reputation.

Because of his humility, however, to become his spiritual son one would need to insist and “pester him.”

The Elder received from God the gift of reading people’s hearts (kardiognosia). His words often brought immediate healing to penitents. At times he would offer answers and counsel before the penitent confessed, and other times revealed conditions unknown to them. He gave very practical counsel and emphasized the necessity of prayer and fulfilling the commandments. He would often say that “prayer is as necessary to the life of the soul as air is to the body” and that “prayer is the breathing of the soul, without which the soul is essentially dead.” Another often repeated teaching: “The spiritual life consists essentially in being what you are, not in what you say.” Indeed, he never preached, unless he read a patristic text.

Having been in intellectual circles, he believed that intellectuals began the spiritual life with a great handicap, since “true knowledge is not something which results from the faculty of reason or even from the operation of the intellect, but rather what the Spirit grants … to him who through ascetic effort has been purified of the passions and in their place has acquired the virtues, particularly humility and charity” (Elder Sergei of Vanves: Life and Teachings, p. 23).

As is common among the saints, Elder Sergei was strict with himself but more lenient towards others. However, he was firm when it came to the Orthodox faith and the keeping of the commandments. He showed no favoritism, but regarded all alike, regardless of social status or spiritual maturity.

Elder Sergei enjoyed a great friendship with Saint Sophrony of Essex and was recognized by Saint Justin Popovich, as well as Athonite fathers such as Saints Ephraim of Katounia, Haralambos, and Paisios.

After serving for forty years, toward the beginning of Great Lent in 1985, Father Sergei became seriously ill. After a few months he recovered somewhat and was able to serve. However, he fell ill again in October of 1986 and was hospitalized. In June of 1987 he was diagnosed with cancer that had metastasized and spread to several organs. On July 25, the holy elder Sergei communed of the Holy Mysteries and reposed in the Lord at 6:05 p.m.

Teachings

Elder Elder Sergei has left us an abundance of teaching on many aspects of the Orthodox Christian spiritual life – too much to include in this article. Yet there is one word and one focal-point that characterizes both his life and his teachings: repentance. The Elder has delineated the life of repentance for us in a clear and particularly helpful way that one can immediately put into practice. This is the case since he not only taught about repentance but lived it out daily. St. Silouan’s advice, “Go and tell the people … Repent!” was proceeded by a more intimate and spiritually revealing word: “You are my brother in Christ, whom the Lord has loved on account of repentance.” How many of us would be worthy of receiving such a word from one of the greatest practitioners of the life of repentance?

The Elder spoke in terms of two distinct expressions of repentance. The first is repentance for specific sins committed. Yet this is not the end, nor is it the deepest aspect of what it means to repent. One must also repent in general for one’s sinful state in order to acquire contrition and humility, which is a heartfelt state of being that attracts and retains the grace of God. “A humble and contrite heart God will not despise”(Psalm 51:17).This second form of repentance, without which no one has reached sanctity, is often lost to us Orthodox Christians living in the world.

Regarding the first type of repentance (for specific sins), the Elder makes clear that it is vital. He lays out three stages: 1. repenting immediately when a sin is committed; 2. asking again for forgiveness at the end of each day; and 3. completing one’s repentance through the sacrament of Confession, which brings full and definitive pardon of the sin confessed. After confession one must consider the sin blotted out and not think about it again, “considering the divine forgiveness as the beginning of a new life” (p. 30).

When dealing with sinful thoughts, the first stage itself is usually sufficient. As Elder Sergei puts it, “If you have a wicked thought and repent by desiring to think and act otherwise, this sin is erased immediately.” We could add that many Saints also teach that, if we are attacked by a particular thought persistently and can’t be rid of it, we should take it to Confession and it should cease.

The Elder strongly emphasizes the second stage of this form of repentance, that is, praying for forgiveness at the end of the day for all we have done wrongly, for things we have done with passionate thoughts, and for what we failed to do. This is called an “examination of the conscience” and it is especially beneficial in making us more aware of the sins we bring to mind. In this way we avoid spiritual insensitivity and forgetfulness.

In Confession, God works to unburden us, both spiritually and psychologically, of sins committed in the past. Elder Sergei stressed not identifying oneself with any sin, as sin is alien to our nature and cannot define us.

According to the Elder, the second form of repentance is to bring a person into a state of compunction (from the Greek, penthos). This is a general and ongoing awareness of our need for God’s mercy and grace, as we are infected by an inclination toward sin. He considers this type of repentance indispensable for spiritual growth, freedom from the passions and evil thoughts, and for prayer. It is described as “an inner stance of fear of God, the remembrance of death, and – above all – humility, by which man comes to know again with sadness his infirmity, his weakness, and his nothingness before God” (p. 32).

Elder Sergei provides four approaches to this form of repentance:

1) First, we are to repent for sins committed unknowingly, as these often affect others or cause them suffering. These also reveal our lack of awareness and spiritual perceptiveness.

2) Next, we should repent for all that we could have done to accomplish God’s will but failed to do; for example, not loving God and neighbor, not praying enough.

3) We must repent even more deeply for our sinful state resulting from the ancestral sin, all that we may have inherited from birth, our general estrangement from God, our imperfection, weakness, and powerlessness.

4) Finally, as we are spiritually linked with all of humanity and creation, we can identify ourselves with the fallen condition of the world and repent for contributing to the general state of sinfulness existing in our world. We are not innocent victims but rather can weep as a sinner among sinners.

This second form of repentance requires our effort, but is ultimately a gift from God. The Elder suggests that it is nourished by the Jesus Prayer by which we seek God’s help in everything.

Here are some choice quotes (among some 310 included in the book) from the holy elder on a variety of topics.

Anger

Try your very best not to give in to anger. Anger drives grace from your soul. Grace is like a bird; when something scares it, it flies away.

Asceticism

We shouldn’t let ourselves go along with whatever might happen to us, with whatever ideas come into our head, but rather we should take our lives into our own hands. We shouldn’t be led about by our feelings, or imagination, our own impressions, but rather we should be masters of these things. Just as when we are driving a car, we don’t let it go where it wants, but steer it with our hands and make it go where we want it to.

Evangelism

Before converting other people, convert yourself, so that no one can say to you, “physician, heal yourself!” There is nothing worse than preaching “the good news” to someone when you yourself are filled with passions. In the Book of Acts, we read that men who wanted to cast out demons in the name of Paul were told by the demons, “We know Paul, but you, who are you?” The demons then rushed to beat the men.

Sometimes we need to talk about God to other people, and sometimes we need to remain silent. No one will convert because of what we say, but only because of the example that we set forth. The demons say, “Paul we know, but who are you?” The key phrase to conversion is “Come and see!” We need to think about our own end instead of thinking about that of the entire world, about our own destiny instead of that of society.

Fear Of God

Fear of God is fear of separation from God.

Forgiveness

We must never believe that our sinful state is beyond repair. We must be confident that there is always forgiveness for us. All we need to do to be forgiven is to ask.

God

There is no determinism in sin. God is stronger than any sin of ours.

Excuses

External circumstances can never serve as excuses for the deficiencies in our interiorr life.

Grace

The big secret of the spiritual life is to live by the strength of God and not by our own strengths, to have Christ in ourselves.

Jesus Prayer

Without the Church and the struggle against the passions, the Jesus prayer is totally worthless.

Saying the prayer implies the pursuit of virtue, especially humility. The prayer must always be said in a state of contrition. The Jesus prayer also has as a prerequisite a state of purity, for, without this, the prayer cannot be of any value to us, and becomes a nervous habit more than anything.

Judging

In order to obtain from God what we ask for in prayer, we must ask Him in a spirit of humility and avoid judging anyone.

Never judge your neighbor, for this sin will come back to you.

News

The newspapers present us daily with the Calvary of suffering humanity. Reading them should inspire us to compassion and prayer.

Reason

Thespiritual life shouldn’t be purely intellectual. The mind represents only a quarter of who we are.

Repentance

God prefers someone who sins, and repents for it, to someone who thinks that he never sins and never repents.

SAINTS/INNER MAN

Thereare saints who were very anxious, who had nervous tics, and also those who were very brusque. Others were exceptionally slow. Some saints had physical defects. What makes a saint is not outward perfection, it’s that the old man is conquered on the inside. The saints are not yet totally transfigured, and the old man continues to be visible on the outside. These appearances can trick us and hide their inner reality from us.

Simplicity

Avoid intellectual speculation, which so often does not concern your personal eschatology. In the next life, these speculations will be of no use. This is why simple people are normally more successful in the spiritual life than intellectuals.

THOUGHTS/PASSIONS

The passions can engrain themselves in our bodies, but they can never become a part of our nature, as an abscess on a finger may in fact be on the finger, but it hasn’t in any way become the finger itself. The infection can be treated and the finger can be healed without cutting off the finger itself. Thus, when the devil says to us, “You are this, you are that, and this and that…” we should reply, “No, that isn’t who I am! However, it is true that I am responsible for what you have said I am, I will have to answer for it, but it is not a part of my nature.”

THOUGHTS / SCRIPTURE READING

We must avoid doubts. When we experience a doubt, we must not enter into discussion with it. It is very common, when we are reading the Scriptures, for the demons to add their own commentary, for they, too, are theologians. We must not have anything to do with these “interpretations.”

The World

Fight the world not with the ways of the world, but with the ways of God.