Features of Monastic Life in the Life of the Holy Great Martyr Katherine (St. Theophan the Recluse)

Features of Monastic Life in the Life of the Holy Great Martyr Katherine

By St. Theophan the Recluse

(A Homily Delivered in a Convent of Tambov on November 24, 1861)

For those celebrating in honor of Saint Katherine, it is best to engage in the features of the life of the Great Martyr. For you and me, sisters, this is all the more fitting since the life of Saint Katherine is, in its main features, a complete depiction of monastic life. I do not make any stretch in this application. See for yourself. Here is the icon of Saint Katherine in front of you! She kneels before the Mother of God, holding in her arms the Infant Savior, who gives Saint Katherine a wedding ring. This is the most important moment of her life - becoming a bride of the Lord. But, as you know, it was preceded by a desire and search for something better, and followed by martyrdom. The desire for the best led the great martyr to the Lord. Having united with the Lord, she was led into the feat of martyrdom and crowned with His crown. These are the main features in the life of Saint Katherine. The same main moments are in your life, if you go through it as you should.

The Holy Great Martyr was of high birth, rich, intelligent and educated. Possessing great talents, she did not find satisfaction in everything around her and decisively abandoned the then usual order of life. Another, a higher image of perfection was in her soul, and she would be ready to marry someone who possessed it. She did not know the path of truth then. The Lord sent her a guide, and He showed her the One who is more beautiful and nobler than all. Having recognized Him, she decided to devote all the days of her life to Him, and for this she was wedded to Him.

Being a bride of the Lord comes from the determination to serve Him alone, and determination from the confidence that everything is possible — the best and perfect thing that anyone would want to possess, she can find only in the one Lord - the Savior. In Him not only are all the highest needs of our spirit satisfied, but, in addition, we acquire something that the seeker had never even thought of.

Wasn’t it this confidence for you, sisters, that was the first impetus to leave everything and surrender yourself to the Lord? At least that's how it should have been. The difference for you is that while Saint Katherine, realizing the unsatisfactory nature of the order of life around her, had to still look for where the best order was and in whom to find satisfaction, you, having felt a thirst for the best, knew in advance that this thirst can only be quenched in the Lord, Who calls everyone: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink!” (John 7:37) Therefore, as the cooling towards your environment grew, so did the desire for the Lord. His bright face was imprinted in your heart, and your love for Him warmed deeper and deeper, until, finally, you, leaving everything, hastened after Him. Your determination to belong to the one Lord with all your being is a sacramental union with the Lord. The Lord did not give, perhaps, visible confirmation that He accepts you and is united with you, nevertheless, it is certainly true that you have been carried away by Him alone, and that you are His only brides.

Not a commendable one, but I am writing a word to you here, sisters. No, I want to direct your thoughts to what must have happened in you before entering and at the hour of entering into the way of life you perceived, in order to rekindle the initial fire with this memory and tell you: what you were in the beginning, such be and always be. A new turn of feelings is born in the heart, not so that, having begun, it fades away, but so that, having begun, it then serves as a stimulant throughout life. If what was in you at the beginning fades away, then you are no longer what you should be! The external image is the same, but the internal image is not the same. I want to say that dissatisfaction with the ordinary course of life, the desire for the best, the confidence that all the best can be acquired only in the Lord, deep warm love for Him, the determination to serve Him alone and the willingness to sacrifice everything to Him in order to please Him should be the characteristics of your life, the spirit that constantly animates and moves you. This is the same as the movement of sap in a tree and the beating of the heart in a person. In whom these feelings are extinguished, there is no life. He bears the name that he is alive, but in reality he is dead.

If you have all this in you, then you have transferred two traits from the life of the Great Martyr Katherine to your life - the desire for the best and union with the Lord.

Next came martyrdom for Saint Katherine. What do you have? Also a kind of martyrdom, and this martyrdom should have begun from the moment the determination to devote yourself to the Lord matured in your heart. After all, why were martyrs tortured? - Because, having believed in the Lord and united with Him, they did not want to worship false gods. The false gods were spirits of passions and wicked deeds. Therefore, whoever does not submit to passions and wicked desires does the same thing as someone who refuses to worship idols. He who refused to worship idols was subjected to external torment, and whoever refuses to satisfy his passions strikes himself and makes his heart suffer until the passions subside in him. The victory over the passions is a spontaneous spiritual martyrdom, accomplished invisibly in the heart, but nevertheless, it is strongly felt. When you made a vow to serve the Lord, what did you promise? You promised to “put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts,... and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:22, 24). The old man is entirely made up of passions. To overcome it means to conquer passions. If the victory over the passions is spiritual martyrdom, then you have determined yourself to be a martyr. You probably know from experience that this really is the case. It is not so much external labors and exploits that are painful, but rather the pacification of thoughts, the extinguishing of passions, the cessation of temptations. If such movements can occur every minute, then you are constantly in labor, in sores and bitterness.

The monastic is rightly depicted as crucified on a cross, struck from all sides by spears and arrows, or as a man walking on thistles and thorns, among prickly thorns tearing his body apart. But many illnesses mean many rewards. The One to whom you are betrothed sees your exploits, rejoices in them and makes your heart glad. The more sorrows, the more consolations there are, although also illnesses, until everything, both internal and external, is pacified.

This is the crown of everything that few people receive in this life. I am bringing all this to your memory not in order to frighten you, for you are already on this path, and although reluctantly you must face everything that is inevitable on it, but so that if you are at peace on all sides, you will take care to discern whether it is good and whether you are on the right path? Know that peace and contentment is either the height of perfection, or a state of extreme decline, in which all spiritual aspirations and demands extinguish. Just as the first state is the fullness of life, so the last is spiritual death. The state of those moving towards perfection is a state of struggle, intense, difficult and painful. This is a narrow path. By these signs judge where you are? I wish, of course, that everyone would be on the good side; but not everyone is reasonable. May the Lord make you wise for salvation. Amen.

Source: From "A Reminder to All-Honorable Nuns of What Monasticism Requires of Them." Translation by John Sanidopoulos.