The Way of the Pilgrim: Literary Reading of a Religious Text

Abstract

The well-known and widely read Russian Orthodox text Otkrovennye rasskazy strannika dukhovnomu ottsu svoemu (Sincere Stories told by a Pilgrim to his Spiritual Father, translated into English as The Way of the Pilgrim) 1 is a collection of four stories concerning a pilgrim's (strannikf search for the meaning of the apostolic command to pray without ceasing ('Pray without ceasing', I Thess. 5, 17). It is, as the critic Ipatova explains, the only text of its kind, describing the mystical-religious quest for a way of practising prayer, and it is written first and foremost as an instruction for those wishing to follow such a spiritual route.3 Traditionally, this text was considered anonymous and there is asyet no clear evidence regarding its authorship. It was initially seen as a historical record of what an anonymous strannik told his spiritual father, an Irkutsk monk. This assumption, however, has been challenged in contemporary theories about its authorship. In the course of the stories, the wanderer (strannik) recounts in lively and energetic style his wanderings in search of a practical explanation for the command to pray without ceasing. These include his meeting with an elder (starets)4 who explains to him how to pray constantly, and the narrator's subsequent travel in Russia, practising continuous prayer and meeting various people on his way. This text advocates the hesychast (Orthodox contemplative monastic) practice of constant prayer. This prayer technique, explained in the text, is based on writings of Fathers of the Church, collected in the anthology Philokalia (known in Russian as Dobrotoliubie). They concern the repetition of the Jesus Prayer, first to the rhythm of breathing and then to the rhythm of one's heartbeat, in order to achieve a 'prayer of the heart'. Prayer then becon~es a product of the heart, without the believer's need of a conscious effort. This leads to a state in which the believer is filled with a consciousness of the presence of God, and thus it results in an experience of communion with Him, a source of immense joy. Similar prayer techniques are known in the Buddhist tradition as well. In fact, there is a direct reference in Otkrovennye rasskazy strannika dukhovnomu ottsu svoemu to this fact in itself, when the strannik meets a Catholic bailiff and explains to him the principles of the prayer of the heart. The bailiff reacts un£wourably, although, surprisingly, he recalls that he had seen the Dobrotoliubie at his Catholic priest's house. He declares that the Jesus Prayer is