Words of Saint Theophan the Recluse and childish image in epistles to children and in manuscripts on upbringing

Abstract

Four sermons of Saint Theophan the Recluse addressed to children as well as his writings on upbringing are analysed in the article. The author discovers the parallels and ideological similarities of heritage of Saint Theophan and the 19th-century Russian literature, and he notes that Saint Theophan's sermons are intended to strengthen the spirit of children and adolescents, and to upbringing in love for God. A number of ideas and provisions on the spiritual and moral life of man, that sermons of Saint Theophan and Russian classical writers have in common, are discussed in the article. In the heritage of Saint Theophan the Recluse and most 19th-century writers, we see a representation of the correct path of man, a rationale for the values that shape a spiritually developed personality. Special attention in the article is paid to the compositional construction of Saint Theophan's sermons. The commonality of spiritual and moral problems, the proximity of the tasks of the heritage of the saint and the Russian classic suggest that it is impossible to study the latter outside Orthodox patristic tradition.