Author’s Note: This article is merely an overview of the story of an amazing life and legend. I have tried to keep to only the anecdotes which involved me directly. However, most of this story comes to me second-hand from trusted (by me) sources, whom I have known for decades. This second hand reporting is easily corroborated by others who knew him. However, there are fewer of those people around, these days. Therefore, this ‘rough sketch” comes to you without much qualification other than my personal experiences and corroborated anecdotes of others who knew him. But it’s a story that needs to be told, no matter how shabbily. I hope this will get some other certain people writing.
Throughout his life, Archbishop Theodore has been known by several names. In the Russian Orthodox clergy, names can change often. This article will refer to him as, solely, Theodore. Titles like Archbishop, Bishop, Father and Vladyka are, in this story all interchangeable.
THE LITTLE WHITE FATHER OF JUAREZ
In the 1980’s he was known as “The Little White Father Of Juarez”. After 20 years of prayer, as a hermit, in Alaska, Archbishop Theodore was guided to Juarez to “help poor children” (his favorite expression). His reputation as a clairvoyant and miracle working elder spread quickly among the poor in Juarez.
But this is nearly the end of his story.
I was fortunate enough to spend weekends with Archbishop Theodore during the last seven years of his life. He was the elder of my elder. He spent the last years of his life at a small monastery in Northern New Jersey, as a simple monk. I was around there a lot in those days.
He spent hours on end, in total silence, praying. Aside from the occasional cantankerous lesson, he did little else. During Liturgy, he would sit in the bishop’s throne, in the sanctuary of a basement chapel, and become radiant with prayer. This radiance was not easily/blatantly perceived by the onlooker. Not like movie special effects.
In prayer, he would look (to me) 20 years younger. His face was, albeit discreetly, the most “light-defined” object in the room during this occurrence. No laser shows. No pretty gradients. The larger impact of observing this was the peculiar stillness of the experience. Sort of a timeless visitation.
It is difficult to decide how to tell Archbishop Theodore’s story. There is an amazing historical side of his story. There is an equally amazing collection of reports of his miraculous works. Then there are my first-hand experiences with the man. Lets start with his history and see how the legend and my anecdotes fit in, as it goes.
A CHILD IN THE TSAR’S COURT
Theodore was born sometime around the turn of the 20th century (1904, we think).
We know that he was about 12 or 13 at the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917.
Theodore was the son of a German general in the Russian White Army and a member of the Tsar’s court.
Young Theodore was playmates with the Tsar’s children.
The only thing Archbishop Theodore reported to me personally about life in the Tsar’s court was about the famous historical figure Rasputin. What was said to me was that “he was a man of great holiness and great evil at the same time”.
It is easy to imagine young Theodore, being the same age as the young hemophiliac Tsarevich Alexei, to have run into Rasputin when his playmate was sick or recovering from Rasputin’s “treatment” of the young Prince.
MILITARY CADET
The story then jumps to young Theodore’s education as a cadet in a military academy in Irkutsk, Russia, just North of Mongolia. In Imperial Russia, nothing could be more natural for the son of one of the Tsar’s most trusted generals.
Here, Theodore tells a story of how he was mocking a (very rare) substitute teacher during class, about a lesson being taught, which involved a “book falling out of the sky”. This substitute teacher became cross with young Theodore and informed the boy that he wouldn’t laugh so much once he became a monk. Archbishop Theodore mentioned that this substitute teacher was never seen at the school, or the sparsely populated town, before or after this day.
ESCAPING THE BOLSHEVIKS
During the young cadet’s time in military academy, the Russian Revolution broke out. Theodore was a member of the Tsar’s court. He was definitely on the Bolshevik’s list, and he knew it. He walked across half the Asian continent, on the run. Hoping to reach some other country where a White Russian refugee might be safe. He had to go West towards Europe or (closer) Scandinavia.
He told me the story of how his brother and a few friends went running to a band of Bolsheviks, hoping to join, only to get gunned down, with no interrogation, right before young Theodore’s eyes.
Eventually he reached Finland. There, he became a novice – then monk - at Valaam Monastery.
THE HERMIT PROPHESISES TO THE NOVICE
Life at Valaam was his favorite subject. This is one story he told me about Valaam, paraphrased.
“Yes, this is the place where I was told I would die”.
We think that Theodore spent about decade at Valaam monastery in Finland. The abbot at Valaam had noticed that there was something different about this boy. It was this early in Theodore’s life that reports of his becoming radiant with “uncreated light” during prayer originated. This boy was different.
Eventually, Finland entered into a pact with the Communists, where the Finns would be left alone (militarily) by the Soviets, as long as they did not harbor, or sympathize with refugees from the revolution. It was best for the survival of the monastery that Theodore leave. He was still on the Soviet’s list as part of the Tsar’s court.
The abbot at Valaam sent Theodore to the cave-dwelling monks in Estonia, which was not yet part of the Soviet Union. To me, he only mentioned that he was there. The abbot says he was there for about a decade.
THE MIRACLE IN PARIS
Next stop, Paris; where most of the Russian Orthodox church was in exile, reeling from the apocalypse of the bloody slaughter of the Church, Her clergy, and laity, during the revolution of 1917. He became a priest in Paris in the late 30’s.
While there, God performed an astonishing miracle through him, with witnesses. His fame grew way too fast for a humble monk to bear. He felt he was in spiritual danger of the temptation of “prelest”, when one thinks they have something special from God.
Striving to maintain his identity as a worthless monk, he was terrified.
“I WANT TO DIE FOR THE FAITH”
He wrote a letter to his elder in the Estonia caves.
Theodore asked his elder for a blessing to go back to Russia and die for the Faith. The response went something like this:
“Permission denied. The Communists will torture the Faith out of you, make you deny Christ and then kill you. I think you should go in the other direction”.
Because the Russian Church had been nearly wiped out. They were elevating Bishops with a fair amount of regularity in Paris. When the Paris Bishops had heard about the miracle, performed by God through Theodore, they quickly made him a Bishop and sent him to America. I do not know the specifics of how he was able to accomplish the crossing and immigration to the U.S. Theodore told me, personally that Joseph Kennedy arranged his immigration.
EMMIGRATES TO THE USA
He wound up at the Russian cathedral on 2nd St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Many times he claimed to me that this church was controlled by the KGB.
He told me that one of his superiors, at that time, turned out to be the Soviet Foreign Minister during the 80’s. The name he used matched the former holder of that office, at the time of the telling. Anyway, I digress.
According to Theodore, this person on 2nd St. sent him to Canada, knowing full-well that Theodore didn’t have the papers to get back into the U.S – and that he wouldn’t know the difference. The story continues with anecdotes about the months that he spent hopping the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence Seaway (U.S. Border) to sneak back into the country.
Once back in the U.S and with a new inspiration to stay away from 2nd St., he stayed in the Ohio/Michigan/Illinois area. He was a Bishop and had a responsibility to shepherd and establish churches. My information on this period of his life is sketchy.
THE HOLY FOOL
Prior to my meeting him, Archbishop Theodore was described to me as, what is known as, a “Fool For Christ”. The Russian expression translates to “Holy Fool”. There is a long tradition of this kind of ascetic in the Orthodox Faith.
It is a concept where one can crucify one’s self to the world, by looking like a fool to the world, thusly obeying Jesus’ command that we should take up our cross daily. In this period of his life, the stories of such foolishness begin to rise.
He told me that he ran a candy store in Detroit. No one else who knew him ever heard of it. That’s all he said to me. No further details.
I recently found on the internet an uncomplimentary essay about Theodore when he was in Ohio during the late 40’s. The writer was completely exasperated with Vladyka Theodore for continually abusing and eventually destroying a clothes washing machine. I knew Archbishop Theodore. I can tell you that he would make it a point to challenge your desire for clean clothes.
HERMIT IN ALASKA
The next chapter in Bishop Theodore’s life was as a hermit in Alaska. He went to St. Herman’s Monastery. It was there that he is said to have prayed a short repetitive prayer, without ceasing for about 20 years.
The legend says that he slept in an open coffin to remind him, every moment, of his future (rare, but not unheard of in the 19th and early 20th century – Sarah Bernhardt did this also).
It is said that he prayed for seven years without sleeping, then for seven years of standing, then for seven years without eating. He covered the walls of his cell/hut on the Alaskan island with carved inscriptions of his short, repetitive prayer.
One story he told me was about when he arrived at the Alaskan monastery. The abbot arranged for the monks to build a hut for Theodore on one of the deserted islands within the monastery.
When Theodore came to the finished cell, he became very agitated and begged/demanded that the hut be moved some distance further from the shore of the island, pointing out the place where he would prefer. It is said that some years later, a tsunami hit the islands and just came short of his cell in its “new” location.
It is also said that Jesus and Mary visited him separately, and daily during this period. It is also said that, after 20 years of unceasing prayer, The Blessed Mother communicated to him that God was pleased with his unceasing prayer and that he should go to Juarez to serve His Poor.
THE WEDDING CHAPEL IN LAS VEGAS
I only assume that the following story, which took place in Las Vegas, fits in this point of his story. That is, on his way to Juarez. It’s the only way I can account for the location and characters of the story.
According to what was told to me by Theodore and others, Archbishop Theodore was in Las Vegas with some Aleut natives where he opened a chapel. This chapel, somehow, became popular as a wedding chapel. As it was told to me:
From here, one day, he was simply put in a car and kidnapped by an ambitious abbot of a monastery in a Northwestern state in America. He spent a little over a year there, corresponding occasionally with the other clergy whom he loved.
But he was not happy there. There were rumors of emotional abuse. Rumors of using Theodore as an “attraction”. Our abbot eventually gave a blessing for his staff to drive up to MA and liberate him. Again, when he arrived, he recognized the place as described by the hermit in Finland.
HIS FINAL MONASTERY
The first weekend, after Theodore’s arrival to the New Jersey monastery,
I came to the Abbey to meet him. When I got out of the car, I looked up to the window of the guest room to see him. The windows were wide open. He was sitting there, looking down on me, expressionless.
He was on the second floor, with the windows open. My sight of him was crystal clear. He looked just like Santa Claus, but there wasn’t even a hint of “ho-ho-ho” in his countenance. He just stared at me. No emotion or personal recognition.
He referred to a friend and myself as “the boys”. “The boys” that were part of the Valaam hermit’s description of Theodore’s final days.
Some time later, I was commenting on my first view of him, at dinner with the community, along with a couple of visiting monks. I was not very tuned in to Orthodox Catholicism at the time, so my ignorant comments went something like this:
One would sit down on the window bench, right in front of his easy chair, close to him and fully in his view. If he was used to you, he wouldn’t seem to notice you, or pay much attention. You might pray with him, you might just look at your feet for an hour. Either way, it was a curative wealth of stillness.
Occasionally, during these silent sit-downs, he might begin softly speaking a story about himself, a comment on whatever you were silently thinking about, or a straight-out spiritual teaching. He would often ask me to pray for his sister.
When he would speak, it would be in an understandable mix of English, Spanish and Russian (in that order of preference). His tone of voice was usually gentle. He would call one “darling” every once-in-awhile. Remembering the sound of my name in his angry voice chills me to this day.
He prayed. All the time. I remember he was genuinely confused, when I offered him an old television. “Why?”, he said. He had little use for conversation about the banal, which was basically, anything besides prayer, or the struggle to holiness.
He taught. He was an elder and he treated the Abbot (my elder) harshly, at times. Then like a grandfather, he would turn to me, or my friend, and say something like “I’m hard with him because he is so young”. Like a grandfather, he was always gentle with my friend and I, “the boys”.
Sometimes without even realizing, he demonstrated his clairvoyant abilities to us, at regular intervals. For the most part, he would merely comment supportively on whatever you were thinking about. He knew when I was being bad, in secret. He would become angry with me and not even be able to understand what he was describing. But I knew what he was talking about. It was my secret.
This kind of elder was, at one time, relatively common. But that was centuries ago. Even I remember a time, not too long ago, where one could know of less than a dozen of these kind of people in the world. I’m willing to bet there are either little or none of these God-Bearing elders left these days.
I sometimes wonder what we should expect from the future.
Throughout his life, Archbishop Theodore has been known by several names. In the Russian Orthodox clergy, names can change often. This article will refer to him as, solely, Theodore. Titles like Archbishop, Bishop, Father and Vladyka are, in this story all interchangeable.
THE LITTLE WHITE FATHER OF JUAREZ
In the 1980’s he was known as “The Little White Father Of Juarez”. After 20 years of prayer, as a hermit, in Alaska, Archbishop Theodore was guided to Juarez to “help poor children” (his favorite expression). His reputation as a clairvoyant and miracle working elder spread quickly among the poor in Juarez. But this is nearly the end of his story.
I was fortunate enough to spend weekends with Archbishop Theodore during the last seven years of his life. He was the elder of my elder. He spent the last years of his life at a small monastery in Northern New Jersey, as a simple monk. I was around there a lot in those days.
He spent hours on end, in total silence, praying. Aside from the occasional cantankerous lesson, he did little else. During Liturgy, he would sit in the bishop’s throne, in the sanctuary of a basement chapel, and become radiant with prayer. This radiance was not easily/blatantly perceived by the onlooker. Not like movie special effects.
In prayer, he would look (to me) 20 years younger. His face was, albeit discreetly, the most “light-defined” object in the room during this occurrence. No laser shows. No pretty gradients. The larger impact of observing this was the peculiar stillness of the experience. Sort of a timeless visitation.
It is difficult to decide how to tell Archbishop Theodore’s story. There is an amazing historical side of his story. There is an equally amazing collection of reports of his miraculous works. Then there are my first-hand experiences with the man. Lets start with his history and see how the legend and my anecdotes fit in, as it goes.
A CHILD IN THE TSAR’S COURT
Theodore was born sometime around the turn of the 20th century (1904, we think).
We know that he was about 12 or 13 at the time of the Russian Revolution in 1917. Theodore was the son of a German general in the Russian White Army and a member of the Tsar’s court.
Young Theodore was playmates with the Tsar’s children.The only thing Archbishop Theodore reported to me personally about life in the Tsar’s court was about the famous historical figure Rasputin. What was said to me was that “he was a man of great holiness and great evil at the same time”.
It is easy to imagine young Theodore, being the same age as the young hemophiliac Tsarevich Alexei, to have run into Rasputin when his playmate was sick or recovering from Rasputin’s “treatment” of the young Prince.
MILITARY CADET
The story then jumps to young Theodore’s education as a cadet in a military academy in Irkutsk, Russia, just North of Mongolia. In Imperial Russia, nothing could be more natural for the son of one of the Tsar’s most trusted generals.
Here, Theodore tells a story of how he was mocking a (very rare) substitute teacher during class, about a lesson being taught, which involved a “book falling out of the sky”. This substitute teacher became cross with young Theodore and informed the boy that he wouldn’t laugh so much once he became a monk. Archbishop Theodore mentioned that this substitute teacher was never seen at the school, or the sparsely populated town, before or after this day.
ESCAPING THE BOLSHEVIKS
During the young cadet’s time in military academy, the Russian Revolution broke out. Theodore was a member of the Tsar’s court. He was definitely on the Bolshevik’s list, and he knew it. He walked across half the Asian continent, on the run. Hoping to reach some other country where a White Russian refugee might be safe. He had to go West towards Europe or (closer) Scandinavia.
He told me the story of how his brother and a few friends went running to a band of Bolsheviks, hoping to join, only to get gunned down, with no interrogation, right before young Theodore’s eyes.
Eventually he reached Finland. There, he became a novice – then monk - at Valaam Monastery.
THE HERMIT PROPHESISES TO THE NOVICE
Life at Valaam was his favorite subject. This is one story he told me about Valaam, paraphrased.
When Archbishop Theodore arrived at the monastery in New Jersey, he got out of the car, on arrival to our monastery, he looked around and said:
“At Valaam, when I becamea novice, I took my rasa (long black robe) out into the woods. I was so happy to finally be a monk. No more cities, no more distractions.”
“I laid my rasa down on a large rock and began kissing it, thanking God for leading me here.”
“Then I suddenly heard laughing. I turned around and saw a man dressed in rags with long hair and a beard. He spent a few minutes laughing at me and went away. Later I leaned from the other monks that this man was a revered hermit in the area. They were excited to have heard of him.”
“The next winter, this hermit was brought into the dispensary where I worked as a novice. The hermit was nearly frozen to death. Eventually responding to treatment, the hermit became conscious and was greeted by a steady stream of visiting monks who were very excited to have such a holy man among them.”
“In the midst of all this celebration, the hermit grabbed my arm and whispered ‘Come see me tonight, at midnight’”.
“When I returned that evening, I was told all the events of my future life. He described to me the place where I would die. It is this place.”
“Yes, this is the place where I was told I would die”.
We think that Theodore spent about decade at Valaam monastery in Finland. The abbot at Valaam had noticed that there was something different about this boy. It was this early in Theodore’s life that reports of his becoming radiant with “uncreated light” during prayer originated. This boy was different.Eventually, Finland entered into a pact with the Communists, where the Finns would be left alone (militarily) by the Soviets, as long as they did not harbor, or sympathize with refugees from the revolution. It was best for the survival of the monastery that Theodore leave. He was still on the Soviet’s list as part of the Tsar’s court.
The abbot at Valaam sent Theodore to the cave-dwelling monks in Estonia, which was not yet part of the Soviet Union. To me, he only mentioned that he was there. The abbot says he was there for about a decade.
THE MIRACLE IN PARIS
Next stop, Paris; where most of the Russian Orthodox church was in exile, reeling from the apocalypse of the bloody slaughter of the Church, Her clergy, and laity, during the revolution of 1917. He became a priest in Paris in the late 30’s.
While there, God performed an astonishing miracle through him, with witnesses. His fame grew way too fast for a humble monk to bear. He felt he was in spiritual danger of the temptation of “prelest”, when one thinks they have something special from God.
Striving to maintain his identity as a worthless monk, he was terrified.
“I WANT TO DIE FOR THE FAITH”
He wrote a letter to his elder in the Estonia caves.
Theodore asked his elder for a blessing to go back to Russia and die for the Faith. The response went something like this: “Permission denied. The Communists will torture the Faith out of you, make you deny Christ and then kill you. I think you should go in the other direction”.
Because the Russian Church had been nearly wiped out. They were elevating Bishops with a fair amount of regularity in Paris. When the Paris Bishops had heard about the miracle, performed by God through Theodore, they quickly made him a Bishop and sent him to America. I do not know the specifics of how he was able to accomplish the crossing and immigration to the U.S. Theodore told me, personally that Joseph Kennedy arranged his immigration.
EMMIGRATES TO THE USA
He wound up at the Russian cathedral on 2nd St. on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. Many times he claimed to me that this church was controlled by the KGB.
He told me that one of his superiors, at that time, turned out to be the Soviet Foreign Minister during the 80’s. The name he used matched the former holder of that office, at the time of the telling. Anyway, I digress.According to Theodore, this person on 2nd St. sent him to Canada, knowing full-well that Theodore didn’t have the papers to get back into the U.S – and that he wouldn’t know the difference. The story continues with anecdotes about the months that he spent hopping the Thousand Islands in the St. Lawrence Seaway (U.S. Border) to sneak back into the country.
Once back in the U.S and with a new inspiration to stay away from 2nd St., he stayed in the Ohio/Michigan/Illinois area. He was a Bishop and had a responsibility to shepherd and establish churches. My information on this period of his life is sketchy.
THE HOLY FOOL
Prior to my meeting him, Archbishop Theodore was described to me as, what is known as, a “Fool For Christ”. The Russian expression translates to “Holy Fool”. There is a long tradition of this kind of ascetic in the Orthodox Faith.
It is a concept where one can crucify one’s self to the world, by looking like a fool to the world, thusly obeying Jesus’ command that we should take up our cross daily. In this period of his life, the stories of such foolishness begin to rise.
He told me that he ran a candy store in Detroit. No one else who knew him ever heard of it. That’s all he said to me. No further details.
I recently found on the internet an uncomplimentary essay about Theodore when he was in Ohio during the late 40’s. The writer was completely exasperated with Vladyka Theodore for continually abusing and eventually destroying a clothes washing machine. I knew Archbishop Theodore. I can tell you that he would make it a point to challenge your desire for clean clothes.
HERMIT IN ALASKA
The next chapter in Bishop Theodore’s life was as a hermit in Alaska. He went to St. Herman’s Monastery. It was there that he is said to have prayed a short repetitive prayer, without ceasing for about 20 years.
The legend says that he slept in an open coffin to remind him, every moment, of his future (rare, but not unheard of in the 19th and early 20th century – Sarah Bernhardt did this also). It is said that he prayed for seven years without sleeping, then for seven years of standing, then for seven years without eating. He covered the walls of his cell/hut on the Alaskan island with carved inscriptions of his short, repetitive prayer.
One story he told me was about when he arrived at the Alaskan monastery. The abbot arranged for the monks to build a hut for Theodore on one of the deserted islands within the monastery.
When Theodore came to the finished cell, he became very agitated and begged/demanded that the hut be moved some distance further from the shore of the island, pointing out the place where he would prefer. It is said that some years later, a tsunami hit the islands and just came short of his cell in its “new” location.
It is also said that Jesus and Mary visited him separately, and daily during this period. It is also said that, after 20 years of unceasing prayer, The Blessed Mother communicated to him that God was pleased with his unceasing prayer and that he should go to Juarez to serve His Poor.
THE WEDDING CHAPEL IN LAS VEGAS
I only assume that the following story, which took place in Las Vegas, fits in this point of his story. That is, on his way to Juarez. It’s the only way I can account for the location and characters of the story.
According to what was told to me by Theodore and others, Archbishop Theodore was in Las Vegas with some Aleut natives where he opened a chapel. This chapel, somehow, became popular as a wedding chapel. As it was told to me:
“Some criminals came and insisted on buying the chapel.”Myself, I have few anecdotes, details or history of his time in Juarez. Like most of the story, my knowledge is second-hand, from a small group of monks who visited him to pray with him at that time. The anecdotes I’ve heard the most about this period include stories of clairvoyance, healing, bi-location and other miraculous events. All the while, debasing his personal image to the world as a Holy Fool, while serving the poor and teaching the clergy. He was very serious about “helping poor children” as he always put it to me.
“Suddenly, I had a hotel room full of money. I gave all the money to the Aleuts.”
“They all bought useless things like automobiles, and the like.”
“It didn’t take long for them to destroy the autos and all the things that they went crazy purchasing.”
“It was a good lesson for them.”
From here, one day, he was simply put in a car and kidnapped by an ambitious abbot of a monastery in a Northwestern state in America. He spent a little over a year there, corresponding occasionally with the other clergy whom he loved.
But he was not happy there. There were rumors of emotional abuse. Rumors of using Theodore as an “attraction”. Our abbot eventually gave a blessing for his staff to drive up to MA and liberate him. Again, when he arrived, he recognized the place as described by the hermit in Finland.
HIS FINAL MONASTERY
The first weekend, after Theodore’s arrival to the New Jersey monastery,
I came to the Abbey to meet him. When I got out of the car, I looked up to the window of the guest room to see him. The windows were wide open. He was sitting there, looking down on me, expressionless. He was on the second floor, with the windows open. My sight of him was crystal clear. He looked just like Santa Claus, but there wasn’t even a hint of “ho-ho-ho” in his countenance. He just stared at me. No emotion or personal recognition.
He referred to a friend and myself as “the boys”. “The boys” that were part of the Valaam hermit’s description of Theodore’s final days.
Some time later, I was commenting on my first view of him, at dinner with the community, along with a couple of visiting monks. I was not very tuned in to Orthodox Catholicism at the time, so my ignorant comments went something like this:
“Yup, I saw him sitting at the window in the guest room. He was wearing one of those “funny hats” that you guys wear; with a silver cross on the front of the hat.”
The abbot answered:
“You mean a Kamilavka. Well, the silver cross means he is an Archbishop”
The visiting monks paused. Evidently, there had been some discussion as to his actual rank, being such a gadfly of a cleric.
“Yeah, all that!” I replied.
The Abbot replied:
“Bishop Theodore doesn’t own a Kamilavka”
After some argument from me, the abbot challenged me to go into his cell and find it. I knew that room. It had been my room several times in the past.Just being around him was a transforming experience. Throughout all my manias, and no matter what was going on, the best thing you could do for those seven years was to just sit with him in silence.
The man owned nothing. A couple of books in Russian and a handful of letters from his Deacon in Alaska. No funny hat.
One would sit down on the window bench, right in front of his easy chair, close to him and fully in his view. If he was used to you, he wouldn’t seem to notice you, or pay much attention. You might pray with him, you might just look at your feet for an hour. Either way, it was a curative wealth of stillness.
Occasionally, during these silent sit-downs, he might begin softly speaking a story about himself, a comment on whatever you were silently thinking about, or a straight-out spiritual teaching. He would often ask me to pray for his sister.
When he would speak, it would be in an understandable mix of English, Spanish and Russian (in that order of preference). His tone of voice was usually gentle. He would call one “darling” every once-in-awhile. Remembering the sound of my name in his angry voice chills me to this day.
He prayed. All the time. I remember he was genuinely confused, when I offered him an old television. “Why?”, he said. He had little use for conversation about the banal, which was basically, anything besides prayer, or the struggle to holiness.
He taught. He was an elder and he treated the Abbot (my elder) harshly, at times. Then like a grandfather, he would turn to me, or my friend, and say something like “I’m hard with him because he is so young”. Like a grandfather, he was always gentle with my friend and I, “the boys”.
Sometimes without even realizing, he demonstrated his clairvoyant abilities to us, at regular intervals. For the most part, he would merely comment supportively on whatever you were thinking about. He knew when I was being bad, in secret. He would become angry with me and not even be able to understand what he was describing. But I knew what he was talking about. It was my secret.
This kind of elder was, at one time, relatively common. But that was centuries ago. Even I remember a time, not too long ago, where one could know of less than a dozen of these kind of people in the world. I’m willing to bet there are either little or none of these God-Bearing elders left these days.
I sometimes wonder what we should expect from the future.
Big Rob Loves
Your Computer
This is one of the software titles that I just outright buy. I always make sure I have it installed. In the early days, these people were the only ones who could defrag an NT formatted drive. They know what they are doing. Frankly, I am NOT a fan of Windows Defrag.
Download a free trial!