Social Sciences

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Technium

41/2023

2023 A new decade for social changes

Social Sciences

Technium.

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Patristic and Scriptural Arguments in St. Gregory Palamas on the Nature of Grace

Petrov George Daniel¹ Bogdan Mohor Obreja²

1, 2

Theology Faculty, Ovidius University –Constanța, România.

[email protected] [email protected]

Abstract. Grace, according to the Orthodox definition, can be summarized as “the uncreated divine energy poured out by the Holy Spirit upon us through the risen and ascended humanity of Jesus Christ.” Thus, grace represents living communion with Christ in the Holy Spirit, which is why the Orthodox Church does not see grace as a good that can be separated from God.

Keywords. St. Gregory Palamas, grace, uncreated energies, divine energies, palamite's.

1. Orthodox Teaching on Grace as Uncreated Energy

Father Dumitru Stăniloae states this idea perfectly: “If from a constitutive point of view, the Church consists of Christ - the Head, and humanity - His body, it is the Holy Spirit who unites Christ with man or man with Christ. He is thus the sanctifying, life-giving, and unifying power in the Church”¹.

The necessity of grace is emphasized by St. John Chrysostom in the words, “Without the grace of the Spirit, there would never be the Mystical Flesh and Blood. We would have no priests. For neither could these ordinations be made without the outpouring of grace”² . The Holy Father also states: “Thus is our Master! When he sees a soul approaching with great longing and eagerness for spiritual things, he bountifully gives him grace and bestows its rich gifts upon him”³ .

The teaching on grace was most clearly and beautifully expressed by St. Gregory Palamas, who states that “grace is an uncreated energy, springing from the divine being of the three hypostases, and is inseparable from it or the hypostases”. Thus, that “energy” mentioned by St. Gregory means “work”. We can see that within grace is found the very deity who performs that work, or we can find the divine energy of the one at work. “For the saving act of

1 Pr. Prof. Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, vol. 2, 2nd edition, IBMBOR Publishing House, Bucharest, 1997, p. 199.

2 St. John Chrysostom, Word on the Resurrection of the Dead, VIII, in vol. Sermons on the feasts of the Emperor and words of praise to the saints, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 2004, p. 135

3 St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Book of Genesis, Homily IV, I, in PSB, vol. 21, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 2001, p. 56.

Technium Social Sciences Journal Vol. 41, 390-397, March, 2023 ISSN: 2668-7798 www.techniumscience.com

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God is made by his creatures in works of love”⁴. Work expresses the intrinsic power of natural movement, just as, for us, the sound is an inner movement, therefore indicating one's nature.

Thus, grace is God's special work for us humans, which is in us and which has been given to us without offering anything in return, without personal merit. It represents the power of God that has been given to man for the sacrifice of Christ the Savior on the cross. This grace is given to us for our enlightenment, sanctification, and correction, but, above all, it is given to us for salvation. “The goods that grace actualizes in the soul of man are the fruits of the Lord's sacrifice: forgiveness of sins, justification, sanctification, eternal life"⁵ .

But grace and gift should not be confused, as they are complementary. The words grace and gift are among the most commonly used terms, both in theological language and in the everyday language of believers. In these two words, we find the essential elements of soteriological and pneumatological dogma.

Through and with the help of the gifts of the Holy Spirit there is a permanent updating of grace in the Church or the believers. The difference between the members of the Church and the Church is that it is the Church that has all the gifts, although not all of them are always updated, and the faithful enjoy these gifts in different measures, according to their way of living and their natural characteristics.

About the work of the grace of the Holy Spirit in the Church, St. John Chrysostom says: "Scripture calls the grace of the Holy Spirit both a fire and water; making it clear that these names indicate not the substance, but the work. For the Holy Spirit cannot be composed of different substances, for He is unseen, and of one nature. John the Baptist indicates one of these things when he says: “He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire” ⁶. The other is designated by Jesus Christ himself: 'Rivers of living water will flow from the womb of the one who believes in me”.⁷ For this reason, in his conversation with the Samaritan woman, he calls the Holy Spirit water: “He that drinketh, saith He, of the water that I shall give him, shall thirst no more.” Scripture calls the Holy Spirit fire as well, to show the power and warmth of grace and the destruction of sin; it calls him water, to show that it cleanses and refreshes the soul of those who receives it. And rightfully so: for as is a garden planted with trees and full of fruit, and evergreen, so is a watchful and joyful soul which the Holy Spirit imbues with his grace. He does not allow sorrow and grief, nor the wickedness and wiles of Satan to touch it even a little; He slowly heals all the wounds produced by the evil spirit."⁸

Following the relationship between grace and gifts, we can reach some conclusions:

both gifts and grace come from God, and we receive them through the work of the Holy Spirit in the world. Thus, if we consider their place of origin, we see that there is no difference in nature between the two, the distinction is strictly functional and takes into account its effects:

grace is divine energy that works for our salvation, and gift helps and enhances natural capacities, itself not being salvific.

Grace, being salvific, we find and receive, we partake of it only in the Church, while gift, although belonging to the Holy Spirit, we find everywhere, not only in the Church. We receive the saving grace through communion with the Holy Mysteries, and it necessarily

4 Gianina Chirugu, George Daniel Petrov, Models of Christian social work, Technium Social Sciences Journal, 36(1), p. 530.

5 Ibid, p. 172.

6 Mt, 3, 11

7 John 7, 38

8 St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Homily XXXII, 1, p. 151.

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works for our salvation, but we receive the gift in other ways as well, because, in the Mysteries, the gift appears only as a secondary purpose and effect.

From the Eastern Fathers, from their works, we see that all God's works are grace in creation, providence, and redemption. Each Person of the Holy Trinity has in part His work, the man approaching grace according to his capacities.

2. Uncreated Energies - theological definition in Holy Scripture and Church Tradition up to St. Gregory Palamas

By “God's uncreated energies” we can understand all the works of God through which He works and has worked since the creation of the seen and unseen world. Through divine energies, He moves, the entirety of His creation moves, while He remains unchanged, and, at the same time, motionless. Through these energies, God moves His creation and moves, while remaining still and unchanging. The divine energies have their source in the divine communion of the three hypostases of the Holy Trinity. With the help of the uncreated energies, man partakes of the divine gift and not of Himself, His Being remaining untouched by His creation, whether seen or unseen.

God's uncreated energies can also be called works of God. To understand them, man must understand and know that in God these energies of the Holy Spirit are many and innumerable, but we can know some of them, such as: "His all-creating and boundless power"⁹ , "His all-knowing power"¹⁰ ; "His all-sanctifying power".¹¹ Another power is "His all-seeing power"¹² , another is "His all-comprehending power" and another is "His revelation according to the word: He who nourishes the whole body...".¹³ These energies spring from God's Being, and through them, God offers His uncreated gifts to the whole creation, working in many ways.

One of the divine energies, of the uncreated energies, is the grace of the Holy Spirit that we Christians receive through the Sacrament of Baptism when we become "children of God"¹⁴ . Through the grace of the Holy Spirit, we humans, receive adoption following the gift, which reaches us through God's all-sanctifying energy. We, humans, have no way to receive God's being, only grace, as our godly father St. John Chrysostom states "God is not sent, but grace. Not the Spirit flows from grace, but grace flows from the Spirit"¹⁵ .

By the sins, we commit in our daily lives, whether grave or light, we take away the gifts of the Most Holy Spirit. To recover and regain the gifts we have lost because of the multitude of sins we have committed, we must turn our hearts back to faith in God, to be truly sorry for all that we have done wrong, so that through God's all-sanctifying energy, His boundless love and through his mercy shown to us, we should regain the gifts of the Holy Spirit that we have lost. Otherwise, “if the Christian remains in heavy sins and does not turn by repentance and good works to the Best God, such a one remains in damnation and darkness from the gift of God. For God does not save a man with shame, for He is not a door breaker.”

16

9 Psalms 32, 6 and 13

10 I Kings 2:3; Job 9:4 and 12-13

11 Isaiah 57:15; Jeremiah 1:5; Galatians 1:12

12 Psalm 32, 13

13 Psalm 135. 25

14 Titus 3:3-5; John 3:1

15 St. Gregory Palamas, Philokalia VII, Bucharest, 1977, p. 218;

16 Revelation 3, 20

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The greatest fathers and enlighteners, such as Saint Hierophant Basil the Great, Saint Hierophant Gregory, the Speaker of God, Saint Hierophant John the Mouth and Words of Gold, Saint Hierophant Athanasius the Great, who lived before Saint Gregory Palamas, believed that

“the uncreated energies of God are works and completion of His characteristics”¹⁷ . The work of uncreated energies works in the world through the gift of the Holy Spirit and through the other gifts that flow from Him because both grace and gifts that spring from him are the divine energies of God. “God's wisdom and omniscience are also His perfect energies”. ¹⁸ “Both God's wisdom and his providence are uncreated divine energies, and God works beyond the mind of man according to His will and plans unknown to us” ¹⁹.

Ever since Genesis, God's all-creating power works in people, then follows providence and the other energies of God. “And the gift of the Most Holy Spirit, by which man becomes a son of God, he receives when he is baptized in the name of the Most Holy Trinity”²⁰.

3. God's connection with creation through uncreated energies

Angels, like humans, were created by God, and in turn, they benefit from His countless energies, such as holiness and wisdom, as well as many of His other energies, just as we do. All His creation enjoys one or more of His energies because God is uncircumscribed, He is everywhere and He is in all that can be grasped and in all that cannot be grasped. Just as Satan is in the sky and he is unharmed, although God is present, so it is with sin which is in the soul of men together with the gift of God. They do not mix, because darkness cannot mingle with light and purity with wickedness. "Therefore with God, there is no hypostatic evil since He is not defiled by anything"²¹ . "The energies of God which are in devils form His all- subduing power, for devils can do nothing without the will and permission of God" ²².

St. Dionysius the Areopagite expresses the existence of God very beautifully thus:

"God is all in everything and in nobody is He nothing. And of all things, He is known to all, and out of nothing to none"²³ . The mystery of this statement is revealed to people through cataphatic theology (i.e. affirmative), but also through apophatic theology (i.e. negative).

When our mind is directed towards the Creator, then we speak of cataphatic theology, calling God "Wise, Good, Light, Sun, Air, Fire and all that is, being the cause of them"²⁴ . From the moment that the mind ascends and with the spirit to the Creator of all and will find that He is

17 Pr. Prof. Ioan Bria, Dictionary of Orthodox Theology, E. I. B. M. B. O. R., Bucharest, 1981, p. 141-143;

18 I Kings 2:3; Job 12:13; Ps 8:14

19 Jeremiah 32:19; I Corinthians 1:21

20 Titus 3:3-5; I John 1:2; Acts 2:38

21 St. Macarius the Egyptian, Word 16, in "Homilies", translated from the Greek by Macarius Hieromonk, Bucharest, 1775/2009, p. 147.

22 John 1:12-13; 2:4-7; II Corinthians 1:12

23 St. Dionysius Areopagite, On the Divine Appointments, chap. 7; in, The Complete Works and Studies of St.

Maxim the Confessor, translation, introduction, and notes by Pr. Dumitru Stăniloae, edited by Constanța Costea, Paideia Publishing House, Bucharest, 1996, p. 189.

24 St. Dionysius Areopagite, On the Divine Appointments, chap. 7; in, The Complete Works and Scolios of St.

Maxim the Confessor, translation, introduction and notes by Pr. Dumitru Stăniloae, edited by Constanța Costea, Paideia Publishing House, Bucharest, 1996, p. 189.

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without likeness to all His creation, then we speak of apophatic theology, calling God “with doubt and covetousness above wisdom and goodness”²⁵ .

St. John Damascene states that no creation of God can touch and reach the being of God: “God thus created the spiritual world, that is, the angels and all the heavenly hoards, and it is clear that they have a spiritual and incorporeal nature in comparison to matter, for only the Godhead is truly non-material and incorporeal. God then creates man with His own hands out of seen and unseen nature, in His image and likeness. He made the body out of the earth, and the rational and thinking soul He gave it through His breath"²⁶ .

Also St. John Damascene says: "This we call in man the divine image, for the words 'in his likeness' show likeness to God in virtue, as much as is possible. Body and soul were made simultaneously and not first one and then the other, as Origen wrongly pointed out. The Holy Fathers say that man is made by God as another God by gift, not by being"²⁷ .

4. Grace and uncreated energies in the work of St. Gregory Palamas

In the fourth volume of the Palamas critical edition, Apanta era edited by P. Christou, we find the Letters of St. Gregory Palamas from the period of the dogmatic disputes (1341 - 1358), which were formulated for his opponents, and especially for those who shared the same faith, and for his friends. Some of these letters are addressed to monks, in which St Gregory presents in a concise and accessible style all his arguments against his opponents, the Varlaamites and Akindyists. This enhances their entire apologetic value, but, in particular, it helps us today to understand and know the truth about dogmatic disputes, about their role in the age, about the extent of the struggles and polemics that arose in the bosom of the Church, and about the impact that all these dogmatic disputes had on the conscience of the people of that time. Some of the Letters were also written to some people who were more hesitant about the true path of faith. These Letters played an important role in the return to the true faith of St. Nicholas Cabasilas, who was at first attracted to Varlaam, who was considered intellectual and rational, and later came to the true faith, thus becoming one of the most enthusiastic confessors of Hesychasm. There is a possibility that the Theophanes dialogue was dedicated to him.

These letters that have come down to us are real living documents, which testify to and reflect the intensity of the controversies and polemics surrounding hesychastic theology, and if we look at it from a certain point of view, we will see that they are much more accessible than certain treatises, such as the Triads. Equally important, the Letters also present us with the context and circumstances in which these disputes took place, highlighting the personality of St Gregory and sketching the spiritual profile of that period.

The first letter was addressed to Monk Arsenius, at the Stoudion Monastery, who at first had the same reaction as St. Nicholas Cabasilas, but then in the face of the testimonies of the Holy Fathers, he felt the anti-hesychastic wandering. Monk Arsenius is called by St.

Gregory the Hierarch "the wise of God" and was "a cultivated monk, himself the author of smaller works which have not been preserved"²⁸ .

25 St. Dionysius the Areopagite, On the Divine Appointments, chap. 7; in, The Complete Works and Scolios of St. Maxim the Confessor, translation, introduction and notes by Pr. Dumitru Stăniloae, edited by Constanța Costea, Paideia Publishing House, Bucharest, 1996, p. 189.

26 St. John Damascene, Dogmatics, translation, introduction and notes by Pr. Prof. Dumitru Fecioru, E. I. B. M.

B.O. R., Bucharest, 2004, p. 58 - 59

27 Ibid, p. 60.

28 St. Gregory Palamas, VII Philokalia, p. 207 - 208

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5. Uncreated energies - paradoxes and clarifications of the Holy Fathers in the view of modern theologians

The content of the letter speaks of and clarifies one of the most sensitive subjects concerning the teaching of divine energies, more precisely it speaks about the question of deity, about the relationship between the Holy Spirit and divine energies, also answering a series of questions about the existence of one or more energies, about the relation between unity-uniqueness-difference, about the problem of "ditheism". St Gregory offers these clarifications with the help of the writings of the great Holy Fathers (St Basil the Great, Dionysius the Areopagite, St Gregory the Theologian, St Athanasius the Great, St Gregory of Nyssa). He sought the answers in their works because all the Holy Fathers from Dionysius the Areopagite to Gregory of Nyssa speak, inspired by the Holy Spirit, of a single common divinity of the divine hypostases, calling it in other places uncreated divine energy, it characterizing divine nature. Regardless of the expression we use, St. Gregory Palamas affirms, starting from the text of St. Dionysius' Divine Appointments, without any hermeneutical addition, that "energy/godhood is transcendent and exclusively characterizes the relationship and the way of being of the divine nature and the Holy Trinity"²⁹ . Existent energy is not one hidden in itself but communicates with creation through various ways and experiences, all starting from love for creation and the desire to have communion together and rejoice together, to be partakers of its life through touching and uniting with the energies of the Holy Spirit who, "by this ekstasis, in no way loses the quality of being uncreated, transcendent, unitary and communitarian, but being distributed hierarchically, and therefore differentiated and manifold from a differentiated and manifold being. In this space of energetic manifestations in the multiple and diverse created world, we can speak of several energies of the Spirit, which, descending to our likeness, embrace the entirety of creation, uniting with it by the ennobling and beneficent grace of perfect "autarchy" and "thearchy", and thus knowing in itself neither composition nor division"³⁰ .

Jacques Lison did not understand this distinction and therefore, in his book L 'Esprit répandu, he misunderstands and writes that the Son and the Holy Spirit are only "simple energies of the Father", attributing to St. Gregory Palamas a purely Akindynist expression, to the horror of the saint, in our translation referring to Akindyn and all those who followed his writings, associating to them expressions (κακωδωξας)³¹ which are not found in the texts of the Saint. The one who contradicted the teaching of uncreated energies and claimed that the only energies that could be born from nature were only the Son and the Spirit was Akindyn³² . Thus, he forced St. Gregory to send countless refutations and writings to meet his assertions, while also sending him very many anathematisms, rendered by Synodal Tomes I and II.

According to St. Cyril of Alexandria, it speaks of nature and the fact that nature cannot exist without a hypostasis in the dialogue On the Holy Trinity³³ . St. Gregory responds to Akindyn and makes some points that clearly explain the sense in which we can speak of the Son and the Spirit as powers, works, and energies of the Father: 'if the Spirit is also sometimes called grace, it is because He is the cause of grace. Or if the Son and the Spirit are sometimes called

29 Pr. Prof. Dumitru Stăniloae, op. cit., p. 55

30 St. Gregory Palamas, The Seventh Philokalia, p. 209.

31 Jacques Lison, L 'Esprit Repandu, la pneumatologie de Gregoire Palamas, Cerf, Paris, 1994, p. 144 - 145

32 Dumitru Stăniloae, The Life and Teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas, Scripta Publishing House, Bucharest, 1993, p. 133 - 134.

33 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Writings - Part Three - On the Holy Trinity, in "P.S.B.", vol.40, E.I.B.M.B.O.R., Bucharest, 1994, p. 176

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God's powers or divine works, the Father's powers [as the cause, just as the Spirit is called grace as the cause of grace], they are called as those who do the Father's will, as those who are the source [hence the cause] of the powers and works. But there is also a radical difference between them and powers and works in the literal sense: the Son and the Spirit are self-subsistent (ένυπόστατοι) [no doubt as hypostases, not as energies n.n.] whereas the latter are non-substantial by themselves (ανυπόστατοι). Therefore, whenever the Son and the Holy Spirit are called power, work, or grace, it is always understood that they are self-subsistent [i.e. neither more nor less than hypostases since self-subsistent is the literal translation of gr.

ipostas, n.n.]. All powers and works are common to the three persons. But they are not hypostatic (self-substantial), but emanate from persons not separated from them. This is why St. Gregory always testifies, insisting in almost every treatise, precisely on two attributes of uncreated energy/energies, knowing well the misunderstanding of the Latins, attributes that clear up the whole confusion: ανυπόστατοι και ένυπόστατοι [non-hypostatic and en- hypostasized]. The first term indicates the divine energy identified with the deity, being common to the Holy Trinity, with the note that here deity does not designate the flesh, which is non-hypostatic energy; admitting that it could have its hypostasis, we implicitly admit a fourth hypostasis. But non-hypostatic energy can be en-hypostasized, i.e. manifesting itself in a hypostasis, either divine, according to its idiomatic properties, or human, through union with the human soul, which it makes a partaker of the Holy Spirit, ennobling it"³⁴ .

The terminology that we find in St. Gregory is not hesitant as the same author thinks.

He does not understand Palamite terms and distinctions. The Greek theologian preserves throughout the letter, in an obvious manner, the differences between divine energy and grace, carefully giving them names suited to the designated reality. Thus, we can see that, unlike Lysias, the term "άυθυπόστατος" [de-self-subsistent] is used strictly concerning the uncreated energy, one uncompounded energy belonging to the transcendent plane. Referring to the energies of the Spirit, which have their source in the Holy Spirit and are distributed through him, the saint no longer uses the term "άυθυπόστατος", since it is "not possible that the manifestations of the energies and the gift of the Holy Spirit be self-subsistent, but they subsist precisely through the gift of the Holy Spirit, without losing their uncreated character through the loss of the gift itself"³⁵ .

Conclusions

In conclusion, we state that the teaching of God's uncreated energies and His Being is necessary and fundamental to Orthodoxy.

The teaching of divine energies has also been called the theology of grace in Eastern churches. It is well known that a very important contribution to Theology was made by Father Professor Dumitru Stăniloae, who also pointed out in this past century that "the true distinction between the divine being, absolutely unknowable and impossible to share, and the uncreated divine powers or energies is at the basis of an authentic theology"³⁶ . He highlighted all these aspects starting from the doctrine of St. Gregory Palamas.

34 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Writings - Part Three - On the Holy Trinity, in "P.S.B.", vol.40, E.I.B.M.B.O.R., Bucharest, 1994, p. 176-177.

35 St. Cyril of Alexandria, Writings - Part Three - On the Holy Trinity, in "P.S.B.", vol.40, E.I.B.M.B.O.R., Bucharest, 1994, p. 176-177.

36 Dumitru Stăniloae, The Life and Teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas, Scripta Publishing House, Bucharest, 1993, p. 133 - 135.

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The synods of the fourteenth century truly demonstrated that the existence of being in God is unknowable and inaccessible, with only cognizable energy being accessible to the vision of improved Christians. These synods formed the basis of the dogmatic theology of the knowledge of God that can be achieved through pure prayer, while also resolving the contradictions regarding the cognoscibility and unknowability of God.

In God there coexists a triple distinction between, and not a separation of, Person, Being, and Energy, with Person in the foreground. In Palamite's thought "God is called light not by His essence, but by His energy", says St Gregory Palamas (Against Achindin). He also coexists with the divine Being, work, and hypostasis. These differences do not divide God, as the opponents of St. Gregory Palamas thought. Without this distinction between a divine being and uncreated divine energies, man's relationship to God cannot be understood, man and God remaining two parallel and independent existences that never meet.

After St. Gregory's departure to heaven on November 13, 1359, he was canonized by the Church of Constantinople in 1368, thus declaring his teaching to be Orthodox, and thus, Hesychasm became the official doctrine of the Eastern Church, which then spread throughout the Orthodox East. It is for this reason that on the second Sunday of Lent, we celebrate the memory of St Gregory Palamas and his Orthodox teaching.

References

[1] Bible or Holy Scripture, E.I.B.M.B.O.R., Bucharest, 1995;

[2] Dumitru Stăniloae, The Life and Teaching of Saint Gregory Palamas, Scripta Publishing House, Bucharest, 1993,

[3] Gianina Chirugu, George Daniel Petrov, Models of Christian social work, Technium Social Sciences Journal, 36(1), 523–531, 2022, https://doi.org/10.47577/tssj.v36i1.7536, [4] Jacques Lison, L 'Esprit Repandu, la pneumatologie de Gregoire Palamas, Cerf, Paris, 1994,

[5] Pr. Prof. Dr. Dumitru Stăniloae, Orthodox Dogmatic Theology, vol. 2, 2nd edition, IBMBOR Publishing House, Bucharest, 1997,

[6] Pr. Prof. Ioan Bria, Dictionary of Orthodox Theology, E. I. B. M. B. O. R., Bucharest, 1981,

[7] St. Cyril of Alexandria, Writings - Part Three - On the Holy Trinity, in "P.S.B.", vol.40, E.I.B.M.B.O.R., Bucharest, 1994,

[8] St. Dionysius Areopagite, On the Divine Appointments, chap. 7; in, The Complete Works and Studies of St. Maxim the Confessor, translation, introduction, and notes by Pr.

Dumitru Stăniloae, edited by Constanța Costea, Paideia Publishing House, Bucharest, 1996, [9] St. Gregory Palamas, Philokalia VII, Bucharest, 1977,

[10] St. John Chrysostom, Commentary on the Gospel of John, Homily XXXII, Vol. I, [11] St. John Chrysostom, Homilies on the Book of Genesis, Homily IV, I, in PSB, vol. 21, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 2001,

[12] St. John Chrysostom, Word on the Resurrection of the Dead, VIII, in vol. Sermons on the feasts of the Emperor and words of praise to the saints, EIBMBOR, Bucharest, 2004, [13] St. John Damascene, Dogmatics, translation, introduction and notes by Pr. Prof.

Dumitru Fecioru, E. I. B. M. B.O. R., Bucharest, 2004,

[14] St. Macarius the Egyptian, Word 16, in "Homilies", translated from the Greek by Macarius Hieromonk, Bucharest, 1775/2009.