BALKAN SAINTS - Mirjana Detelić

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necessities for monks who withdrew to the desert and devoted themselves to hesychia,
retiring inward by ceasing to register the senses, in order to achieve an experiential
knowledge of God, a traditional practice in preparation for Easter, a custom established in
early Syrian and Palestine monasticism (Patrich, 47; on the Lenten regime see Mirkovic
1961, 256-68). Sava of Jerusalem, namesake and model of Sava of Serbia, habitually
spent Lent in the desert (Popovic 1977, 136). Sava‟s hagiographers provide plausible data
which points to the unbroken continuity of ancient practices, for example, the custom for
big cenobitic monasteries to send food to the desert monks, recluses who „fasted for three
or five, or seven days, and each endured the fasting in accordance with his abilities‟. Sava
brought warm loafs to them every Saturday. On that day, the monks would change their
customary „dry eating‟ – restricted to boiled vegetables with no oil – with „comforting‟ –
the same vegetable food, but with oil and wine added. Warm loafs were considered to be
specially alleviating of the effects of fasting (Domentijan, 67-69; Teodosije, 121; see also
comments in Teodosije, 312).
During his stay at Athos, Sava directly experienced the most austere anchorites‟
way of life and Teodosije relates it in detail. These desert-dwellers lived traditionally on
the steep cliffs under the top of Mount Athos. Sava asked for the blessing of his
hegoumenos „to let him see these monasteries and bow to them, and from there to climb
to the top of Athos, and to see how desert fathers live and to have them bless him‟. He
got his permission, as well as an escort of brothers „experienced in these demands of his‟.
It seems that Teodosije felt the urge to accentuate Sava‟s special, privileged status,
because „many, in spite of their great desire, could not easily get permission to see them‟.
Be that as it may, it can be seen from Teodosije‟s story that the event in question was one
of Sava‟s most fundamental experiences. He was deeply impressed by „their most severe
life, and seeing their life of seclusion and stillness, free from disturbance, he wondered,
and rejoiced, and ascended in spirit because he was allowed to see such holy men‟
(Teodosije, 116-17.) Teodosije‟s report should be understood as a synthetic,
programmatic description of the way and purpose of hermit life, but nevertheless the best
documentary testimony of this kind in Serbian medieval hagiography. The anchorites that
Teodosije talks about had chosen solitude and renounced everything that belonged to the
world: „They freed themselves of everything for the sake of God. They did not till the
land, buy necessities for their living, or cultivate vineyards and fields. All they cared for
were prayers, tears, and being close to God in spirit‟. They did not own anything, but
„ascended high above earthly matters by the impulse towards God, [and] were considered
much wealthier than the rich‟. Following the ancient habits of eastern ascetism, they
dwelled in „the fissures of rocks and in the caves of the earth‟, or they had „narrow huts
adorned with grass‟. The most radical lived without shelter, „as birds make their nests on
the rock in the sea, and sat there, whipped by rain and winds, burned by sun and heat,
frozen by winter and frost‟. Like the ancient fathers whose exploits they wished to be
worthy of, they dressed in coarse garments, slept very little, and lived „without any
comfort and without fire smoke‟. Their drink was exclusively spring water, and their food
„depended on [their] abilities, for some of them just a crumb of bread and even this only
seldom, [while] others satisfied themselves with fruits of the trees and with wild
plants‟(Teodosije, 117-118; on the way of life and activities of hermits see: Vööbus 1958,
256-278; Regnault 1990; Spidlik et al.1999).