THE PRIESTLY

August 27

From the Prologue

Kuksha and Pimen were both monks in the Monastery of the Caves in Kiev. Kuksha, with success, preached the Gospel to the Wallachians and baptized them. One day, pagans attacked him and slew him along with his disciple. At that moment, Pimen the Faster was standing during the church service in the Monastery of the Caves and, seeing in the spirit the death of Kuksha his disciple and companion, cried out: "Today, our brother Kuksha was slain for the Holy Gospel." Saying this, he himself gave up the spirit in the year 1113 A.D.

HYMN OF PRAISE

VENERABLE PIMEN [POEMEN] THE GREAT OF PALESTINE

Venerable Pimen, depth of wisdom,

And a great torch of Christ's light,

From the time when he put the world of vanity behind him

No one does he reprimand, no one does he reproach

Once, before Pimen, the brethren quarreled

But Pimen remained silent. Some reprimanded him:

How do you listen to the quarreling and, to you, everything is the same?

Pimen replied: I have died a long time ago. -

How can I be saved someone asked of him

That my mind, after devilish slander, does not wander?

Upon boiling water, flies do not land -

And, from a warm soul, the devils flee. -

Someone else said: What is more certain:

The speech of your brethren or silence?

By one and the other, God is glorified,

For the sake of the glory of God choose one for yourself.

How can one defend himself from evil?

Evil does not permit itself to be defeated by evil

To one who is evil, strive to do something good,

That will inflame even his heart.

One does not build his home by destroying someone else's home.

There, the third one benefits, and the third one is the devil.

Two wicked passions, poison our souls,

Freedom we do not have while they suffocate us:

Pleasures of the flesh and worldly vanity,

Free from them is only the holy soul.




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