Father Arseny 1893-1973 Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father.

This is one of Thy mysteries, Lord, which we people -- the slaves of sin -- cannot understand. This mystery is Thine. Thy ways are inscrutable. Thou alone knowest the path of each human life; our duty is to simply do good in Thy name, to walk in the statutes of the Gospel, and to pray to Thee. Then the forces of evil will be overcome. For where two or three are gathered in Thy name, there are also shalt Thou be. Have mercy on me, O Lord, according to thy abundant mercy, and forgive me my despair, my weakness and my wavering.

Father Arseny 1893-1973 Priest, Prisoner, Spiritual Father.

Father Arseny is a rich literary tapestry of the live of a Russian Orthodox priest who survived the Stalin death camps and became a spiritual guide to hundreds of people over the course of his long life. The book is organized uniquely: the first half is a memoir of Father Arseny, formerly known as Piotr Andreysevich Streltzov, and his travails as a secret Christian in Stalin's Soviet regime -- both before, during and after imprisonment in the notorious Soviet Gulag (prison network). The second half catalogue, in random and brief fashion, stories of his "spiritual children" that relate both to their Soviet experiences as well as their relationship with Father Arseny. It is therefore an easy book to pick up and read in short intervals as it more or less a series of short essays connected by the twin themes of Soviet repression and Father Arseny

As the defining experience in Father Arseny's life was his imprisonment in Gulag, it helps to be familiar beforehand with it. Previously, I spent the better part of six months trudging through Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago. That background made gave me a familiarity with Father Arseny that I could not have had otherwise. Both Solzhenitsyn and Father Arseny were "zeks" -- political prisoners in Soviet prison during the same time period. Many of their experiences, at least as they relate to prison life and such, are also similar. One difference that stands out is that Father Arseny handled the Gulag better than Solzhenitsyn. Solzhenitsyn's view was more human, more angry, and more biting whereas Father Arseny's memoir records many of the things but he is kinder and gentler in his recollections. The difference that separates them is Father Arseny's spiritual maturity and understanding of redemptive suffering .

I am the first to admit that I am a Russophile. The Russian people have long fascinated me and I find that greatest literary writers are Russian. As such, I have spent a good part of my reading life exploring those works. Father Arseny fits nicely as an sublime example of Russian piety, which, in my estimation, has much in common with devout Roman Catholicism. I do not find it accidental at all that Our Lady's apparition at Fatima zeroed in on the Russian people: their national importance in the divine economy makes perfect sense to me if for no other reason that no people, it seems to me, have embodied both the worst and best of human understanding. They are simultaneous brutish and gracious, demonic and angelic, and great sinners or saints. And like the immense territory they hold, their national Schizophrenia is likewise immense.

The attributes of the Russia that I love -- the Orthodox Russian -- do not stem from its Orthodoxy per se; rather it is in spite of it. If one sets aside the irrational antipathy that animates Orthodoxy against Catholicism and focuses on what the Orthodox teaches and how it strives towards perfection, one can immediately recognize the blood of Catholicism coursing through the Orthodox body. While impossible to quantify, Orthodoxy in devout practice is extremely similar to devout Catholicism in practice. What I love therefore in the Russian is his latent Catholicism -- even if he does not know it.

All of that said, it is impossible to ignore the antipathy that the Orthodox have for Catholicism. In almost all of my Russian reading, there is almost a stock reference to the West that devout Orthodox characters make -- it is nearly always the same in terms of its overall negative assertion. They always find a reason, apropos to nothing, to denigrate Roman Catholicism. One could go so far to say that it is a defining characteristic of Orthodoxy that they are not Catholics. Many of their "saints" are measured by the degree of their vitriol against Roman Catholicism. Indeed, it is virtually impossible for a serious Orthodox Christian to admit the sanctity of the great Catholic saints. My experience in reading Catholic works is that you almost never encounter the same -- Catholicism, as it were, is not vindicated at the expense of Orthodoxy and Catholics can readily admit the heroic virtues of certain Orthodox Christians (albeit not found in their rabid anti-Catholicism).

For the Orthodox, however, it is almost as if there has been an implicit addendum to the Christian Creed; that is, one must confess that "I am not a Catholic." There is an irony indeed that the Orthodox purport to base their separation from Holy Mother Church is a supposed Western deviation from the Creed when they de facto have amended it. For this reason, i.e., the deeply ingrained and virtually creedal prejudice against Catholicism, as well as its lack of any unifying authority, rapprochement between East and West is virtually impossible. Stated simply, there is no with whom to resolve these issues. But as is anything is possible with God, we should continue to pray for that the schismatic East comes home to Holy Mother Church. The consecration to Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary is a necessary first step.

But if we separate ourselves from this instinctive and knee-jerk anti-Catholicism (which even Father Arseny's memoir apes), we can appreciate a people striving. Father Arseny is a man of God we can appreciate. Unlike many misguided among Orthodox, his holiness as an Christian has little to do with an anti-Catholicism. The book chronicles a series of miracles associated with this priest under severe hardship -- both miraculous conversions and miraculous events. Surviving when he should have died, preaching to those men who were abject murderers or rapists, and converting hardened Soviet officials -- his gentle demeanor and humility disarmed even the most militant atheists. Father Arseny is a testament to the power of the witness of personal and authentic holiness -- more than words, more than deeds and more than heroics. The simple humility and Christian selflessness is the power that that "world" fears. Even reposed in one man, it is like a bright light burning in a sea of darkness; attracting and nurturing the lost souls around it.

I could not help but see many similarities between our great Saint, Padre Pio, and Father Arseny. They lived during the same age, staggering miracles were attributed to them, and they developed a following, even in life, that outstripped what anyone could have reasonably anticipated. St. Padre Pio, however, lived in the bosom of Holy Mother Church, and may, in time, be recognized as one of the most important Saints of all time (I personally believe that). Father Arseny was raised with lies about Holy Mother Church, and, for that, I pray for his soul and those similarly laboring under false views of God's one true Church.

This book is a worthwhile read. It is serviceable primer on the horrors of Gulag and an inspiring read of the power of faith.

Deo Gratias.