And They Disappeared – Extreme Humility

Sometime in the year 421 or 530, an utterly obscure woman from Egypt fell asleep in the desert of the Holy Land. Her burial place was intentionally unmarked and remains unknown. However, every year in the Orthodox Church, she is remembered by the name of Mary of Egypt and her life (written by St. Sophronios in the 7th century) is read in the Church. One of the Sundays of Great Lent is dedicated to her memory. She is an example of the many thousands of monastics whose lives and spiritual feats remain unknown to the world in which we live. That we know nothing about them makes no difference. And they, of all people, were comfortable with that anonymity.

In the wonderful novel, Laurus, Russian author,  Eugene Vodolazkin creates the character of a Holy Fool. Modeled on a variety of persons scattered across Orthodox history, his fool, Laurus, dies in obscurity, falsely accused of a crime. Though vindicated after his death, he left instructions that his body was to be dragged into the forest and forgotten. He doesn’t even request a burial.

In the Sunday Liturgy, Orthodox Churches that follow Slavic practice, sing, “Remember us, O Lord, when you come into Your Kingdom.” There is within that prayer the subtle suggestion that such memory is the only one that matters. I can think of nothing that negates the claims of a secular world more than such a sentiment.

Faced with the threats of Roman power, Christ said to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.” (John 18:36) This, however, is not Christ saying that this world does not matter. The hidden message within His response to Pilate is that His kingdom, though not of this world, is even now entering into this world. It is in light of this kingdom alone that all history will be judged. What Rome is able to do does not matter because the kingdom of God cannot be altered or erased by anything in this world.

That understanding formed the substance of the faith of the martyrs. There is nothing that the powers of this world can do against the kingdom of God. Nothing.

It has become popular in many circles to give place to certain secular claims. We are told be many well-meaning Christians that political action is important. Christians, in sufficient numbers can accomplish great good: write good laws, address injustice, make the world a better place. I know the arguments. I’ve rehearsed them and pondered them for years.

And then there is St. Mary of Egypt. There are the many, many thousands (millions?) of saints unnamed through the ages. Virtually all of them are nowhere to be found on the Church’s calendar other than the feast of All Saints. There is an unwritten belief, rehearsed from time to time, that at any given moment of history, God sustains the universe in existence through the prayers of but three individuals (I’ve seen various small numbers used in this saying). I believe it to be so. I know that my feeble prayers are not numbered among the three. However, I also believe that all prayer, on some level, participates in the power credited to those three.

We do not see nor do we know or remember the good things God has prepared for those who love Him. We all live in obscurity whether we know it or not. To be known of God and remembered by Him is the only true existence.

Remember us, O Lord, when You come into Your kingdom!

About Fr. Stephen Freeman

Fr. Stephen is a retired Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in America. He is also author of Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, and Face to Face: Knowing God Beyond Our Shame, as well as the Glory to God podcast series on Ancient Faith Radio.



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15 responses to “And They Disappeared – Extreme Humility”

  1. Patricia Avatar
    Patricia

    After I read Laurus I told my kids that I when I die … “just drag my body out to the lower 40 and let the crows do with me what they will.”
    They didn’t think that was very funny and thought me quite foolish for even suggesting such a thing.
    I love the story of St Mary of Egypt. To think that wild lions dug her a grave. How beautiful. Looking forward to tonight’s service.

  2. Glennis Moriarty Avatar
    Glennis Moriarty

    Thank you Father. That answers the question…What should I do!? as we face the problems of our age. The answer ( I think we knew it already) is pray. To really pray, with love and conviction, can be the hardest thing of all. It is so much easier to become a raging activist. Sadly.

  3. Esmée Noelle Covey Avatar
    Esmée Noelle Covey

    The radical repentance demonstrated by Venerable Mary of Egypt (and other Orthodox saints) fascinates me. I don’t think it is something a person decides to do, but something that happens because of an inner grace they receive as a gift of God that makes it impossible for them to NOT leave everything and follow Christ. I admit to feeling jealous of this absolute kind of conversion, often wishing I could experience something like this myself. But alas… However, it is a comforting thought that whatever contribution we may offer to Christ with our paltry prayers, it may get added to those of the Prayer Giants who help sustain the universe.

  4. Michelle Avatar
    Michelle

    Beautiful. Thank you.

    Michelle

  5. Lisa K Avatar
    Lisa K

    Yes, and I think I know who they are………. They are the Priest, the Deacon and the Chanter….. The same ones praying the Divine Liturgy.

  6. Colin Reeve Avatar
    Colin Reeve

    This really helped me today. Thank you x

  7. Travis Wade ZINN Avatar

    Thank you for your insightful article – I very much enjoyed Eugene Vodolazkin’s The Aviator and have his Laurus queued up in Audible now – I appreciate you drawing attend to the lost, forgotten and unknown Saints, for whom I dedicated my own book. One day I’ll get back over to visit you in Oak Ridge, I enjoyed our discussion of Gregory Palamas and the excellent church lunch!

  8. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Travis,
    Many thanks. I have moved, btw, and am now living in Greenville, SC, and am attached as a retired priest to St. John of the Ladder Orthodox Church. A bit further, but you’d always be welcome!

  9. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Esmée,
    You’re right regarding grace. Nothing is possible without it. Incidentally, I believe that our secular mindset blinds us to the work of grace. There’s really no split between nature and grace the way it came to be imagined. Everything is filled with grace and nothing would nor could exist apart from it. We breathe grace. We eat grace. In prayer we align ourselves with grace and discover what is possible.

    I particularly love the parts of Mary of Egypt’s story when she told of her struggles with lust and the desire for alcohol. She would lie down and pray, begging God to take it away…sometimes for as long as three days! And then, the ecstasy would come.

  10. Matthew Avatar
    Matthew

    My mother-in-law died about 4 weeks ago. She was a lifelong Protestant who believed in God.

    Both at the funeral and in the weeks which have proceeded since, we have tried as a family to remember Ingrid; the woman she was and the good, true and beautiful things she said and did.

    Is this misplaced according to Orthodox thinking?

  11. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Matthew,
    Not misplaced at all! The Orthodox prayer for the departed is always, “May their memory be eternal!” We are specifically asking God to remember them. To be remembered by God is to truly exist. So, we also rightly pray, “Lord, remember me today when you come into your Kingdom.”

    Such a memorial makes all of our merely human efforts at memory (which are perfectly natural and ok) to be revealed as passing shadows. We remember them…but who will remember when we’re gone? These saints could “disappear” because they utterly trusted God to remember them.

    I don’t of any Church that commemorates the departed as much as the Orthodox. We have a service on the 3rd day after death, on the 9th, on the 40th, and then annually. At least those are the services found in our books. It’s also quite common to have a service (pannikhida) offered every day for the first 40 days.

    One of the Churches at the monastery of Valaam was endowed by a royal to offer prayers for all the Russian soldiers who perished in WWI. There are monks who (in rotation) continually offer prayers, reciting the millions of names, day and night, perpetually. Interesting.

  12. Ook Avatar
    Ook

    Father, you wrote (in 2010), in the post “Just the Shell”, that “the person is body and soul. For this very reason the Orthodox faith is careful in its teaching regarding the honor that is due to the body even in death.”
    Somehow I remembered that. Soon after, Laurus came out, I read it, was (and am) still confused about the ending, with his “instructions that his body was to be dragged into the forest and forgotten”. And this was a Holy Fool, in my mind, a saint. This seems to contradict what I imagine would be the honor that is due to the body even in death.

  13. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Ook,
    Yes, it is a voluntary “dishonoring.” It’s not a model of Christian burial – it’s a yet more extreme example of asceticism. If a family were, of their own will, to treat the body in such a manner, it would be wrong. We are right to properly honor the body.

    There’s an interesting book that I highly recommend called A Christian Ending, by Fr. Deacon Mark and Elizabeth Barna. It has been much used by a number of Orthodox parishes (particularly among converts) to recover older, Orthodox customs. I’ve been to many funerals now where the casket was a simple pine box, sometimes painted with Orthodox prayers. But at these funerals, there’s often no embalming, etc. It’s quite interesting. The modern funeral business stepped in as the older customs disappeared, particularly in America. A number of our parishes over here now have burial ministries – volunteers who assist with the preparation of the body, etc.

    I suspect my own funeral will be of that nature.

  14. Dee of St Herman Avatar
    Dee of St Herman

    Ook and Father,
    If I remember correctly, the beautiful ending in Laurus, even though seeming extreme in the dragging of his body, the village people followed his body as it was dragged to the forest. Again, if I remember correctly, the village people were lamenting his passing. Even in his extreme humility, in the end after his death, in tears the village people honored him.

  15. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Dee,
    Absolutely! Orthodox faithful love and care for the bodies of the faithful. I wonder if such a request (as in Laurus) would have been respected in reality –

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