The Monk, who did not Repudiate a Vision, Became Possessed

“The Great Watch”. From the private diary of Hieroschemamonk Jerome.

Father Ephrem in spiritual delusion

Fr. Ephrem, a native of Don, came to our monastery being already a mature man, and since he in the world had his own ship and was familiar with seamanship, the monastery ship was entrusted to him, where he worked hard for several years. He was an attentive monk who had accepted the image of repentance, he prayed diligently to God for the abandonment of his sins in the world. In this mood of spirit, he accepted imperceptibly a temptation from the enemy to find out, whether God had forgiven him for his sins or not. As a result, he became keen to see any sign of his absolution, but did not feel the need to first consult his spiritual father on this important matter. Having received such a proud and presumptuous compulsion from the enemy, he began to pray hard for it, while the enemy prepared him for acceptance of the delusion by tricking him with such manner.

Liberation from the Delusion of the False Desire for Martyrdom

"The Great Watch". The cell notes of Hieromonk Jerome.

Once he [the monk Paisius] came to me for confession and said: “Father! I have a great desire to become a martyr, bless me to go to Thessaloniki or to Smyrna to be tormented for Christ, I really want this, my heart burns day and night, everything draws me to lay down my life for Christ.” Hearing this from him, I was surprised and asked him: “Where did such a strange thought come to you from? What is this for?” “So that,” he answered, “Firstly, by these means I can sooner be saved, and secondly, I will be forever in the rank of martyrs who are most glorified in the Kingdom of God. That’s why I want to be a martyr.” I told him a lot from the Scriptures regarding this; I tried to convince him that every Christian, especially a monk, should be ready, if necessary, to sacrifice his life for God, and this is Christian selflessness. But we are forbidden to go into temptations without permission, but, on the contrary, we are commanded to pray so that we are not led into temptation. “And you,” I continued, “you needlessly dare to do such a terrible thing. Your desire is correct, but bringing it into practice is not God-pleasing and it is very dangerous for your salvation because of the weakness of our nature. Remember the example of Peter the Apostle, and besides him, there were many unfortunate examples of people who dared for such a great thing without a high calling and could not stand the torment and fell away from Christ. It can easily happen to you.” But he was little convinced by my exhortations. After our conversation with him, the thought of martyrdom bothered him for more than a year, and he himself did not understand that it was not the love of God that attracted him to martyrdom, but his love for himself, in order to become famous and in order to surpass others. And this idea was born in him from a misunderstanding of the essence of selflessness. But, when I invited him to make sure by his own experience in small and even insignificant matters of the difficulty of selflessness, or of cutting off his own will, then he was quite convinced that cutting off his will is a true torment.

The Thought "from God" Began Dictating what to Do

From the book of Hieromonk Joachim (Sabelnikov) "The Great Watch".

Own cell notes of hieromonk Jerome Solomentsov. The events before the death of the monk Claudius.

Monk Claudius was a native of the Kherson Governorate, Nikolayevsky district, a son of an Orthodox peasant; his secular name was Kodrat Ivanovich Moshkov. When he was 20 years old, he asked his parents for allowing him to become a monk, and after receiving their blessing, he went to Jerusalem in 1864 and lived there at the Russian mission for three years, performing the duties of a church reader in the mission’s church. Tired of the local rumor, he left Jerusalem and went to Athos, where he decided to join the Russian monastery of St. Panteleimon, and there he performed various obediences: he was an archondar (the monk helping to accommodate guests of the monastery), sang in the choir, wrote commemorative lists. Later, he was sent to Constantinople, where he stayed at the metochion. Tested with monastic obediences carried out by him well and flawlessly, he was tonsured to the lesser schema and named Claudius during the Great Lent of 1871 before his departure to Constantinople. At the end of 1873, he was transferred from Constantinople to a monastery, where he began as usual, with the blessing of the elders, to go to the choir, where he was an assistant to the senior choir singer, and during his free time from worship services, he continued to record names in commemoration lists. Thus, he lived quietly and calmly, continuing to perform the monastic obediences assigned to him until the beginning of 1876, and at the beginning of that year, he fell into great temptation from the lack of advice and concealing his thoughts, and this happened in the way described below.