Sophrony d'Essex
1896-1993 20th century Feast day: July 11
The descent into the hell of despair carried through into light, and the name of God held in the depth of the heart.
Who was Sophrony d'Essex?
A Russian painter who passed through agnosticism and the philosophies of the East, he became a monk on Mount Athos under Saint Silouan, whose teaching he gathered and published. Founder of a monastery in the English county of Essex, he wrote on the prayer of the heart and on the human face as the place of God's presence.
In their own words
Keep your mind in hell, and despair not.
Prayer is infinite creation, the supreme art of all the arts.
Man is infinitely precious, for he bears within him the likeness of the Absolute.