Is there any reason to consider Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) a hesychast?

Abstract

The article is devoted to the involvement of additional resources and methods in the research of the spiritual heritage of Archimandrite John (Krestyankin). New opportunities open up when Fr. John’s ascetic and pastoral experience is put in connection with the Hesychast tradition. The Hesychast contextualization of Fr. John’s experience is carried out through the analysis of the facts of his biography — for a long time he received spiritual care from priests associated with such hesychastic centers as Optina Pustyn’ and Glinskaya Pustyn’ (Hegumen John Sokolov, Venerable Serafim Romantsov). Archimandrite John had personal communication with the hesychastic elders: St. George Kossov the Confessor, Venerable Simeon of Pskovo-Pechersky Monastery, Valaam elder Luke (Zemskov), etc. The candidate dissertation written by Fr. John was dedicated to Hesychast St. Seraphim of Sarov. In his dissertation Fr. John managed to reveal some characteristic features of such a hesychastic phenomenon as Russian eldership (the ability to combine the feat of unceasing prayer and spiritual care of the flock; eldership as cocrucifixion with Christ, the highest form of sacrificial pastoral love). In his sermons and letters, Fr. John often appeals to the hesychasts: St. Anthony the Great, St. John of the Ladder, St. Isaac the Syrian, St. Gregory Palamas. The hesychastic contextualization of Archimandrite John’s legacy allows us to study his personal spiritual experience, so that the fruits of prayer in Fr. John can be interpreted in the context of the teachings of St. Barsanuphius of Optina on the stages of non-distracting, inner and spiritual prayer. This teaching and experience of Fr. John can be put in correspondence with the stages of mental, mental heart-felt, self-moving prayer and, possibly, higher hesychastic stages.