Asceticism in the Real World
Videos of My Two Talks at St. Patrick Orthodox Mission, Carrollton, GA
There are stories about monastic saints like St. Anthony the Great and St. Macarius of Egypt (4th c.) who surpassed their monastic brothers in piety and humility. When they thought they could find no “superior” they were sent to the city to find a cobbler or a simple laborer who was their spiritual superior.
We have icons and the hagiographies of St. Anthony and St. Macarius (and others) but we do not even know the names of the persons who surpassed their piety while living "in the world" much less have icons of them. Who were these people? And why do we not have icons of them?
I think the better question is “how did they become those people”?
I was invited by St. Patrick’s Orthodox Mission to speak about “Orthodox asceticism” for the ordinary layperson, a topic dear to me. I’ve written lots of blog posts here and have done several podcasts about this in Steve the Builder .
The two links below are video recordings of the two talks I did on October 26, 2024.
I really enjoyed these talks. Thank you.