Non-possessiveness is a trend in the Orthodox Church that appeared in the late 15th - early 16th centuries. The founders of the current are the monks of the Volga region. That is why in some literature it is referred to as the "teaching of the Trans-Volga elders." The guides of this trend preached non-acquisitiveness (selflessness), urged churches and monasteries to refuse material support.
Essence of non-acquisitiveness
The essence of non-possessiveness is the promotion of the inner world of a person, his spiritual strength, and not material we alth. It is the life of the human spirit that is the basis of existence. The followers of the teaching are sure: the improvement of the inner world of a person requires constant work on oneself, the rejection of certain worldly goods. At the same time, nonpossessors advised not to go to extremes, considering complete detachment from the outside world as unacceptable as living in excessive luxury. The vow of non-acquisitiveness - what is it and how can it be interpreted? Giving such a vow, the monk renounces excessive luxury and impurethoughts.
In addition to ideological ideas, the followers of non-covetousness also put forward political views. They opposed the fact that churches and monasteries owned lands and material values. They expressed their views on the state structure and the role of the church in the life of society.
Ideas of non-acquisitiveness and its ideologies. Neil Sorsky
Reverend Neil Sorsky is the main ideologist of non-covetousness. Little information about his life has come down to our time. It is known that he spent several years on the holy Mount Athos, studying the life of the holy fathers. With his heart and mind, he turned this knowledge into a practical guide for his life. Later he founded a monastery, but not an ordinary one, but following the example of the sketes of Athos. Companions of Nil Sorsky lived in separate cells. Their teacher was a model of industriousness and non-covetousness. This implied the instruction of the monks in prayers and spiritual asceticism, for the main feat of the monks is the struggle with their thoughts and passions. After the death of the monk, his relics became famous for many miracles.
Reverend Vassian
In the spring of 1409, a noble prisoner, Prince Vasily Ivanovich Patrikeev, was brought to the Kirillov Monastery. His father, Ivan Yurievich, was not only the head of the boyar duma, a relative of the prince, but also his first assistant. Vasily himself, too, has already managed to show himself as a talented governor and diplomat. He participated in the war with Lithuania, and then in the negotiations that made it possible to conclude a profitable peace.
However, in onemoment, the attitude of the prince towards Vasily Patrikeev and his father changed. Both were accused of high treason. They were saved from the death pen alty by the intercession of the Moscow Metropolitan - right in the shackles, both of them were forcibly tonsured monks. Father was taken to the Trinity Monastery, where he soon died. Vasily was imprisoned in the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery. It was here that the newly minted monk met Nil Sorsky and became a zealous follower of his teaching of non-acquisitiveness. This became the determining factor for the rest of Vasily Patrikeev's life.
Rev. Maxim the Greek
On February 3, the Russian Orthodox Church commemorates St. Maximus the Greek. Mikhail Trivolis (that was his name in the world) was born in Greece, spent his childhood on the island of Corfu, and in the year of the discovery of America he left for Italy. Here he became a monk in a Catholic monastery. But realizing that Catholic learning provides only an external, albeit useful, school, he soon returns to his homeland and becomes an Orthodox monk on Mount Athos. In distant Muscovy, Vasily III is trying to figure out the Greek books and manuscripts of his mother. Basil turns to the Patriarch of Constantinople with a request to send an intelligent translator. The choice falls on Maxim. He travels thousands of miles to cold Russia, not even suspecting how difficult his life will be there.
In Moscow, Maxim Grek also translates the "Explanation of the Psalms" and the book "Acts of the Apostles". But the Slavic language is a non-native language for the translator, and annoying inaccuracies creep into the books, which the spiritual will soon find out about.authorities. The church court imputes these inaccuracies to the translator as damage to books and sends him to prison in the tower of the Volokolamsk monastery. The persecution will last for more than a quarter of a century, but it is loneliness and imprisonment that will make Maxim the Greek a great writer. Only at the end of his life was the monk allowed to live freely and the ecclesiastical prohibition was lifted from him. He was about 70 years old.
