Tsolaki

＂ Attentive prayer ... can be compared to the beneficial rain that irrigates a sown field, gives nourishment to the plants and ensures a rich harvest.＂

God’s rich blessings on ＂ the crown of the year＂ can be experienced in their fullness throughout the annual cycle of Church services. This penultimate volume of the Collected Works of St Ignatius (Brianchaninov) contains fifty-two sermons given on Sundays, during Great Lent and Paschatide, and other occasions, including the foundation of a new monastery, and a presentation on the teaching of the Orthodox Church on the Mother of God.

An eclectic translator and compiler of the writings of the ancient desert fathers, St Ignatius not only freely weaves their words into his own preaching, but exhorts his readers to follow their example, so that they too may reap a rich spiritual harvest in this life and in the age to come. Particularly inspired by the writings of St Isaac the Syrian, St Macarius the Great, and St John of the Ladder, he also applies Holy Scripture and liturgical hymnography in his preaching to monastics and laypeople alike.

A towering figure of 19th century monasticism, St Ignatius’s influence has spread far beyond Imperial Russia, inspiring Orthodox Christians around the world in our own times. The Harvest is the last volume of his collected works to be translated into English, representing the completion of a 54-year project to bring his timeless works to a new audience.

Helen Tsolak holds a degree in German and Russian Studies from Manchester University and a Master’s in translation from the University of Kent (Canterbury, UK). She has worked in Germany as a legal translator and at the Ministry of Education, and now lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where she translates on a freelance basis from German and Russian. Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov (1807- 1867) was a prolific author of Orthodox Christian ascetical works. Published toward the end of his life, his writings continued to grow in popularity long after his death. Along with his contemporary, St Theophan the Recluse, St Ignatius is now considered a foremost authority on Orthodox spirituality. He was canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988. His writings have previously appeared in English as The Arena and On the Prayer of Jesus, among other works.