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TKW's avatar

Some fun excerpts from Prodigal Saint that give color to Fr John and the world he was moving in:

http://sublimitynow.blogspot.com/2012/02/was-it-chain-letters-in-19th-century.html

http://sublimitynow.blogspot.com/2012/02/important-buckwheat-kasha-endorsement.html

http://sublimitynow.blogspot.com/2012/02/athonite-meets-world.html

I think one of the points of my thesis was that his new, modern 'genre' of sanctity combined elements of holy foolishness with attempts at what I think Catholics call white and green martyrdom. What sticks out to me now is his his powerful anxiety.

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Eve Tushnet's avatar

Yes!! I tried your "Batyushka Ioann" tag right after I finished the book but your tagging practices at the time were, ah, slightly surrealist. These are excellent. I, too, underlined the NEVER EAT SUPPER! bit. Thanks for recommending this book lo these many years ago....

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TKW's avatar

Sold me on The Princesse de Clèves with your first paragraph. (P&P was one of the first books I was ever assigned that I just couldn't stand, and I've had no real desire to revisit as I've gotten older.)

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Alice Liddell's avatar

I'm going to read THE PRINCESSE OF CLEVES now. Thanks for the recommendation of the book on St. John of Kronstadt, too. I've venerated his icon many times but don't know much about him.

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Alice Liddell's avatar

You don't understand Jane Austen? What is the problem?

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