On seeing Fr. Symeon, in person you weren’t impressed by his appearance. He was an ordinary clergyman and he himself cared nothing for anything more. Often, indeed very often, he would stress that he was a ‘non-being’, clearly referring to the phrase used by Saint Paul in I Corinthians (1, 28), where he talks about ‘things which are not’. And he believed this deeply and demonstrated it by his behaviour. Although he had a great many spiritual children, he never said of anyone ‘He or she’s my spiritual child’. He rejected the title of ‘Elder’. Some professors went to see him once with a group of students, in the first few years after the monastery had been built. One of ...
