“The path to salvation. A Brief Essay on Asceticism” by Theophan the Recluse is one of the most famous instructions on moral theology and asceticism. Theophan the Recluse begins “The Path to Salvation” this way: “the last goal of man is in communion with God - and the path to it: this is faith with walking in the commandments, with the help of the grace of God. If only I could add the word: this is the way! Go! It's easy to say: this is the way, go! But how to do this? Theophan the Recluse distinguished in Christian life: “three degrees, which, according to their properties, can be called this: 1st - turning to God, 2nd - purification or self-correction, 3rd - sanctification. On the first, a person turns from darkness to light, from the realm of Satan to God; on the second, he cleanses the temple of his heart from all impurities in order to receive Christ the Lord coming to him; on the third, the Lord comes, dwells in the heart and sups with it. *** Author of the book St. Feofan is an extraordinary person and a prolific writer. Having been a teacher and director of religious educational institutions, a member of the Russian Ecclesiastical Mission in Jerusalem, rector of the Russian Embassy Church in Constantinople, and a bishop, in 1872 Theophan went into seclusion (hence his nickname - the Recluse), in which he would remain for the rest of his earthly life. 28 years. However, Theophan the Recluse himself asserted that he secluded himself “not in the forms of the strictest asceticism, but in the forms of unhindered scribery.” The words of St. Theophan on this occasion: “When your prayer is so strengthened that everything will hold you in your heart before God, then you will have a shutter even without a shutter...” St. Theophan the Recluse did not write specifically dogmatic works. The main themes of his writings are moral theology and asceticism. Theophan owns many interpretations of Holy Scripture. Theophan the Recluse also owns many translations (primarily the Philokalia) of ancient Christian ascetic literature.