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Title of the article: Old Russian monks and their relation to disease
Author(s): MILKOV V. V.
Section: Philosophy, Ethics and Religious Studies
Year: 2015
Issue: № 2, (36)
Pages: 13-28
Index UDK: 281.93+1(091)
Index BBK: 87.3(2)
Abstract: We can judge about the characteristics of ascetic monasticism by the amount of ascetic practices. But the main features of ascetic practices are not developed in the research papers. For example, researchers have not associated nonresistance to diseases with asceticism. The ascetic monks treated the disease as a means to pacify the body and strengthen the spirit. Ascetics consciously chose to suffer to imitate Christ's suffering. The disease was considered a test and monks tried bravely to endure suffering. Additionally, the monks treated the disease as the God's punishment. They were sure that no one could resist the will of God. Therefore, treatments for diseases were prayer, fasting, Holy water, icons and relics of saints. Such treatment of diseases can be called «teoterapy». This was not conductive to the development of medicine in Old Russia.
Keywords: Old Russia, monks, ascetic practices, disease, treatment methods, development of medicine
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