Archpriest avvakum autobiography samples

Life of the Archpriest Avvakum (selections)

Text modified from the translation at http://users.pandora.be/avvakum/

What know comes is a CV: birth, place, parents, written in the language of the people ...

I was born in the Niznij Novgorod area, beyond the Kudma river, in the village of Grigorovo. My father was the priest Peter, my mother Marija, as a nun Marfa.

My father was given to hard drink, buy my mother fasted and prayed zealously and was ever teaching me the fear of God. Once I saw a dead cow at a neighbor's, and that night I arose and wept much over my soul before the icon, being mindful of death and how I too must die.

And fom that time I grew accustomed to praying every night.

Archpriest avvakum autobiography samples

Then my mother was widowed and I, still young, orphaned, and we were driven out, away from our kin. My mother deigned to have me married. And I prayed to the most holy