Stephen Hayes reviewed Laurus by Eugene Vodolazkin
None
5 stars
The fictional biography of a monastic holy man in medieval Russia.
Arseny, an orphan, is brought up by his grandfather, and trained by him as a herbalist-healer in a small village in northern Russia. After his grandfather's death he succeeds him as the village healer, but when a patient close to him dies, partly as a result of his own negligence and over-confidence, he leaves the village and becomes a homeless wanderer, seeking salvation for himself and those he has lost.
As he travels he resumes his activities as a healer, and begins to heal people through prayer as well as through his medical skill as a herbalist. He adopts various roles of holy men, as pilgrim, fool-for-Christ, tonsured monk and finally hermit. At some of these stages his name changes, and at the final stage, as a schemamonk he is given the name Laurus, after a second-century saint. …
The fictional biography of a monastic holy man in medieval Russia.
Arseny, an orphan, is brought up by his grandfather, and trained by him as a herbalist-healer in a small village in northern Russia. After his grandfather's death he succeeds him as the village healer, but when a patient close to him dies, partly as a result of his own negligence and over-confidence, he leaves the village and becomes a homeless wanderer, seeking salvation for himself and those he has lost.
As he travels he resumes his activities as a healer, and begins to heal people through prayer as well as through his medical skill as a herbalist. He adopts various roles of holy men, as pilgrim, fool-for-Christ, tonsured monk and finally hermit. At some of these stages his name changes, and at the final stage, as a schemamonk he is given the name Laurus, after a second-century saint.
There are many saints who were monastic holy men, whose hagiographies describe events similar to those in this fictional biography, but by putting such things together in the account of one person's life, it shows a spiritual progression. In this it is similar to [b:The Way of a Pilgrim|29799|The Way of a Pilgrim and the Pilgrim Continues His Way|Anonymous|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1388490638l/29799.SX50.jpg|30219], which is, however, set in the 19th century.
