Maximos of Kafsokalyvia

Saint Maximos Kausokalybis (Greek: Μάξιμος Καυσοκαλύβης; died 1365 or 1380), also known as St. Maximos the Hut Burner, was a hesychast monk who lived on Mount Athos in Greece.

Quotes

• When candle wax is far from the fire, it is solid and can be grasped, but when you put it in the fire it melts, and there it burns in the flame and catches fire and becomes all light and so finds a perfect end in the fire. There is no way for it not to melt in the fire and pour out like water. So too, while man's intellect is by itself, without encountering God, it thinks that everything is solidly in its power. But when it draws near, as it were, to the fire of Divinity and the Holy Spirit, it is completely dominated by that divine light and becomes all light, and there within the flame of the All-Holy Spirit it is set aflame and softened by divine perceptions. And in that fire of Divinity, there is no way for it to consider it own concerns and desires.
  • Philokalia, volume 5, as translated by Anna Skoubourdis (2020), p. 305

• For this reason he did not settle in one place on Athos, as most monks do in tranquil cells, but kept moving from one place to another nearby like a vagrant. He would quickly build huts, and then burn them down again with fire. This behavior was strange for the monks, and even for people in general. The blessed one never possessed a digging fork or hoe, nor a purse, nor a bench, a table, a pot, flour, oil, or wine, nor any other material necessity, nor bread, but living like an immaterial being in places untouched by materiality, he thus possessed only the semblance of a small hut, large enough only to contain his much-suffering body. And after building this out of grasses, he would soon burn it down. For this reason, although he was not in error, he was considered deranged, and at the same time he was given the sobriquet Hutburner by earthly-minded people, who did not see in him the illuminating divine grace of the Spirit which sheltered him like a divine, celestial tent and spread sweetness, and the eternal hope and prayer which always refreshed him like dew.
  • Chapter 10, "Life of Maximos the Hutburner by Theophanes", translated by Richard P. H. Greenfield and Alice-Mary Talbot. In Holy Men of Mount Athos (2016), p. 481

• Leaving the great and wondrous Lavra, he first set off at full speed on the ascent of Athos, where the tablets of grace were promised by the Mother of God. And thus he reached it, without eating anything, on the seventh [Sunday after Easter]; for that day was the first [Sunday] after the Ascension, the so-called Sunday of the Holy Fathers. After arriving at the summit there and prostrating himself and praying to God, as was his custom every night, he spent the whole night in vigil together with some monks. But when all the monks departed in the morning and no one was left behind, he remained there alone for three entire days and nights without food and wearing only a single garment, in the service of God. And he constantly had the name of the Mother of God on his tongue, in his mind and heart through mental prayer in the Spirit.
  • Chapter 9, "Life of Maximos the Hutburner by Theophanes", translated by Richard P. H. Greenfield and Alice-Mary Talbot. In Holy Men of Mount Athos (2016), p. 473, 475

• Thus, after spending three days in this place of fragrance, he descended at the bidding of our Lady the Mother of God as far as her church, the one called Panagia. After spending some days there, he went up again to the summit of Athos and kissed the spot where the Mother of God had appeared to stand in glory. He tearfully sought to see the vision once again, but he did not succeed; for only light and unceasing divine fragrance fell invisibly upon the holy one's senses, as before, and filled him with joy and inexpressible happiness. After going up two or three times from the Panagia and being granted this experience, he then went down from there and, going to Karmelion, found a solitary elder there and told him about his vision.
  • Chapter 9, "Life of Maximos the Hutburner by Theophanes", translated by Richard P. H. Greenfield and Alice-Mary Talbot. In Holy Men of Mount Athos (2016), p. 479