From Athos to Essex:

This article by Serge Model examines the intermediate period of the life of Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), canonized in 2019, spanning the years between his departure from Mount Athos (1947) and the founding of his monastery in Essex (1959). Drawing on unpublished archives and a variety of documentation, the study traces the Parisian stages of this decade: the ecclesiological tensions related to the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, the publication of the foundational work on Starets Silouan, the theological and editorial activity of Father Sophrony, and the gradual formation of a monastic community at Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois. The article highlights the theological fruitfulness of this often overlooked period, during which Father Sophrony developed an original synthesis between personal ascetic experience, Byzantine patristic tradition, and the intellectual milieu of the Russian emigration, thereby laying the foundations of his spiritual teaching and his subsequent monastic work.