Christian Laffely

This article constitutes a personal testimony by Christian Laffely, a Swiss theologian, recounting his encounter with the starets Sophrony Sakharov, founder of the Monastery of Saint John the Baptist in Essex. Through a first-hand account, the author conveys the spiritual and human atmosphere of this encounter, as well as the impressions and teachings that arose from it. The main idea lies in the living transmission of the figure of Saint Sophrony as a spiritual guide and theologian of the hesychast experience, a direct heir of Saint Silouan the Athonite. On a theological and historical level, this testimony sheds concrete light on the reception of Orthodox spirituality in Western Europe in the twentieth century, and contributes to the knowledge of the personality of Sophrony Sakharov through the eyes of a Western contemporary who benefited from his teaching.