An experience of “heart purification” in patristic understanding: E. Dombrovskaya's story “The spring of soul. Life scenes of Ann, the servant of God”

One of the works of modern spiritual prose is analyzed in this article. Basing on Orthodox traditions the author follows the criterion distinguishing emotional and spiritual aspects of Christian life, reveals the experience of gradual “heart purification” gained by an ordinary person, relies on Tolstoy’s dialectics of the Soul related to ascetic practices of self cognition. The text brings us back to the tradition of patristic literature that discovers Man’s fight against his sins and passions. This tradition was mainly substituted by the hagiographic canon that shows only the external feats of a saint and his status of holiness. Deep comprehension of the patristic principle of “determination”, seen as the need of mind to perceive everything as Divine wisdom (Logos), becomes a conceptual point organizing the process of knowledge and self-knowledge. Thus, the process of creation and the nature of talent are understood in a completely new way. An autobiographical and documentary character and a direct reference to the gospel and patristic sources are masterly combined in the text with the writer’s figurative word, depictive skills and his knowledge about the imaginative literature.