Newrome Press’ book Stories from the Gerontikon is part graphic novel, part illustrated storybook, and tells many stories from the Gerontikon. (“A book that tells about the community of saintly men, and their exploits towards spiritual progress.”~ St. Photios the Great, quoted in the prologue of the book.) This book is full of stories of holy desert elders, their love for God, their determination, their failures, and their learnings. Christos Gousidis has illustrated each story with one or more pictures that help to bring it to life. Many stories have a one-sentence summary or nugget of truth to ponder at the end of the story.
How does the young monk John’s obedience to his elder, in a very difficult assignment, show fruit?
What asceticism does a city-dweller teach to an old and holy monk?
How does God use a beggar to help Abba Agathonas?
In what way does a compassionate monk turn the anger of his frustrated fellow monks into love?
Where does pride often hide when we are trying to become more holy?
Who needed a pillow? And why didn’t the basket burn?
Find the answers to all of these questions, and more, in Stories from the Gerontikon! After many pages of stories, the book offers a few activity pages, where the reader can interact with some of the graphics in the stories. It ends with a blank “graphic novel” page and an invitation to illustrate one of three other stories (also from the Gerontikon). Readers who complete the illustrations are invited to send a photo of their work to Newrome Press, to be entered into an annual drawing for an icon of St. Paisios the Athonite!
This book will offer older children, teens, and adults much to ponder. It is full of the wisdom of the elders, and the reader will find much to learn within its pages. Stories from the Gerontikon will be an interesting read for an individual, but will be even better if it is read with others, so that its stories and truths can be discussed. Readers will likely want to re-visit the book every few years, to see what new gleanings they can gather from the wisdom of these desert elders.
Purchase your own copy here: https://newromepress.com/stories-from-the-gerontikon/
The Department of Christian Education thanks Newrome Press for providing a copy of this book for us to review and share.
Reviewed by Kristina Wenger, educator, podcaster, co-author of Tending the Garden of Our Hearts.
Orthodox Christian Parenting 