Saint Silouan
The now famous saying, “keep thy mind in Hell and despair not,” is a word given by God to St. Silouan one night as he struggled intensely with demons. Six months after taking his monastic vows on the Holy Mountain St. Silouan was blessed to experience a vision of Christ in glory. Eventually he felt this grace subsiding and so he dedicated himself to extreme ascetical struggles in hopes of attracting the grace of God again. One night, fifteen years later, mentally and spiritually exhausted, St. Silouan wanted simply to bow before Christ in His holy icon, but a terrible demon stood in his way, and he heard from God in his heart, “The proud always suffer from demons.” When he asked God how to defeat pride he heard again in his heart, “Keep thy mind in Hell and despair not.” From that point on he practiced this and humbled himself to the extreme, and he became so acquainted with the practice that he could go there with but a movement of his soul. Fr. Sophrony says that ultimately this state is impossible to describe—one can only really know it by experience.
(Text from Orthochristian.com)
