Monastic formula on all having sinned

[Quid est Veritas?]

'If you were to forgive me, it would make it much easier for me,' he added unexpectedly and in a whisper.
'On the condition that you forgive me as well,' Tikhon replied in a voice full of emotion.
'For what? What have you done to me? Ah, yes, isn't that a monastic formula?`
'For the intended and the unintended. Having sinned, each man has sinned against all men, and each man is responsible in some way for the sins of others. There is no isolated sin. I'm a great sinner, perhaps even greater than you.'

This is a passage in Dostoeyevsky's Devils, between the character Stavrogin, a licentitious young aristocrat, and the monk Tikhon, after he read Stavrogin's confession. It reminds me quite a lot of his other work, the Brothers Karamazov, where Father Zosima says something similar.

What monastic formula is he referring to here? Is there a theologic defence or Church Father to support the contention that we are all responsible for each others' sins?

 

[peregrinus2017]

I don't know the answer to your questions, but it does remind me of why we have forgiveness Sunday.

 

[~Anastasia~]

There is a theological defense. (And maybe in the Fathers, but the Saints I have read speaking of it would not technically be ECFs if that's what you mean? There may be among the ECFs too though - I don't know.)

I hope someone better able can explain. I just remember being fascinated when I first read of it from St. Nikolai Velimrovich. I've heard priests explain on a number of counts. One of them being that our sins affect other people, and in various ways actually cause them to sin, so we do bear some actual responsibility in that sense. We are connected in so many ways. There is also the idea of sin having a cumulative effect in the world. Think of that part in this way - if Adam had not sinned, then babies would not be born into a sinful world and all destined to sin themselves.

This is such a good topic. Just not one I can explain very well. I look forward to the responses of others.

 

[ArmyMatt]

I dunno about responsible for each orthers sins, but everyone's sins have a cosmic effect.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

So I have done some digging, and apparently Tikhon in Devils is based on Tikhon of Zadonsk, an 18th century Russian saint that influenced Dostoeyevsky. Elder Zosima in Brothers Karamazov is also partially based on him, which is part of the reason Dostoeyevsky had him decay quickly, as opposed to the real incorruptible body of Tikhon of Zadonsk.

Anyway, @~Anastasia~ Nikolai Velimirovich was influenced in this regard by Dostoeyevsky. When he was in the Seminary, he studied Dostoeyevsky's works in addition to his other subjects. I read some criticism of him, where he said Churches need to be national in character, which seem in keeping with what Shatov in Devils or Prince Myshkin in the Idiot would say. It looks like Dostoeyevsky was quite influential in forming his outlook, at least from my admittedly superficial and recent acquaintance of him.

I found a quote by Velimirovich: "All men from the first to the last are made from the same piece of clay. Therefore from the first to the last, they form one body and one life. Each is responsible to all and each is influencing all. If one of this body sins, then the whole body must suffer." This sounds almost verbatim something that Zosima or Tikhon would say, I think.

So from what I read so far, the idea of collective responsibility is quite well established at least in Russian Orthodoxy. The Church has apparently said that all Russians bear responsibility for the murder of the Tsar and his family, akin to how all Germans are partially responsible for Nazism. I am speculating, but I wonder if the longstanding Boyar class and serfdom, and the late abolition of semi-feudalism in Russia has something to do with this? In the West, individual responsibility has been paramount for a long time. I must say, I think the idea has real merit, as I already thought when I read Dostoeyevsky, and is quite Biblical - it dovetails nicely with inherited sin of the fathers, and even Jesus taking on the sins of the world. Orthodoxy does not make such a big deal about original sin as we do in the West, in my impression.

Regardless, anyone know where I could find a good English translation of the works of Tikhon of Zadonsk, or where I can look for a good commentary on what he had taught?