Smoking is a harmful vice that not only damages the body but also clouds the soul, impeding spiritual growth and moral clarity. The body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and thus, any addiction enslaves the will and harms the body, which is contrary to the pursuit of holiness.
Our saints, church fathers, and holy elders, admonish the faithful to avoid smoking, highlighting its capacity to distract from prayer, weaken resolve, and foster a dependency that detracts from one's spiritual journey. In a world where smoking is often glamorized, the Orthodox Church stands firm, advocating for a life of temperance and self-control as essential components of a devout Christian life.
Do you smoke? Smoking destroys your God-given valuable health and is also wasteful of money, and therefore is a sin.
— Guide to Confession, St. Anthony's Monastery
You can’t stop smoking tobacco? What is impossible for man is possible with God’s help. Just firmly decide to quit, realizing how harmful it is for the soul and the body, since tobacco weakens the soul, and increases and strengthens the passions, darkens the mind, and destroys physical health with a slow death.
— St. Ambrose, Living Without Hypocrisy
Not only noise and secular and instrumental music, but also smoking is considered irreverent, and is forbidden in the streets of Karyes and in the courtyards of the monasteries. "The fumes of tobacco, I have heard a monk say, are the incense of the Devil., This should not be taken to mean that no Athonite monk smokes. But the practice among the monks is rare. At some of the monasteries, such as Dionysiou, the monks are absolutely forbidden to smoke, and certain monks, known as "zealots," abhor the practice. St. Nicodemos the Aghiorite (1749-1809), whose writings are highly esteemed by the monks of Athos, particularly the zealots, has devoted a special section of his Manual of Counsel (Symouleftikon Encheiridion) to a condemnation of smoking. He regards it as especially unbecoming to the clergy, because it is opposed not only to the health of the body but also to morality, being very "loathsome, abominable, and vulgar" (1885, p. 57).
— Constantine Cavarnos, Anchored in God
The center is the western world, not only in its geography, but also mainly in its mindset and not so much in geography, because we can find this mindset in Japan, which belongs to the eastern world. Here we are dealing with the western train of thought which finds its roots in ancient Greek ideology, which molded the western mindset. This western mindset is responsible for inundating the entire globe with corruption and apostasy. From this center, all evil begins and flows out to the entire world... [where] we find all these by-products of western ingenuity, such as rock music, smoking, narcotics, substance abuse, licentiousness, promiscuity, crime and sexual perversions.
— Elder Athanasius Mitilinaios, Revelation Series
Lastly, we must cut off external distractions. These begin with the very first distraction —indulgence in food —out of which are born all other sensual distractions, from love of comfort to sexual lust to tobacco smoking to drug and alcohol abuse. Among these, the use of marijuana is perhaps the most sinister, for it gives the illusion of being "spiritual" while making one unable to concentrate and thus to practice watchfulness and face oneself.
— Hieromonk Damascene, Christ the Eternal Tao
People can easily be influenced both for good or ill. They are influenced more readily towards evil, because it is the devil who is prompting them. For example, tell someone to quit smoking because it is harmful. As soon as he decides to stop, the devil will run to tempt him: "This type of cigarette has less nicotine, that type has a filter that purifies the smoke. Smoke these; they won't harm you." The devil will find an excuse for him not to quit smoking; he will find a solution! For the devil is capable of finding many excuses. And the cigarette he suggests may be even more harmful. This is why we must be able to exercise our will. For, if someone does not cut out his bad habits when he is young, then it will be very difficult later in life when the will is weakened.
— St. Paisios, Spiritual Awakening, pg. 131
This reflected adversely on the frail and sensitive boy. He early realized that his father lived at the mercy of his passions. Sergius did not wish to be like this. Therefore, he began to develop his power of will. He read books on the subject, slept on the bare floor, and even was about to try Yoga. Then one day he went to Valaam. The grandeur of the great monastery left a deep impression on him; there his soul found its home. He began to go frequently to Valaam on pilgrimage; he even talked his father into going there, where the latter by a miracle gave up smoking, which he had never been able to do. In 1917 Sergius finished Military Academy. The whirlwind of revolution scattered the members of the family: his father ended up in Malta, and Sergius and his mother found themselves in the city of Nikolsk, where they settled in the house of a priest and lived in great poverty.
— Ivan Andreyev, Lives of the New Martyrs
He told a smoker: “Cigarettes do not do any good anywhere. On the contrary, they bring about cancer and other illnesses. Stop smoking at once.”
— With Elder (Saint) Porphyrios, A Spiritual Child Remembers
A candidate for priesthood visited him and discussed various personal matters with him. When he had finished and he bent over to kiss his hand the strong stench of nicotine came from his mouth. Then the Elder said to him, "How are you going to become a priest of God, you blessed thing, when you haven't even got the will to quit smoking?" "Elder," he replied, "you are right. It is my passion. I smoke more than two packets of cigarettes a day. I'm ashamed to tell you this now. Even my wife is angry about it." The Elder gave him instructions on how to stop smoking. He followed them, and managed, with God's help, to stop. The first person to celebrate was his wife. He was soon ordained.
— With Elder (Saint) Porphyrios, A Spiritual Child Remembers
One morning I had arrived in the Elder’s yard, with some company of mine. I made out an acquaintance of mine, at a distance. He was quite a zealot and a strict Christian. I approached him, and he was glad to see me suddenly before him. We said various things about the Elder, and I started to hear him say: “Some people come to the Elder who are totally out of touch and they tire him out unfairly. See! Look over there, that lady, who’s smoking without shame. I really do wonder how the Elder can see her.” I bit my tongue, the lady was part of my company, and the acquaintance did not know it. I chose to keep silent and not put my acquaintance in a difficult position. The Elder, however, was not so quiet. When his turn came, and he went into the Elder’s cell, before me, the first words heard from his lips were “You know, I’m not strict like you.” When the lady left the Elder’s cell she informed me of what he had told her, rounding off his advice saying, “Your struggle for your sanctification should begin with quitting cigarettes.” The Elder found the most suitable medicine for both the critic and the criticised.
— With Elder (Saint) Porphyrios, A Spiritual Child Remembers
The Elder told the mother of a neurotic child that the child had a beautiful soul, but it had become sick from her bad company. He revealed to her that the child would suddenly become well. He knew when this was, but it was not right to tell her. However, he made clear, that he would become well, when the mother became holy, starting with quitting smoking.
— With Elder (Saint) Porphyrios, A Spiritual Child Remembers
“How can I stop smoking? I tried many times but I didn’t manage it.”
“Every time you have the desire to smoke, say ‘Lord, have mercy on me.’ Prayer to Christ is the solution to each and every one of our problems. Do you see that even this parrot, this beautiful bird that I keep here in my room, has learned to say, ‘Lord have mercy on me.’”
— Elder (Saint) Porphyrios, Testimonies and Experiences
There was a priest who struggled to overcome the smoking habit. When he was just about to give up, temptation would defeat him and he was overcome again. He had tried to give up smoking often, using different methods. Each time he failed.
This continued until he visited Elder Porphyrios one day. They talked about different subjects. When they began talking about priest’s family situation and about certain differences that he had with his wife. Elder Porphyrios told him that the real reason for the friction was the fact that, without the priest himself realizing it, he smoked. “When you give up smoking,” the Elder said to him, “you will see that your wife will love you more, your differences will end, and everything will be as you wish in your house. I’ll pray for you and you won’t smoke again. Now throw that pack of cigarettes you’re holding out of the window immediately.”
The priest was obedient. He threw away his cigarettes and did not smoke again. Even though he had been trying to give up smoking for years and always failed, this time he encountered no difficulties in the realization of his decision.
When he finished telling the story, Elder Porphyrios called one of the nuns to his room and asked her to bring in a priest who was outside with his wife. It was the priest about whom we were talking. There we heard the priest and his wife telling us how much suffering this habit had caused to their personal relationship. It was through Elder’s intervention that everything changed and they both became different people.
Then Elder Porphyrios explained to us that in another situation he showed a spiritual child of his yet another method to stop smoking. You cannot suddenly give up smoking from one moment to the next, (as in the case of the priest who he advised to throw away the pack of cigarettes immediately). This new method was in stages. The specific advice in this case was to lessen the number of cigarettes by one every three days.
When we asked him why in one instance he suggested one way and in the other instance another way, he answered that for each person different things apply. One person can bear one thing and another person something else.
— Elder (Saint) Porphyrios, Testimonies and Experiences
Fr. Anatolios searched to find someone who could teach him noetic prayer. But since he couldn’t find anyone, he decided to join the brotherhood at Stavronikita. He chose this idiorrhythmic monastery so as to have the freedom to struggle and say the prayer more. After spending a few years there, he became a great-schema monk with the name “Arsenios.”
When he was in Russia, he worked in a tobacco factory and learned to smoke. When he became a monk, he gave up smoking. This passion, however, can easily come back if one is not careful and an opportunity arises. Since there were a few fathers in that idiorrhythmic monastery who smoked, Fr. Arsenios started smoking again. He also acquired the habit of drinking wine, which is something he had not done in the world. Thus, he found himself in a spiritually dangerous situation. However, God did not abandon him, because he was very humble and had good intentions. He led him to Francis.
— Geronda Ephraim of Arizona, My Elder Joseph the Hesychast
One time he met a priest smoking on the road. He berated and censured him saying, “Are you a priest or a karagiozis? [A comical character in Greek and Turkish puppetry; in this case, one who treats his priestly vocation as a joke.]”
— The Ascetic Gabriel of Karoulia, Athonite Fathers of the 20th Century
Experience shows that this is true. Everyone knows by experience how agonizing and painful slavery is, when someone is under the weighty yoke of another’s will, not able to do what he wants but only what he is told. In just such a painful and agonizing state of involuntary slavery is every person who is given over to sin and to various passions and vices. Every passion, every even seemingly insignificant sinful predilection results at times in unbearable inner torment, creating a true hell in one’s soul. The one given over to passions and vices begins to experience already here on earth the full force of the torments of hell that await the sinner in the afterlife. Let us consider, for example, such a petty passion, such a seemingly insignificant predilection as smoking. Is this not a most genuine, burdensome, and tormenting slavery? A smoker who is not able to satisfy his passion for smoking suffers bitterly, chafes in anguish. Lacking tobacco, he is ready to give up anything, to sacrifice all for a cigarette in order to free himself from this tormenting state of discontentedness. Each smoker is a true slave who has given up his God-given freedom for a “smelly hound,” as our ancestors wittily called tobacco. This is why our Holy Church unconditionally disapproves of smoking, just as it disapproves of all other sinful habits and inclinations that enslave a person’s will and deprive him of emotional peace and stability. On the other hand, a person not subject to any passions or vices, who is able to rein in his sinful urges, delights in a state of true inner freedom that produces peace and joy. His soul is filled with light and a blessed feeling of “sweet, heavenly peace” that is nothing other than a foretaste of that paradisiacal blessedness that awaits the righteous.
— Archbishop Averky, The Struggle for Virtue: Asceticism in a Modern Secular Society
Corrupted mankind continually desires to eat and drink, to satisfy his sight, hearing, smell, and touch. Carnal people satisfy themselves with elegant food and drink, entertainments, music, smoking, magnificent buildings, and external splendor.
— St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
One cannot eat and drink and smoke continually. One cannot turn human life into constant eating, drinking, and smoking (although there are men who do eat, drink, and smoke almost uninterruptedly). The spirit of evil has turned life into smoking; it has made the mouth, which should be employed in thanking and praising the Lord, into a smoking furnace. The less you eat and drink, and the lighter your food is, the lighter and more refined your spirit will become.
— St. John of Kronstadt, My Life in Christ
The same happens when a person wants to give up a bad habit, for instance smoking or drugs. At first, he feels happy with his decision and throws them away. Then he sees other people smoking, drinking and so on, and he feels attacked from all sides. If he overcomes such temptations, he will turn his back on the habit without difficulty. All of us need to make an effort, to resist a little. The devil does his job; shouldn’t we do ours?
— St. Paisios, With Pain and Love, pg. 58
The old boss did the work and the new one was just sitting at his desk smoking, drinking coffee and chatting... Completely shameless!
— St. Paisios, With Pain and Love, pg. 103
Sometimes, the angel comes and tells the man: “Repent and sin no more, don’t commit adultery, don’t get drunk anymore, don’t smoke, don’t curse!” And I tell him: “What, starting now? Later! Go and confess to a priest when you feel your time on earth is up, and he will absolve you of your sins. And that’s it. Even The Scriptures say that your life should end in virtue, but until then ... you can live however you want!”
“When the angel comes and tells him: ‘Poor man, honor the annual Lents, start fasting Wednesdays and Fridays!’ I tell him: ‘Fast not, for you will lose your health! You must work, gather riches, you have mouths to feed. You will start fasting when you retire.’”
“And so the angel keeps telling men and women alike who have the terrible habit of smoking: ‘Put down the cigarette, the tobacco. You will get sick. Don’t you see the house is full of smoke? The kids will get sick, and you are wasting your money. Can’t you see everything is expensive?’ But I sneak in and tell them: ‘Sure, you will quit smoking, but do you see this pack of cigarettes? You just paid for it. You won’t throw it away now, will you? You must finish it.’”
— St. Cleopa, How Satan Deceives People
Cell damage caused by external reasons such as smoking, bad diet, bad lifestyle, etc is manifested as sickness. It is caused by an accumulation of psychic upheaval which like a volcano searches for an escape route and it finds it in the most sensitive organs. This is the way sickness is manifested.
— Miraculous Occurrences and Counsels of Elder [Saint] Porphyrios
The Communists gave me a lot of trouble. They tried as hard as they could to make life as miserable as possible for me. But, thank God, I survived.” While at the Patriarchate of Pech, after a series of temptations and misfortunes which assailed him from both within and without, Fr. Thaddeus began smoking again. (He had smoked before, also at the Patriarchate of Pech.) The nicotine had a terrible effect on him because of his frail nerves. However, after a bitter battle, he managed to free himself of this vice.
— Our Thoughts Determine Our Lives, Elder Thaddeus
In 1905 Father Silouan spent several months in Russia, often visiting monasteries. On one of his train journeys he sat opposite a shopkeeper, who in a friendly gesture opened his silver cigarette-case and offered him a cigarette. Father Silouan thanked him but refused to take one.
Then the shopkeeper began talking, asking, “Are you refusing, Father, because you think it is a sin? But smoking is often a help in life. It relaxes you, and makes a few minutes’ break. Smoking helps one to get on with one’s work or have a friendly chat, and in general . . .” And so on, trying to persuade Father Silouan to have a cigarette.
In the end Father Silouan made up his mind to say to him, “Before you light up a cigarette, pray and repeat one ‘Our Father. . . .’” To this the shopkeeper replied, “Praying before having a smoke somehow doesn’t work.”
To this Silouan observed, “So better not start anything which cannot be preceded by untroubled prayer.”
— St. Sophrony, St. Silouan the Athonite
A: So is smoking a sin?
FD: Of course — it’s suicide, in a very literal sense. In the same way, alcoholics pour themselves one shot after another after another — again, automatically. This state is called “drunkenness”.
The word passion comes from the Latin word for suffering. And the passions certainly do lead to suffering: a person in the grip of passions, or even one passion that has possessed him, dooms himself to torment. He is in a state of suffering. A simple example would be a person who smokes: if he goes a week without smoking, how will he like that? He’ll go into withdrawal. And what if he dies in that state? What will happen then? He will be in eternal withdrawal.
Or a drug addict, or an alcoholic. Why? Because he remains addicted. In this lies the root of the eternal torments that take possession of a person. God says: Burn in the flame and the fire that you lit yourselves. You kindled it, so you endure it. Behold, all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks: walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that ye have kindled. This shall ye have of Mine hand; ye shall lie down in sorrow (Is. 50:11).
— Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoev, Catechetical Talks
FD: Tobacco itself is actually a plant, which can be used for medicinal purposes, while smoking is an abuse of tobacco. In the same way narcotics are good for use as pain killers, but bad when used for other purposes.
— Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoev, Catechetical Talks
All Clergy without Exception Ought Not to Smoke
Here, dear reader, I want to remind you of a bad habit not only among lay people, but also among the clergy and even the bishops. I am referring to the use of that plant called nicotine, which was discovered in some region of North America known as Anthea and which was introduced to Catherine the Queen of France by the ambassador of Portugal as a sort of miracle of the new world. This is why it was given the exalted name of a “royal plant.” Of course, this is nothing other than what is commonly known as tobacco. I hope, therefore, that you will never imitate those who wrongfully use this tobacco and that you will never privately or before other persons smoke tobacco or place some of it into your nostrils as snuff. First of all, the use of tobacco is contrary to the virtuous way of life. Secondly, it is inappropriate to the high character of the priesthood. Thirdly, it is contrary to good health habits. The habit of smoking is contrary to the virtuous way of life. The true boundary of virtuous living, according to the teaching of Galation,' is trespassed when we do something that may naturally harm the senses or the imagination of noble persons and call forth an abhorrence. Who then cannot see that the use of tobacco crosses over this boundary of virtuous habits and introduces barbarous habits, rustic habits, habits that are abhorrent to those who see and who hear and imagine what is done by those who use tobacco? Proper behavior requires that a person turn away when cleaning his nose into his handkerchief. The smoke which is inhaled through the nostrils causes the nose to excrete that abhorrent mucus that is then collected in the handkerchief in the presence of others. Proper manners further direct that when a person has to sneeze before others, he must try to block it, if at all possible, or at least to cover it with his handkerchief so that the nose does not bellow like a horn trumpet and cause alarm and abhorrence. Now, those who would place and stuff into their nose this tobacco powder only vex the organ of smell and bring upon themselves the need to sneeze. A good sneeze usually creates such a violent and terrible shaking of the head that it invokes from people standing by a call for divine intercession with such expressions as these: “Health to you,” “Be saved,” “May God help you” (“God bless you”). The most terrible thing, however, is for a person to put into his mouth a pipe made from an animal horn or from some type of wood and from that pipe to inhale the smoke of burning tobacco through his larynx and then to exhale that abhorrent smoke through the mouth and the nostrils like some smoking chimney or like the horses of Diomedes, or the bulls of Jason that exhaled fiery smoke through their mouth and nostrils. Can one find a more abhorrent and abominable habit than this?
Smoking is also an inappropriate habit and unbecoming to the spiritual character of the priesthood. The hierarch is a type of God, an icon of Christ Jesus. Therefore all of his habits must be Christlike, solemn, habits that bring not scandals, but benefits to the people. What solemnity is there in the use of that horrible tobacco plant? Or of what benefit is it? On the contrary, what a scandal it is to the pious Christians, when they see their hierarch or priest holding between his teeth that strange-looking object—the pipe—in which the tobacco is burning! Indeed, how scandalous it is to see a clergyman exhaling from his nose and mouth that foul-smelling smoke, and to have his house filled with that dark cloud of unpleasant smoke! The hierarch and all the clergy are obliged by their very nature to exude a spiritual fragrance from all of their senses so that they may transmit this fragrance upon all those who approach them—Christians as well as unbelievers, as St. Paul wrote: “For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing” (2 Cor 2:15). When the clergy draw into their body both through their mouth and their nose that most foul smelling smoke, that many cannot bear and faint, how can they then be, according to the very nature of their calling, an aroma and a fragrance of Christian life for those who are around them? This is the reason why in that most pious Kingdom of Russia there is an untransgressed law that forbids all the orders of clergy and monks from using publicly tobacco through the nose or the mouth. Anyone so doing is considered by all to be a transgressor worthy of aversion.
Finally, the excessive use of tobacco is also harmful to the health of the body. Many who were chronic users of tobacco were found after death to have their lungs blackened and burned, as well as their brain. Inasmuch as the brain receives continuously the inhaled smoke, it consequently uses up not only the excess fluid but also the natural and essential one. Thus, it is difficult to find even one among those who use tobacco regularly who does not admit that its use is more of an evil than a necessity, and who does not condemn himself for using it. Even the moral philosophers, without exception, condemn the regular use of tobacco in public as something abhorrent and boorish.
— St. Nikodemos, A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, pg. 103
In the winter of the following year, 1954, I again became ill with rheumatism of the joints and muscles, and on February 5 I entered the hospital. On this same day I sent a letter to Vladika and asked him to pray for me. To the letter, on a separate sheet, I added my confession, since I had read that St. John of Kronstadt, before praying for the healing of the sick, prayed for the remission of their sins. I enumerated all the sins I could remember. I repented also of my sin of smoking. I was especially tormented by the fact that I smoked when I was sewing vestments; I was sewing vestments for the first time in my life and therefore was very upset. I had never dared to ask Vladika to heal me of this vice; I had smoked for 27 years and could not give it up for anything.
Lying in the hospital and receiving no letter from Vladika, I thought that Vladika had not forgiven me my sins; and the pain did not cease. At this time I received a letter from Germany from a certain disabled veteran who wrote that Vladika had been in Italy, had stopped on his way through Germany, and then was returning to France. This calmed me and gave me hope that Vladika had not yet received my letter.
On March 7, Forgiveness Sunday, I was brought home from the hospital. I was still completely sick and weak. However, on Tuesday, March 9 (new style), I suddenly became much better, in fact so well that I even got up from bed. I improved every day and could even do some housework. On Friday I received a letter from Vladika and felt myself completely well. At the same time I had obtained an aversion for smoking.
— Blessed John the Wonderworker, Part III: A Record of Blessed John’s Intercessions
Confession presupposes that a person does not consider the sinful state of his life to be normal; he tries to struggle against it. He considers a life filled with smoking or something else to be something unnatural to him, and he tries to struggle against it. He may stumble, but he will try to get up and move on.
— Hieromartyr Daniel Sysoev, Questions to a Priest