01 — Optina Pustyn and the Eldership
The monastery near Kozelsk and the St. John the Forerunner Skete built in 1821 for the elders; and the transplanting of the Philokalic startchestvo of St. Paisius Velichkovsky, through his disciples, into Russian soil at Optina.
Tradition: Russian Orthodox (Optina synaxis glorified 1996 local / 2000 general)
This section sets the stage for the whole collection. The first file describes the place: the Vvedensky (Entrance of the Theotokos) Hermitage in the Kaluga forests, and the skete deliberately built beside it in 1821 so that a small community given wholly to prayer could shelter the eldership. The second file traces the spiritual genealogy: how the revival of the Jesus Prayer and of patristic reading that St. Paisius Velichkovsky had gathered at Neamț in Moldavia reached Optina through his disciples and the Roslavl forest hermits, so that Optina became the great Russian channel of the Paisian inheritance.
Navigation
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| the-monastery-and-the-skete.md | Optina Vvedensky Hermitage near Kozelsk; the founding of the Skete of St. John the Forerunner in 1821 by Bishop Philaret of Kaluga; the Putilov brothers from the Roslavl forests |
| the-paisian-root-of-the-eldership.md | St. Paisius Velichkovsky, the Dobrotolyubie, and the disciples through whom the eldership and the Jesus Prayer were transplanted to Optina |
See Also
- The Paisian Root — full file
- St. Leonid and St. Macarius — the first elders who carried the Paisian line into Optina
- St. Paisius Velichkovsky — the source of the revival