Starets

It is believed that through ascetic struggle, prayer and hesychasm, the Holy Spirit bestows special gifts onto the elder including the ability to heal, prophesy, and most importantly, give effective spiritual guidance and direction.

The revival of elders in the Slavic world is associated with the name of Paisius Velichkovsky (1722–1794), who produced the Church Slavonic translation of selected texts of the Philokalia.

The most famous Russian starets of the early 19th century was Seraphim of Sarov (1759–1833), who went on to become one of the most revered Orthodox saints.

[1] Such writers as Nikolay Gogol, Aleksey Khomyakov, Leo Tolstoy and Konstantin Leontyev sought advice from the elders of this monastery.

A more modern example of a starets is Archimandrite John Krestiankin (1910–2006) of the Pskov Monastery of the Caves who was popularly recognized as such by many Orthodox living in Russia.