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Optina
The Optina Pustyn (russian: Óптина пýстынь, literally ''Opta's hermitage'') is an Eastern Orthodox monastery for men near Kozelsk in Russia. In the 19th century, the Optina was the most important spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church and served as the model for several other monasteries, including the nearby Shamordino Convent. It was particularly renowned as the centre of Russian Orthodox eldership ( staretsdom). History It is not clear when the monastery was established. Its name is probably derived from the Russian word for "living together", possibly because nuns were allowed into the cloister prior to 1504. Most of the monastery buildings were erected at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, when the monastery was being renovated as a centre of Russian staretsdom. In 1821, a hermitage for startsy was established away from the monastery. The startsy attracted crowds of devout Christians to Kozelsk. Among others, Optina Pustyn was visited by ...
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Saint Ambrose Of Optina
Saint Ambrose of Optina (russian: link=no, Амвросий Оптинский; birth name: Aleksander Mikhaylovich Grenkov, russian: link=no, Александр Михайлович Гренков, December 5, 1812, Bolshaya Lipovitsa settlement, Tambov guberniya – October 23, 1891) was a ''starets'' and a hieroschemamonk in Optina Monastery, canonized in the 1988 convention of the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. Biography Aleksandr was born in the family of sexton Mikhail Fyodorovich Grenkov and Marfa Nikolayevna Grenkova. He was the sixth of eight children. At the age of 12 Aleksandr entered the Tambov clerical school and later the Tambov theological seminary. In 1835, shortly before the graduation, Aleksandr became severely ill and made a vow if he got well to become a monk. He recovered but delayed his decision and became a private teacher in a family of a landlord and later in the Lipetsk clerical school. During summer vacation, Aleksandr met a well-known ...
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Optina Khramy Goriz Copy
The Optina Pustyn (russian: Óптина пýстынь, literally ''Opta's hermitage'') is an Eastern Orthodox monastery for men near Kozelsk in Russia. In the 19th century, the Optina was the most important spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church and served as the model for several other monasteries, including the nearby Shamordino Convent. It was particularly renowned as the centre of Russian Orthodox eldership ( staretsdom). History It is not clear when the monastery was established. Its name is probably derived from the Russian word for "living together", possibly because nuns were allowed into the cloister prior to 1504. Most of the monastery buildings were erected at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, when the monastery was being renovated as a centre of Russian staretsdom. In 1821, a hermitage for startsy was established away from the monastery. The startsy attracted crowds of devout Christians to Kozelsk. Among others, Optina Pustyn was visited by ...
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Starets
A starets (russian: стáрец, p=ˈstarʲɪt͡s; fem. ) is an elder of an Eastern Orthodox monastery who functions as venerated adviser and teacher. ''Elders'' or ''spiritual fathers'' are charismatic spiritual leaders whose wisdom stems from God as obtained from ascetic experience. 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. Elders are looked upon as being an inspiration to believers and an example of saintly virtue, steadfast faith, and spiritual peace. Elders are not appointed by any authority; they are simply recognized by the faithful as being people "of the Spirit". An elder, when not in prayer or in voluntary seclusion, receives visitors (some who travel very far) and spends time conversing with them, offering a blessing (if the elder is an ordained cleric) and confession, and prayin ...
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The Brothers Karamazov
''The Brothers Karamazov'' (russian: Братья Карамазовы, ''Brat'ya Karamazovy'', ), also translated as ''The Karamazov Brothers'', is the last novel by Russian author Fyodor Dostoevsky. Dostoevsky spent nearly two years writing ''The Brothers Karamazov'', which was published as a serial in ''The Russian Messenger'' from January 1879 to November 1880. Dostoevsky died less than four months after its publication. Set in 19th-century Russia, ''The Brothers Karamazov'' is a passionate philosophical novel that enters deeply into questions of God, free will, and morality. It is a theological drama dealing with problems of faith, doubt, and reason in the context of a modernizing Russia, with a plot that revolves around the subject of patricide. Dostoevsky composed much of the novel in Staraya Russa, which inspired the main setting. It has been acclaimed as one of the supreme achievements in world literature. Background Although Dostoevsky began his first notes for ''The ...
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Shamordino Convent
The Convent of Saint Ambrose of Optina, St. Ambrose and Our Lady of Kazan (Казанская Амвросиевская ставропигиальная женская пустынь) is a stauropegial Russian Orthodox convent in the village of Shamordino, Kaluga, Shamordino, Kaluga Oblast, Russia. It is located on the Seryona River, from Optina Monastery. The convent was founded near the village of Shamordino in 1884 by Sofia Bolotova, a local noblewoman, with the blessing of Saint Ambrose of Optina. The monastery's churches were designed by Sergey Sherwood and Roman Klein in a peculiar brick version of the Russian Revival. By 1918, some 800 women lived in the convent and its sketes, making it one of the largest monastic establishments in Central Russia. In 1910, after leaving Yasnaya Polyana, Leo Tolstoy planned to go to Shamordino, where his sister Maria was living as a nun. The convent was shut down by the Soviets from 1923 until 1990. The Nuns of Shamordino, Prisoners of Sol ...
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Kozelsk
Kozelsk (russian: Козе́льск) is a town and the administrative center of Kozelsky District in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Zhizdra River (Oka's tributary), southwest of Kaluga, the administrative center of the oblast. Population: History It was first mentioned in an 1146 chronicle as a part of Principality of Chernigov. Kozelsk became famous in the spring of 1238, when its twelve-year-old prince Vasily, son of Titus, had to defend the town against the army of Batu Khan. The latter dubbed it an "evil town" because its citizens had been fighting the attackers for seven weeks in a row, killing around four thousand enemy soldiers during the siege. The citizens of Kozelsk were greatly outnumbered and almost all of them died in battle. In 1446, Kozelsk was temporarily under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. In 1494, the town was finally annexed by the Grand Duchy of Moscow. In 1607, one of Ivan Bolotnikov's units was located in Kozelsk and showed resistance ...
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Konstantin Leontyev
Konstantin Nikolayevich Leontiev, monastic name: Clement (russian: Константи́н Никола́евич Лео́нтьев; January 25, 1831 in Kudinovo, Kaluga Governorate – November 24, 1891 in Sergiyev Posad) was a conservative tsarist and imperial monarchist Russian philosopher who advocated closer cultural ties between Russia and the East against what he believed to be the West's catastrophic egalitarian, utilitarian and revolutionary influences. He also advocated Russia's cultural and territorial expansion eastward to India, Tibet and China. Life Leontiev was born and grew up on his father's estate. His father, a nobleman, was a military officer but was discharged for "riotous behaviour". Still, the intervention of the Russian empress in behalf of the Leontiev brothers made him able to enter the Imperial Corps of Pages. He was engaged at 23 but broke off the relationship for the sake of "freedom and art" a decision that made things difficult for him. After compl ...
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Russian Orthodox Church
, native_name_lang = ru , image = Moscow July 2011-7a.jpg , imagewidth = , alt = , caption = Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in Moscow, Russia , abbreviation = ROC , type = , main_classification = Eastern Orthodox , orientation = Russian Orthodoxy , scripture = Elizabeth Bible ( Church Slavonic) Synodal Bible (Russian) , theology = Eastern Orthodox theology , polity = Episcopal , governance = Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church , structure = Communion , leader_title = , leader_name = , leader_title1 = Primate , leader_name1 = Patriarch Kirill of Moscow , leader_title2 = , leader_name2 = , leader_title3 = Bishops , leader_name3 = 382 (2019) , fellowships_type = Clergy , fellowships = 40,514 full-time clerics, including 35,677 presbyters and 4,837 de ...
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Tula, Russia
Tula ( rus, Тула, p=ˈtulə) is the largest city and the administrative center of Tula Oblast in Russia, located south of Moscow. Tula is located in the northern Central Russian Upland on the banks of the Upa River, a tributary of the Oka. At the 2010 census, Tula had a population of 501,169, an increase from 481,216 in 2002, making it the 32nd largest city in Russia by population. A primarily industrial city, Tula was a fortress at the border of the Principality of Ryazan. The city was seized by Ivan Bolotnikov, and withstood a four-month siege by the Tsar's army. Historically, Tula was a major centre for the manufacture of armaments. The Demidov family built the first armament factory in Russia in the city, in what would become the Tula Arms Plant, which still operates to this day. Tula is home to the Klokovo air base, Tula State University, Tula Kremlin, The Tula State Museum of Weapons and Kazanskaya embankment of the Upa River (). Tula has a historical association ...
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October Revolution
The October Revolution,. officially known as the Great October Socialist Revolution. in the Soviet Union, also known as the Bolshevik Revolution, was a revolution in Russia led by the Bolshevik Party of Vladimir Lenin that was a key moment in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917–1923. It was the second revolutionary change of government in Russia in 1917. It took place through an armed insurrection in Petrograd (now Saint Petersburg) on . It was the precipitating event of the Russian Civil War. The October Revolution followed and capitalized on the February Revolution earlier that year, which had overthrown the Tsarist autocracy, resulting in a liberal provisional government. The provisional government had taken power after being proclaimed by Grand Duke Michael, Tsar Nicholas II's younger brother, who declined to take power after the Tsar stepped down. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils (soviets) wherein revolutionaries criticized the pro ...
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Gulag
The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labour camps which were set up by order of Vladimir Lenin, reaching its peak during Joseph Stalin's rule from the 1930s to the early 1950s. English-language speakers also use the word ''gulag'' in reference to each of the forced-labor camps that existed in the Soviet Union, including the camps that existed in the post-Lenin era. The Gulag is recognized as a major instrument of political repression in the Soviet Union. The camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, a large number of whom were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas or other instruments of extrajudicial punishment. In 1918–22, the agency was administered by the Cheka, follow ...
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Hegumen
Hegumen, hegumenos, or igumen ( el, ἡγούμενος, trans. ), is the title for the head of a monastery in the Eastern Orthodox and Eastern Catholic Churches, similar to the title of abbot. The head of a convent of nuns is called a hegumenia or igumeni ( el, ἡγουμένη). The term means "the one who is in charge", "the leader" in Greek. Overview Initially the title was applied to the head of any monastery. After 1874, when the Russian monasteries were reformed and classified into three classes, the title of ''hegumen'' was reserved only for the lowest, third class. The head of a monastery of the second or first class holds the rank of archimandrite. In the Greek Catholic Church, the head of all monasteries in a certain territory is called the ''protohegumen''. The duties of both hegumen and archimandrite are the same, archimandrite being considered the senior dignity of the two. In the Russian Orthodox Church the title of Hegumen may be granted as an honorary title to ...
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