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Starets
A starets ( ; ''fem.'' ) is an elder of an Eastern Orthodox Church, Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic Churches, Eastern Catholic monastery or convent 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 asceticism, ascetic struggle, prayer and hesychasm, the Holy Spirit bestows special gifts onto the elder including the ability to Faith healing, heal, Prophet, 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, o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Optina Pustyn
The Optina Pustyn (, 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 Fyodor Dostoevsky, Vasily Zhukovsky, Nikol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symeon The New Theologian
Saint Symeon the New Theologian (; 949–1022) was an Eastern Orthodox monk and poet who was one of the four saints canonized by the Eastern Orthodox Church and given the title of "Theologian" (along with John the Apostle, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Saint Hesychius the Priest of Jerusalem). "Theologian" was not applied to Symeon in the modern academic sense of theological study; the title was intended only to recognize someone who spoke from personal experience of the vision of God. One of his principal teachings was that humans could and should experience ''theoria'' (literally "contemplation," or direct experience of God). Symeon was born into the Byzantine nobility and given a traditional education. At age fourteen he met Symeon the Studite, a renowned monk of the Monastery of Stoudios in Constantinople, who convinced him to give his own life to prayer and asceticism under the elder Symeon's guidance. By the time he was thirty, Symeon the New Theologian became the abbot of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lev Of Optina
Hieroschemamonk Leonid (Nagolkin) of Optina, also Leo (or Lev) of Optina, was a venerable elder of Optina Monastery and a founder of Optina's eldership. Life The future St. Leonid was born Lev Danilovich Nagolkin in Karachev in the Orlov Province in 1768 of a family of ordinary parents. He worked for a merchant during his early years, making frequent trips as part of his employer's business, thus he gained experience dealing with different people. As a mature young man, Leo decided to enter a monastic life. In 1797, Leo entered Optina Monastery as it was being reborn. After two years he left to enter White Bluff monastery in the Orlov eparchy, where Hieromonk Basil (Kiskin) was igumen. Under Fr. Basil, Leo underwent training in monastic virtues of obedience, patience, and various external endeavors. In 1801, Fr. Basil tonsured Leo a monk giving him the name Leonid. Later in the year Fr. Leonid was ordained a deacon on December 22 and then a priest on December 24. Earnestly fulf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nil Sorsky
Nilus of Sora (also Nil Sorsky or Nil Sorski; ; secular name: Nikolai Maikov; ; – 7 May 1508) was a Russian Orthodox monk, spiritual writer, theologian, and the founder of the Sora Hermitage. He is best known as the founder of a tendency in the Russian Orthodox Church known as the non-possessors (''nestyazhateli'') which opposed ecclesiastic landownership. The Russian Orthodox Church venerates Nilus as a saint, marking his feast day on the anniversary of his repose on 7 May. Early life Nilus of Sora, a great ascetic of the Russian Church, was born in 1433, and descended from the Maikov nobility. Before becoming a monk, Nilus of Sora worked as a scribe and was engaged in book copying. He also journeyed to Palestine and Greece early in his life and was acquainted there with the Hesychast movement. Later in his life, he took monastic vows at the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, which had been known for its hostile stance towards monastic landownership. The founder of the monas ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kozelsk
Kozelsk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, town and the administrative center of Kozelsky District in Kaluga Oblast, Russia, located on the Zhizdra (river), Zhizdra River (a tributary of the Oka (river), Oka), 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 of Kozelsk, 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 o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Philokalia
The ''Philokalia'' (, from ''philia'' "love" and ''kallos'' "beauty") is "a collection of texts written between the 4th and 15th centuries by spiritual masters" of the mystical hesychast tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. They were originally written for the guidance and instruction of monks in "the practice of the contemplative life". The collection was compiled in the 18th century by Nicodemus the Hagiorite and Macarius of Corinth based on the codices 472 (12th century), 605 (13th century), 476 (14th century), 628 (14th century) and 629 (15th century) from the library of the monastery of Vatopedi, Mount Athos. Although these works were individually known in the monastic culture of Greek Orthodox Christianity before their inclusion in the ''Philokalia'', their presence in this collection resulted in a much wider readership due to its translation into several languages. The earliest translations included a Church Slavonic language translation of selected texts by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confession (religion)
Confession, in many religions, is the acknowledgment of sinful thoughts and actions. This is performed directly to a deity or to fellow people. It is often seen as a required action of repentance and a necessary precursor to penance and atonement. It often leads to Reconciliation (theology), reconciliation and forgiveness. Christianity Roman Catholicism In Catholic Church, Catholic Christian teaching, the Sacrament of Penance is the method by which individuals confess any Christian views on sin#Catholic views, sins they have committed after their baptism; these sins are then absolution, absolved by God through the administration of a priest, who assigns an act of penance. To Validity and liceity (Catholic Church), validly receive absolution, the penitent must make a sincere sacramental confession of all known mortal sins not yet confessed to a priest and pray an act of contrition (a genre of prayers) that expresses both motives for sorrow and the resolve not to sin again. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paisius Velichkovsky
Paisius Velichkovsky or Wieliczkowski (''Paisie de la Neamţ'' in Romanian language, Romanian; Паисий Величковский in Russian language, Russian; Паїсій Величковський in Ukrainian language, Ukrainian; 20 December 1722 – 15 November 1794) was an Eastern Orthodox monk and theologian who helped spread staretsdom or the concept of the spiritual elder to the Slavic world. Also accessible ahttp://sophiainstitutenyc.org. He is a pivotal figure in Orthodox Church history. Life A Ukrainians, Ukrainian by birth, Pyotr Velichkovsky was born on December 21, 1722, in Poltava, where his father, Ivan, was a priest in the city cathedral. He was the eleventh of twelve children. His grandfather was the poet Ivan Velichkovsky. In 1735, he was sent to study at the Kiev Theological Academy. In 1741, he became a rasophore monk, taking the name of “Platon”. However, his monastery was soon closed, because of the political stresses during the time, and he entered ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sergius Of Radonezh
Sergius of Radonezh (; 14 May 1314 – 25 September 1392) was a Russian spiritual leader and monastic reformer. He was the founder of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius near Moscow, what is now the most venerated monastic house in Russia. He exerted the greatest influence of any personage on the Russian Orthodox Church. Together with Seraphim of Sarov, he is one of the most highly venerated saints in Russia. Historian Serge Aleksandrovich Zenkovsky wrote that Sergius, along with Epiphanius the Wise, Stephen of Perm, and the painter Andrei Rublev, signified "the Russian spiritual and cultural revival of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century". Early life The date of his birth is unclear: it could be 1314, 1319, or 1322. His medieval biography states that he was born to Kiril and Maria, a boyar family, near Rostov, on the spot where now stands. The narrative of Epiphanius does not specify the exact birthplace of the monk, stating only that before the migration from Ro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eastern Orthodox Church
The Eastern Orthodox Church, officially the Orthodox Catholic Church, and also called the Greek Orthodox Church or simply the Orthodox Church, is List of Christian denominations by number of members, one of the three major doctrinal and jurisdictional groups of Christianity, with approximately 230 million baptised members. It operates as a Communion (Christian), communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its Bishop (Orthodox Church), bishops via local Holy Synod, synods. The church has no central doctrinal or governmental authority analogous to the pope of the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople is recognised by them as ''primus inter pares'' (), a title held by the patriarch of Rome prior to 1054. As one of the oldest surviving religious institutions in the world, the Eastern Orthodox Church has played an especially prominent role in the history and culture of Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeastern Europe. Since 2018, the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Symeon The Elder
Simeon () is a given name, from the Hebrew (Biblical ''Šimʿon'', Tiberian ''Šimʿôn''), usually transliterated in English as Shimon. In Greek, it is written Συμεών, hence the Latinized spelling Symeon. It is a cognate of the name Simon. Meaning The name is derived from Simeon, son of Jacob and Leah, patriarch of the Tribe of Simeon. The text of Genesis (29:33) argues that the name of ''Simeon'' refers to Leah's belief that God had heard that she was hated by Jacob, in the sense of not being as favoured as Rachel. Implying a derivation from the Hebrew term ''shama on'', meaning "he has heard"; this is a similar etymology as the Torah gives for the theophoric name ''Ishmael'' ("God has heard"; Genesis 16:11), on the basis of which it has been argued that the tribe of Simeon may originally have been an Ishmaelite group (Cheyne and Black, ''Encyclopaedia Biblica''). Alternatively, Hitzig, W. R. Smith, Stade, and Kerber compared שִׁמְעוֹן ''Šīmə‘ōn'' to A ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seraphim Of Sarov
Seraphim of Sarov (; – ), born Prókhor Isídorovich Moshnín (Mashnín) [Про́хор Иси́дорович Мошни́н (Машни́н)], is one of the most renowned Russian saints and is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Anglican Communion. He is generally considered the greatest of the 18th-century Starets, ''startsy'' (elders). Seraphim extended the monasticism, monastic teachings of contemplation, theoria and self-denial to the layperson. He taught that the purpose of the Christian life was to Descent of the Holy Spirit, receive the Holy Spirit. Perhaps his most popular quotation amongst his devotees is "Acquire the Spirit of Peace, and thousands around you will be saved." Seraphim was glorification, glorified by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1903. Life Born 19 July (O.S.) 1754, Seraphim was baptism, baptized with the name of Prochor, after Prochorus (deacon), Prochorus, one of the first Seven Deacons of the Early Church and the Disciple (Chri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
