Biographies & Memoirs, Religion & Spirituality 

Elder Barsanuphius (1845 1913), a disciple of Elder Anatole (Zertsalov) and Elder Nektary, was a highly cultured man and a successful colonel before entering the monastic life at a relatively late age. Due to his purity of heart and spiritual sobriety, he was transformed by God into a grace-filled Elder virtually overnight. The period before the first World War and the Russian Revolution was a complex one. The world was seething in unprecedented passions, and one could clearly sense the approach of darkness. With a sympathetic soul Elder Barsanuphius attended to the world, and the Lord parted a curtain before him, showing him the horrors of the future. People from the world, thirsting for consolation in their sorrows, streamed to Optina. Elder Barsanuphius, in frail health but strengthened by the power of the Lord, received them, conversed with them, confessed them, and directed them to the only true path. He was a man of extraordinary spiritual vision, and could see clearly into the hearts of those who came to him. Presented here, for the first time in English, is a complete biography of this great Elder, including his talks on a variety of subjects, excerpts from the journal of his cell-attendant (the future Elder Nikon, himself a great Optina Elder and a subsequent victim of the communist terror), and selections from his spiritual poetry. - from Amzon