Optina Pustyn'

OPTINA PUSTYN'. - Russian monastery near Kozelsk, in the province of Kaluga. Its origins are uncertain and date back to the 14th-15th century. During the 18th century it declined, like so many others, because of the State's administrative measures hostile to monasteries. The Metropolitan of Moscow Platon (1775-1811) sent there the monk Avraamij, an ardent follower of the archimandrite Paisio Velickovskij, the great reformer of modern Russian monasticism.

This was the beginning of the spiritual rebirth of O. P., which became famous especially thanks to its starez (= elders +), monks esteemed as wise masters of the spiritual life and expert directors of consciences, sought out by very numerous pilgrims of every social and cultural class. Among these starez the most distinguished were Leonida (d. 1841), Macario (d. 1860) and especially Ambrogio Gronkov (1812-91), visited and venerated also by the most eminent Russian writers of his time, e.g., Kirejevskij, Leontjev, Tolstoj, Dostojevskij, Solovjev, etc. The monks of O. P. also occupied themselves with the publication of ascetic and hagiographic works; latterly about 300 dwelt there. The Bolshevik revolution cut short the renewed activity of O. P.

Giuseppe Olär