STARETS (plur. STARTSY) — meaning “elder,” is an ancient monastic institution in Russia. The starets (whether priest or layman) is the monk who, possessed by the Holy Spirit, becomes a guide on the path to perfection.
Within the monastery the starets holds no administrative office. It is not others’ choice but his very life—his spiritual experience of a life of renunciation and prayer—that makes him a starets, and by this he draws souls who sense in him the presence of God.
The institution of the startsy originated in the convents, where the startsy, besides giving spiritual direction, exercised a salutary influence on regular observance through their example. Yet it soon spread beyond the convents to the people at large, over whom the startsy wielded a broader and deeper influence. They taught the faithful to lift their gaze above ritualism and formalism and to learn to see God not only in ceremonies but also in the inner life. Humility and obedience were warmly commended by the startsy.
In fact there were startsy well before the eighteenth century, but their institution as a spiritual school grounded in the asceticism of the Fathers and with its own methods and customs is owed to Paisius Velichkovsky (1722–94), who, following the example of St Nilus of Sora, taught monks to prize inner perfection and union with God more highly, so that, inwardly composed and opposed to sin, they might fight temptations through enlightened and sanctifying prayer.