The Russian eldership – the flesh of the flesh of the universal eldership – based on the experience of the great Egyptian elders, also has specific features. To look closely at the features of this great consoling phenomenon born in the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church is our urgent task, and this is what our word is about.

But to reveal the little-known sources of the sayings of the elders themselves in their writings and letters – and thus to be reborn to never-ending, eternal life – should also be within our power. On the whole, the direction of the word before us is a fall into the foundations of the Spirit in Christ Jesus, to the foundations of the spiritual life, which guides and strengthens the life of people in the eldership. It is also the search for life, the search for the path, unchanging, true, which remains so in the days of our difficult "cosmic" age.

Fundamentals of Eldership

… thoughts, the most primary and most subtle forms of the movement of sin and virtue in the realm of the mind, became for the monks the center of primary attention in the guidance of the elders. ("Monastic Pastorship, or Eldership")

Before expounding our thoughts on the Russian eldership, it is necessary, at least very briefly, schematically, to understand the basic concepts of the eldership as such that exist in the literature. There are very few such works; most often eldership is written about as a patristic tradition, as a phenomenon associated with the teaching and thoughts of the Holy Fathers, and ideas about the benefits of elder guidance are developed.15

In addition to the above-mentioned sources, it is necessary to note the manuscript work, where the eldership is understood as monastic pastorship.16 Its author sees in the phenomenon of eldership a mystical justification for the moral feat of man. He says that for the realization of Christian perfection it is necessary to purify the heart, to sanctify the entire personality of a person, which can be achieved only in the ascesis of elderly guidance. In it, the entire "subsoil" of human life must be revealed.

In our long-standing thoughts about eldership, we tried to see in it the basis of what takes place in the life of every human family, where the younger ones use the guidance and instructions of the elder, where the relationship of children to father and mother is naturally formed, and where in the reasonable and loving actions of parents the basis for the correct growth of the child into a perfect husband is laid. We have even tried to show that in the spiritual life the most necessary and incomparable concepts of father, mother, daughter, and son are taken from the natural life of the basic unit of human society, the family.17 Truly, along with the mystical side of the elder's leadership, which the author of "Monastic Pastorship" likes to emphasize, the life of the spiritual family in the elderly leadership is full and firm only when, along with the great ascesis of obedience, observation of the inner soul of the soul, the living warmth of parental and family relations is also preserved, when the elder is not only a strict judge of the "thoughts of the heart", but also a loving, loving abba, who is not even in a fatherly way, rather, in a motherly way, he watches over the inner and outer life of his God-given child.

We know, finally, the attempt of the great Dostoevsky to define eldership as a tremendous power that a person receives by giving his will completely to another, renouncing his will and life.18 It is not for us to judge how right Dostoevsky, who knows the heart, in this definition; we can only be infinitely grateful to him for introducing his concept of the Russian monk into Russian literature and for giving it – and with it the whole world – the image of the Elder Zosima. Through the mouth of Elder Zosima, he said many prophetic words both about the future of the Russian intelligentsia and about the service of the Russian people to all mankind.

The author of "Monastic Pastorship" sees the basis of eldership as a lofty spiritual monastic activity as a striving "to attain the purest thinking without the intermediary of any symbols, not even words." Here he finds "the concentration of the entire inner life" of man "on a single all-embracing idea of the Divine" – a truly great feat, reaching the dimensions by which Dostoevsky defined it.

In order to approach the height of this idea, it is necessary to observe the slightest, initial movements of the soul. It is this observation of movements and their revelation that, along with obedience, constitutes the firm edifice of eldership, the foundation of a genuine spiritual life. Speaking of "sophisticated systematic self-observation," the author of "Pastorship" writes that this requires "an exact, subtle to the scrupulous analysis of the elements of sin and virtue," and thus comes to a definition of the concept of thought. The thoughts (????????) that must be revealed to the elder are the most primary and most subtle forms of the movement of sin and virtue in the realm of the mind, "the observation and regulation of thoughts is the most important, essential, expedient ascetic feat."

The gift of discernment of spirits – discernment of thoughts (separation of good from evil) – is a very difficult feat. It must be based on prudence and reasoning. From this it follows that this gift is acquired from life, from one's own experience, but most importantly, with the help of God's grace. The grace of God guides the relationship between the elder and the disciple, the most sincere inner relations are established between them, so that the disciple can no longer hide anything – not a single thought, not a single movement – from the elder. "By revealing his spiritual movements and states to the leader," says the Monastic Pastorate, "the one who is perfecting acquires the habit of self-observation, brings them out of the recesses of his soul, as if objectifying them, placing them before his inner eye, and therefore has a more psychological opportunity to evaluate them more correctly."

Here it is possible to compare the actions of the elder with the actions of a doctor or psychiatrist who conducts a complex analysis of the patient's mental state. The healing of the patient itself depends on the correct direction, on the depth of the study. It is no accident that in recent years in clinical practice great importance has been attached to the analysis carried out both by the patient himself and by the psychiatrist.19 And yet, for the understanding of eldership, these are only faint similarities, since, as said above, in the leadership of the elders, everything is accomplished by the grace of God, precisely the fact that the elder does not rely on himself or on his art, but on the help, on the guidance of the Holy Spirit, His all-effective grace.

In the legends about the lives of the elders and their disciples, one can find very many living examples of how great is the pure, merciless revelation of thoughts to the elder before God, how in the eyes of God this revelation is redeemed, how this revelation is valued, how he who strives to reveal his thoughts and suffers from them is equated with the passion-bearer who sheds blood for the confession of Christ. Such are the stories of a young monk who repeatedly, many times in the night, went to the elder in order to reveal to him the thought that was chilling him. And they saw a radiance over the head of the disciple, as over the head of a saint. The story of how the elder, not understanding and not accepting the power of his disciple's confession, condemned him for his revelation, and for the edification of the passion with which the disciple struggled, took possession of the elder in all its strength. And the elder was saved only by a grace-filled action, manifested in the intervention of his brethren, who did not allow him to leave the monastery.20