A panorama of Russian Christian spirituality, richly illustrated with passages from formative works. Beginning with Russian monasticism up to the end of the fifteenth century, Bolshakoff, born in Russia and a lifelong researcher of monasticism, gives a tour of Russian spirituality in this seminal study. Individual chapters focus on St. Nilus of Sora, St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, Archimandrite Paisius Velishkovsky and his disciples, St. Seraphim of Sarov, Bishop Ignatius Bryanchaninov, and Bishop Theophane the Recluse. Interspersed with these biographically oriented chapters are studies of Russian monasticism in the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries, and also in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The Startzy of Optino are considered under the nineteenth century and twentieth century Russian mystics conclude the work.