Between 1821 and 1891 the Optina Pustyn Monastery of Konzelsk in Russias Kaluga Government was the site of an unprecedented and as yet unequaled period of religious and literary flowering. Optina Pustyn was a mecca for many of Russias most prominent writers and thinkers. Distinguished visitors included Ivan Kireevsky Nikolai Gogol Fyodor Dostoevsky and Lev Tolstoy. This study explains why Optina and its renowned elders held a special attraction to Russias literary giants. It reveals how the elders use of language was rooted in the iconic vision of Optinas fifteenhundredyearold tradition of contemplative monasticism. It is the first study to examine Optinas social gravity against the broad background of nineteenthcentury institutions of Church and Intelligentsia. show more