Elder Sebastian of Optina

Publication Data: Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood, 1999
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 490
Dimensions (l × w × h): 21.0 cm × 13.5 cm × 2.5 cm
Additional Information: black-and-white illustrations
ISBN: 0‒938635‒62‒X

   
by Tatiana V. Torstensen
Translated by David Koubek

Volume 6 of The Optina Elders Series

“One of the last Elders who grew up from the root of pre-revolutionary Optina is Schema-archimandrite Sebastian (Fomin, †1966)—a disciple of Elder Joseph and, after his death, of Elder Nektary. Having absorbed within himself the traditions and the grace-filled patristic spirit of Optina Monastery and having been tried, like iron, in the furnace of fiery trials, enduring banishment and imprisonment in the soviet camps, he, by the ineffable judgments of God, bore his service of eldership in the sultry steppe of Central Kazakhstan, in much-suffering and blessed Karaganda where, during the period from the 1930s to the 1950s, one of the most tragic acts of the God-fighting drama of our century unfolded.”
—“Foreword to the Russian Edition”

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
FOREWORD TO THE RUSSIAN EDITION
CHRONOLOGY
PART I: THE PRIMA VITA OF ELDER SEBASTIAN
   1. Youth and Life in Optina
   2. Arrest and Exile
   3. Life in Karaganda
   4. Last Days
   5. Canonization
PART II: ACCOUNTS OF SPIRITUAL CHILDREN
PART III: TEACHINGS OF ELDER SEBASTIAN
PART IV: SELECTIONS FROM SERMONS
PART V: ELDRESSES OF KARAGANDA
   1. Schema-nun Agnia
   2. Schema-nun Anastasia
APPENDIX: Historical Information on the “Karlag”
AKATHIST
GLOSSARY
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY
INDEX