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"Starets Joseph of Optina", acrylic on canvas, 12x16 inch, Bishop Maxim, 2022
The venerable father Joseph (Litovkin) of Optina was starets and hieroschemamonk among the group of monastics of Optina Monastery in the nineteenth century who were known as the Optina Elders. Elder Joseph is venerated on May 9 and with the Synaxis of the Optina Elders on October 11. In June 1861, Joseph was asked by the Superior of the skete, Fr. Paphnutius, to become the cell attendant of the Elder Ambrose, a position he would retain for the next fifty years. As Fr. Ambrose's cell attendant, he found time to read spiritual books, especially the Philokalia and the writings of the Fathers, finding in them spiritual wisdom that he shared with those who came to him for advice. Foreseeing that Fr. Joseph would serve as Elder after him, Fr. Ambrose blessed some people to start going to Fr. Joseph for their spiritual needs. The Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky said that Saint Ambrose was the model for the character of Father Zossima in his novel "The Brothers Karamazov."