The startsy were charismatic elders of nineteenth-century Russia, such as Seraphim of Sarov and the elders of Optina, who received crowds seeking counsel. Dostoevsky portrayed one in Father Zosima in The Brothers Karamazov. They continued the desert tradition of the abba.
Starets
An elder: a monk of the Russian Orthodox tradition revered as a spiritual guide.
Also: staretz, elder