starets

angelic intermediate Orthodox Christian single tradition · 1

A spiritual elder who appeared to the young Bartholomew when he was struggling to learn to read. He gave Bartholomew a piece of prosphora (holy bread) to eat, after which the boy was able to read. Orthodox Christians interpret this incident as being an angelic visitation.

When

First attested
1300 CE
Attested period
1300 – 1400
Historical notes
Encountered by Bartholomew (later Sergius of Radonezh) in early 14th century Russia, interpreted as angelic visitation.

Relationships

teacher of
Bartholomew

Expand to full subgraph →

Sources

wikipedia (1)

Source passages

“His biography states that a starets (spiritual elder) met him one day and gave him a piece of prosphora (holy bread) to eat, and from that day forward he was able to read. Orthodox Christians interpret the incident as being an angelic visitation.”

#1731 · extracted by anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5