Father Arseny
By Alexander
Tags: Biography, Non-Fiction, Religion, Russia, Spirituality
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Started reading:
June 11, 2007
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Finished reading:
September 19, 2007
Review
“Father Arseny” is a touching and spiritually stirring collection of stories from the life of Piotr Andreyevich Streltzov. A Russian intellectual and art historian who later became a priest, Fr. Arseny spent several years in the “Special Camps” of Stalin and was the spiritual father to countless numbers.
Told through the memoirs of those who knew him (in an occasionally awkward translation from the original Russian), the writing itself is not always great, but the accounts are compelling, moving, and absolutely breathing with life. Imagine Gandhi as Wladyslaw Szpilman’s “The Pianist” set amidst the oppression of Stalin’s Soviet Union, and you’re getting close to the epic spiritual endeavor that was the life of Father Arseny. A definite recommendation if you can forgive some of the simplistic writing.

