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554 Reviewsrender the text thoroughly monastic. He adds a number of proper names, but there isno new material in his reworking of the Life.The language of all three texts is the Slavonic that Paisius and his brotherhoodused in their translations of Byzantine patristic texts. The editor purposely has notcorrected certain orthographical errors that betray the contemporary dialects of theauthors.The texts of Paisius and Mitrofan are a mine of information, beginning withdetails about Paisius's paternal great-grandfather's, grandfather's, father's and elderbrother's service in the church in Poltava (though there is no evidence for determiningwhether the poet Ivan Velychkovs'kyj was the father or grandfather; cf. V. P.Kolosova and V. I. Krekoten', Ivan Velychkovs'kyj: Tvory [Kiev, 1972], p. 18).Paisius's maternal great-grandfather had been a Jewish merchant who together withall his family had converted to Christianity. His godfather was V. V. Kochubej, sonof V. Z. Kochubej, one of Peter I's associates. One follows the young Paisius'seducation first at home and then at the Mohyla Academy in Kiev, where he conceiveda dislike for the scholasticism that prevailed in the eighteenth-century Orthodoxchurch and sought instead a more mystical theology, in particular (as time wenton) in the Hesychastic monastic tradition. Paisius describes his encounter with thevisiting Metropolitan Anthony of Moldavia and his early attraction to the Romanianliturgy. He left Kiev in search of a monastery to his liking and traveled to Liubech,Chernihiv, Chornobyl', back to Kiev (the Caves Monastery), then to various sketesin Moldavia and Wallachia, and finally to Mt. Athos. Mitrofan tells of Paisius'sdisappointment upon finding the Hesychastic tradition in a bad way on Mt. Athos; ofthe organization there of his Moldavo-Slavonic brotherhood; his searches formanuscripts of Byzantine patristic (mostly Hesychastic) texts; the brotherhood'sdeparture from Athos and establishment in Moldavia; the Russo-Turkish Wars;Paisius's flight from the Catholics in Bukovina; his rather complicated relationshipwith the hospodars of Moldavia; his translations into Slavonic of the Greek texts hehad found on Mt. Athos; his teachings on the Hesychastic Jesus-Prayer; and hisgreatness as a spiritual guide. Paisius became one of the most renowned of all SlavonicOrthodox "elders" (startsi); he and his disciples greatly influenced thedevelopment of the starchestvo which, long after its virtual extirpation from theRomanian church by the Cuza regime, survived and flourished in Russia, particularlyat Optina, where a further reworking and augmentation of Mitrofan's Life waspublished in 1847 (Engl. trans. Blessed Paisius Velichkovsky. The Life. . .OptinaVersion. . .by the Schema-MonkMetrophanes [Platina, Calif., 1976]).Another glimpse into Paisius's monastic world is provided by the correspondencewith Voulismas. This consists of four letters by Paisius and two by Voulismas,all written in 1785, which are preserved in the archives of the Athonitemonastery of St. Panteleimon. It is the editor's opinion that the Greek of Paisius'sletters is not of his own composing; Paisius signs the letters in Romanian (the officallanguage of his monastery). Paisius mentions a recent visit of Voulismas toRomania, and his "skillful cultivation" of the country, though it must not have beenall that skillful, since Voulismas appeals to Paisius for help in procuring thepatronage of the hospodar Alexander II Mavrocordatus. Paisius feigns cowardice,