Greg the Resourceful Husband managed to find this out-of-print gem, and I’m glad to say you can find it here at Alibris, which is turning out to be an invaluable source of hard-to-find books. Published in 1950, it’s a much-needed compendium of Russian Orthodox writings from nine different periods, going in chronological order from the 11th century to the 20th.

Here are the chapters:

1. St. Theodosius: The First Representative of Kenoticism
2. St. Sergius: The First Hermit and Mystic
3. St. Nilus Sorsky: The Teacher of Spiritual Prayer
4. Avvakum: The Conservative Rebel
5. St. Tychon: A Westernizing Kenotic
6. St. Seraphim: Mystic and Prophet
7. “The Way of the Pilgrim”
8. John of Cronstadt: A Genius of Prayer
9. Father Yelchaninov: The Teacher of Self-Examination

Each chapter contains an introduction to provide biographical background. I also found the editorial tone to be just right — giving due admiration to the writers but not ignoring their context and their weak spots, which adds dimensionality. The writings themselves vary — some are biographies written by contemporaries, some are diaries, some are homilies, some are instructions for monks.

This is one to explore for yourself, so I won’t give any excerpts. There are just two comments worth making:

• The chapter on Avvakum was jarring, and I’m not sure I would’ve included it. Avvakum was excommunicated and martyred in the 1600s for being an Old Ritualist. He wrote this autobiography in prison awaiting his execution, and his bitterness and constant stories of being starved, beaten, mistreated and maligned (and occasionally beating and maligning others just to make a point) stand out in sharp contrast with the other chapters.
• It’s worth the entire book for the last chapter by Fr. Yelchaninov, whom I’ve quoted here and here. I only today found out (thank you , Fr. Tim!) that you can still buy the autobiography, which “Treasury” gives selections from. It’s called “Diary of a Russian Priest” with the spelling changed to ‘Elchaninov’ and it’s on Amazon or Alibris. (Aside to Greg: three little words — mandatory Christmas “surprise”)