Christ's Light in Tolstoy's Prison

Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was born in Russia

on September 9, 1828. He died on November 20, 1910

in Astapovo,Russia. He is considered to be one of the
greatests literary figures in the history of Russia, having
written works such as War and Peace, Anna Karenina,
The Death of Ivan Ilyich, The Three Hermits, and among

many others, the play The Power of Darkness. He was a

very prolific author.

In the blog Logismoi we read a fascinating story on

the last days of Leo Tolstoy; Fr Aaron Taylor writes,

"According to Stanton, Tolstoy had been to Optina at

least four other times, beginning in 1877, and had 

visited Elder Ambrose on three of those occasions.

The latter said very little about their final conversation

(in 1890), but told Constantine Leontiev:

‘When Tolstoy came into my cell, I blessed him, and
he kissed my hand. But when he came to leave, in
order to avoid a blessing, he kissed me on the cheek.’
When he was saying this, the elder was barely
breathing—he was so worn out from his conversation
with the Count. 

‘He is very proud,’ added Father Amvrosii. [1]

[1]Leonard Stanton, The Optina Pustyn Monastery
in the Russian Literary Imagination: Iconic Vision
in Works by Dostoevsky, Gogol, Tolstoy, & Others
(NY: Peter Lang, 1995), p. 206."

Please follow the links below to read Fr Aaron's excellent

post in his blog, Logismoi.

Saint Sebastian of Optina on Tolstoy's Last Days Part 1

and

Saint Sebastian of Optina on Tolstoy's Last Days Part 2