In this article, the author summarises the essential ideas about the main virtues and vices based on the written inheritance left by the devout Optina Elders. The examined virtues and vices are: humbleness, prayerfulness, Christian love and pride, self-love and envy, respectively. The author takes a close look at how the Optina Elders understood each of these manifestations of a man’s personality, what are the roots of each virtue or vice, how they are connected and how they can be cultivated or disrooted respectively. Numerous quotations attributed to the Optina Elders are provided, through which the reader can grasp more easily the spiritual ’pedagogics’ of the Optina Elders and how they can help us in our own christian life.
