Archimandrite Bartholomew (Vasily Levitsky; -1873) wrote a work about the rules of pious life, which were developed through thousands of years of experience by the ascetics of Christ. The book contains teachings about repentance, abstinence, mercy, meekness, chastity and many other things that the soul of a true Orthodox Christian should worry about. After all, despite the fact that the Gospel rules seem clear to everyone, it is still worth turning to the experience of the wisest Fathers of the Church, who will open the holy road to faith. Reproduced in the original author’s spelling of the 1912 edition (M.: Typo-lithography by I. Efimov, 1912. – 256 pp.).