Father Sergius

A young prince in the imperial guard leaves everything to go in search of holiness, and there begins for him an adventurous, overwhelming confrontation with an unknown God who dwells within him and at the same time in the whole universe. As Sergius distances himself from the materialistic world, he takes on the role of a monk and becomes known as Father Sergius. Through his trials and tribulations, the novel explores themes of identity, temptation, and the struggle to reconcile worldly desires with spiritual enlightenment. The long life of the prince-monk turns into a theological parable, in which every certainty is gradually destroyed and nothing remains but an immense freedom, won through storms of pride, doubt, sensuality. Tolstoy wrote this short novel between 1890 and 1898 - at the height of preaching his personal, fundamentalist, anti-ecclesiastical, overbearingly heretical Christianity. Tolstoy's masterful storytelling reveals the internal conflict faced by Father Sergius as he grapples with his own ego, pride, and the need for redemption.