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During the late eighteenth century monasticism in Russia enjoyed a revival, significantly influenced by the works and spirituality of the [[Elder]] [[Schema]]-[[monk]] [[Paisius Velichkovsky]], which was spread by his many monastic disciples. At Optina his works found a ‘headquarters’ from which his spirituality expressed in the hesychastic tradition spread throughout Russia. A visible manifestation this spirituality at Optina was conveyed by the lineage of divinely enlightened spiritual fathers, ''startsy'', plural of starets, who served as spiritual guides for the many people who came to the monastery for holy counsel during the nineteenth century.
In addition to counseling, the monastery, through the initiative of Elder Macarius, began publishing patristic texts, an activity in the Church that had been seriously curtailed by Peter I’s reforms. Hieroschema monk Macarius also began editing manuscripts of the translations by Paisius Velichkovsky and his followers of Greek versions of patristic works. Thus, began an effort by the monks of Optina that resulted in production of some 125 books with over 225,000 copies of works by St. [[Isaac the Syrian]], St. [[Symeon the New Theologian]], St. [[Nils Nilus of Sora]], and others that were distributed throughout Russia and was a counter to the secular press that was publishing translations of mystical-philosophical works from the West.
Most of the buildings on the monastery were built in the nineteenth century. A heritage was built for the startsy near the monastery in 1821. Large crowds of devout Christians were attracted to Optina Pustyn, including many notables such as Nikolai Gogal, Ivan Turgenev, Feodor Dostoyevsky, Vasily Zhukovsky, and Vasily Rozanov.
