The author of the advice and instructions collected in the book is Father Valentin (Mordasov) (1998). He devoted all his free time from divine services to the flock. As if to an inexhaustible source, people who were suffering, seeking spiritual admonition or simply life advice, were drawn to him. Along with complex, purely personal questions, parishioners and pilgrims often had questions that could conventionally be entitled: “How to live like a Christian?” “How to be saved” or “What is good for a believer to know,” etc. There were a great many such questions, and Father Valentin gave his blessing to write down the answers to some of the most interesting and necessary ones. Father rarely said anything on his own; all his advice was based on patristic teaching. Only those questions that were not explained in church books, he resolved with the greatest care, relying on his enormous spiritual experience and prayer.