The personality and teaching of the greatest Elder of the 20th century, Joseph the Hesychast, is vividly captured in the memoirs of his student and successor Archimandrite Ephraim, pro-abbot of the Philotheus monastery on Mount Athos, creator and confessor of Orthodox Greek monasteries in America, the most revered Elder of our time. For the first time, the image of the Venerable Elder Joseph and his science about the monastic way of life and salvation are revealed to the reader in such completeness. The book gives answers to the main questions of spiritual life for Christians. Translation from Greek and notes by Archimandrite Simeon (Gagatik).