EN
The article presents spiritual guidance, startchestvo in the Eastern Churches. On the basis of two sayings of the Desert Fathers the author carried out a moral analysis of two spiritual starets’ behavior. Based on this analysis behavioral and moral norms were determined which regulated starets’ activities. We presented problems which can be observed in spiritual guidance when a starets violates the norms in relation to his supervisees. We pointed out that this violation in pastoral ministry can be caused by the phenomenon called “mock startchestvo”.