Father Sergius

A prince and officer, the Life Guard leaves everything to become a monk. He later becomes a hermit, then a miracle healer. This leads to his questioning both his actions and his philosophies, and he ends as a hired man in Siberia.

One of the great masters of the 19th-century novel, Tolstoy created a sweeping epic in War and Peace which folds together huge events in history and politics with the emotional lives of individuals. But it was his deeply spiritual outlook that made him an icon.