Begin with the adoption of the Christian ascetic habit of monasticism – monasticism – has become for the believer of Ancient Russia the highest goal, which allows him to overcome earthly wanderings. The Russian podpizhnik was a saint for the faithful, shining with all Christian virtues. Kazalos i> that there is no personal relationship between the ascetic and the world. Therefore, people rarely turned to him for advice regarding worldly life, to a much greater extent they saw in him an ideal of life, an example of active xpiush ans. Everyone felt within himself the possibility of someday becoming a monk, an ascetic, and hid in his soul a longing for the "life equal to the angels" as a necessary step on the road to perfection. The idea of personal salvation prevailed in Old Russian, as well as in all Russian eschatology.

The saint was first of all the ideal of the Christian life, an image, an icon, rising to this state through the Church. For the ancient Russian people, the icon is not just a picture, "but an image of the future mankind, which has all become the temple of God"1. An icon is a mute witness of a holy life, always accessible to the seeker of the heart and giving this heart new strength; He who immerses himself in this contemplation with faith enters a new world — the heavenly world of the saints...

"Once I stood in the chapel," says one of the believers, "contemplating the miraculous icon of the Mother of God and thinking about the children's bread of the people who pray here: some women, the sick, the elderly, kneeling, made the sign of the cross and bowed to the ground, I began to understand with unshakable confidence that this is a holy aspiration, and little by little the mystery of the miraculous power began to be revealed to me. of the icon that came to me: yes, in front of me was not just a painted board! Countless people of different ages with deep inner prayer, a prayer of suffering, were filled with the power emanating from the icon and again reflecting from the worshippers. It was life, it was a meeting place between the Creator and man... And when I was thinking this, I looked again at the old people, at the women with children, prostrating themselves in the dust, and at the holy icon, and then I saw the living power of the Mother of God: She looked with compassion and love at these humble people; and then I knelt down and began to pray humbly..."

For the praying contemplator, there was no difference between the icon and the saint himself, with whom he communicated through the image, "iconographically". This is the peculiarity of the relationship between the world and the saint. In the icon shone the fullness of grace-filled power, testifying to the world about its existence, the fullness from which everyone could receive according to his faith and strength. And if a person sought instruction in the field of religious and moral questions of Christian life, then this contemplation was already sufficient

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answer for the layman. The Old Russian seeker of God did not resemble the heroes of Dostoevsky's works, because he did not indulge in moral doubts or doubts about faith and atheism, so characteristic of post-Petrine Russia. His worldview, his humility were within the framework of Christian eschatology and partly soteriology. He was convinced of the need to go through an earthly sinful life in order to sooner or later come to the monastic image equal to the angels, to take upon himself all the strictness of asceticism and thus follow Christ. There was no place for mystical contemplation in this worldview, with the exception of some saints. In ancient Russia we find hermits, recluses, stylites, but rarely mystics. In the greatest humility, devotion and self-abasement they lay prostrate in prayer before God. They were constantly concerned about repentance of the incipient evil, they were imbued with a sense of their own sinfulness. This sense of one's complete unworthiness of the grace of Divine contemplation, this humble bowing down in prayer before Christ, Who for the people was the greatest example of perfect humility, apparently did not allow the desire to participate in the mystical contemplation of Divine splendor to arise. Ascetic work did not at all aspire to mystical heights, but humbly and in firm hope hoped to dwell in the heavenly temple of Divine glory after death.

The Old Russian believer found great inner satisfaction in the divine services, which he loved and valued most of all for the splendor of the words of church hymns, for the rhetorical richness of the old sacred histories, and in general for the strict consistency of the church rule. Therefore, to the surprise of the Greeks, he could stand for many hours of all-night vigils, immersed in the verbal beauty of the stichera, canons or lives of the saints of the day. In divine services, his soul found fullness, unity of worldview, enrichment, strengthening and liberation from all needs through prayerful appeal to the Mother of God, to the saints. Here, in the church, he felt God's unlimited mercy for His creation. Therefore, in those days, prayer was the main Christian activity.

Behind the walls of ancient Russian monasteries we find all the beginnings of Russian culture. Outside of them we can neither understand nor explain it. Our culture has grown under the protection of the Orthodox Church, and having left the monastery, having entered the worldly life, it has never forgotten its origin. The Russian monastery was the creation of the entire people. It arose out of a religious need, not political considerations. Monasticism has never been organized into any congregations with a specific goal. Nevertheless, the influence of the monks, even those who did not hold any position in the monastery, was very noticeable. Peter the Great's attempt to make Russian culture more secular had only temporary success. If we turn to the history of Russian thought in the nineteenth century, whether we cast a glance at Gogol or the Slavophiles, at Dostoevsky, or at the entire philosophical world of subsequent years, up to recent times, we will always find a connection with the saints of the ancient Church, whose thoughts these philosophers tried to reformulate and deepen. From this point of view, eldership acquires exceptional importance. The Spiritual and Ascetic Atmosphere of Russian Monasteries

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The sheaf entangles the Nnimanne of the Unruling and receives recognition, a huge influence on the people's soul.

The eldership is also closely connected with the history of monastic life in Russia. It was a phenomenon arising from the historical development of asceticism and mysticism of the Eastern Church. Initially, it came from Mount Athos. Its spread in Russia occurred at the end of the fifteenth century thanks to the ascetic and mystical works of St. Nil of Sorsky and his disciples, the so-called Trans-Volga elders. Then the eldership was little known. We have no information about its significance in the XVII-XVIII centuries. But in the last quarter of the XVIII century, the elder Paisius Velichkovsky appeared. He is credited with the revival of the eldership, its role in the life of monks and laity. In the nineteenth century, the eldership reached its highest flowering, first in the small monasteries of central Russia, and then in the exceptional life of Fr. Seraphim of Sarinsky and the Elders of the Optina Hermitage.

The Elder is one of the senior monks who went through a difficult path of self-denial and took young monks and laypeople under his spiritual guidance. He sees his task primarily in guiding and caring for the soul, educating the will of those who do not have much spiritual experience, striving to lead them through all the temptations and sorrows of this life. From his own life and experience, he knows about the variety of dark paths on which the adversary awaits us. To strangers who come from outside, he gives advice to protect them from mistakes.

The Elder is the heart of all believing hearts who receive advice from him. The elder is the will to the religious and social perfection of these believing hearts; People who have given themselves over to its leadership completely abandon their own will.

In a monastery, an elder usually does not hold any position; He is a spiritual leader and counselor. His disciples are grouped around him in the monastery, and he humbly and responsibly takes upon himself this heavy responsibility.