In view of the special importance of the Optina Hermitage in the history of the Russian eldership, we will name its most outstanding and famous ascetics and elders, and we will also point out those persons and monasteries on which it had a special influence. Having received a thorough Paisius leaven at its very restoration, the Optina Hermitage became deeply akin to the spirit of Elder Paisius and his precepts. Everything in it: the rule of the monastery, the organization of divine services, the general order of life, and the spiritual structure of each individual brother are surprisingly coordinated and bear the stamp of special spirituality, enlightenment and joyful tranquility. As soon as he crosses the threshold of this holy monastery, a pilgrim or pilgrim immediately feels the closeness of God, the special grace of its spiritual atmosphere, and he himself involuntarily becomes closer to God and attunes himself to a bright and joyful mood. Such a spiritual appearance and such a fruitful influence of the Optina Hermitage remained unchanged for almost a hundred years until the revolution.

Of the remarkable ascetics and elders of the Optina Hermitage, we must first of all name its famous abbot, Archimandrite Moses, who ruled it for more than 30 years and died in 1862.

He was a strict guardian of the Paisian legends and its cenobitic rule, laid the foundation for the Optina eldership, led the Optina Hermitage into spiritual and material improvement, and was himself known for the holiness of his life and spiritual experience. Guiding the life of the Optina Brotherhood, he did not leave without his guidance other persons who turned to him for advice. Thus, under his spiritual guidance was the abbot of the Tikhon Hermitage of the Kaluga Diocese, Moses, and the hermit of the Gethsemane Skete at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Hieroschemamonk Alexander, who had as his disciple the spiritual father of the Gethsemane Skete, Hieromonk German, who later became the builder and abbot of the Zosima Hermitage of the Vladimir Diocese.

Father Moses' brother, Father Anthony, asceticized with him in the Roslavl forests, and took part in the organization of the Optina Skete and was its first head, and then for 14 years was the abbot of the Maloyaroslavetsky Monastery, Kaluga Diocese; having resigned from this position, he lived for 12 years in retirement in the Optina Hermitage, where he died in 1865. Like his brother, he was distinguished by a lofty spiritual life and had a special gift for comforting the sorrowful. His letters and notes published by the Optina Hermitage are remarkable. Under his spiritual guidance was Joseph, a hieroschemamonk of the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery of the Moscow Diocese.

In addition to these persons, there were many other remarkable ascetics in the Optina Hermitage.

Proving the correctness of Orthodoxy, he miraculously testified to it, taking out a handful of sand from the bottom of the boiling cauldron with his hand. He died in 1849. Monk Hilarion, who entered the Optina Hermitage at the age of 80 and asceticized there for 16 years. Vassian, an elder, schema-monk, a great faster, who for 45 years of monasticism did not drink tea and wine, did not eat fish and milk, except for Pascha, and twice endured a 40-day fast; Job, hieroschemamonk, spiritual father of Elder Macarius, a great lover of silence; Pimen, hieroschemamonk, confessor of Elder Ambrose, disciple of Leo and Macarius, distinguished by his particular simplicity and taciturnity.

Now we turn to the second famous Optina Elder Macarius. He came from the noble landowner family of the Ivanovs of the Oryol province. In his youth he thought of getting married, but having once visited the Ploshchansk hermitage of the Oryol diocese, he was so captivated by the beauty of monasticism ("all the monks seemed to him earthly angels") that he did not want to return home and remained in the monastery forever. His teacher in the Ploshchansk Hermitage was a disciple of Elder Paisius, Schema-monk Athanasius (Zakharov), the same one under whose influence the Elders Philaret and Alexander were in Moscow, and through them Moses of Optina and Ivan Vasilyevich Kireevsky, who later had to work together with Elder Macarius on the publication of translations of Elder Paisius. How amazingly intertwined and intertwined were the spiritual threads that came from Elder Paisius! Father Macarius lived in the Ploshchansk hermitage for 24 years. After the death of Elder Athanasius, a spiritual rapprochement and correspondence began between Father Macarius and Father Leo, which resulted in the resettlement of Father Macarius to the skete of the Optina Hermitage. For 7 years, the Elders Macarius and Leo continued to live together in the Optina Skete. They were bound together by the closest friendship and like-mindedness. They wrote common letters to their spiritual children with a common signature. But their characters were completely different. Father Lev was a merchant, he was straightforward, rude, almost wise, although he had a tender heart. Father Macarius, from the nobility, was gentle, meek, loved book studies, and in his youth, before entering monasticism, he played the violin and loved to sing. But both of them were equally great zealots of true spiritual monasticism. After the death of Father Leo, Father Macarius served as an elder for 19 years, being at the same time, after Father Anthony, the head of the skete, and died in 1860. Like Father Lev, he gathered around him many disciples who wished to asceticize under his guidance. Among them were many educated people, with the help of whom the elder undertook the publication of translations of the patristic books of Elder Paisius. A particularly close part in this affair was, as has been said, Ivan Vasilyevich Kireevsky, the spiritual son of Father Macarius, who lived not far from the Optina Hermitage, in his estate of Dolbino. Ardent assistance to the elder in the publication of books was provided by his Moscow friends and admirers - Moscow Metropolitan Philaret, professor of the Moscow Theological Academy - Archpriest. F. A. Golubinsky, Rector of the Academy, Archpriest. Thus, thanks to the labors and concerns of Elder Macarius, the beginning of publishing activity in the Optina Hermitage was laid, which did not cease even after the death of Fr. Macarius.

Two years after the death of Fr. Macarius, the abbot of the Optina Hermitage, Archimandrite Moses, died, and three years later his brother, Hegumen Anthony, and thus the main persons who laid the foundation of the eldership and strict monastic life in the Optina Hermitage went to the grave. But with their death, the work they had begun did not die out. The guardians and successors of the work of the first generation of Optina elders were the new elder, Hieroschemamonk Ambrose, and the new abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Isaac. Elder Ambrose, by the name of Grenkov, came from the clergy and was born in 1812 in the village of Bolshiye Lipovitsy, Tambov province. After graduating from the theological school and theological seminary, he was for some time a home teacher in a landowner family, and then a teacher at a religious school in Lipetsk. In 1839, on the advice of Elder Hilarion Troekurovsky, he went to the Optina Hermitage, where he came under the spiritual guidance of Father Leo, and after his death Father Macarius. Distinguished by a lively and cheerful, sociable character, a gentle and kind heart, a penetrating mind, worldly experience and wisdom, a lofty spiritual structure, deep prayerfulness and knowledge of the human heart, Ambrose after the death of Macarius naturally took his place and as if combined in himself the spiritual traits and gifts of both his predecessors. He had a tremendous spiritual influence not only on the brethren of the monastery, but also on strangers of all ranks and positions, condition and education, beginning with a poor and dark peasant woman weeping over her dying turkeys, and ending with metropolitans, grand dukes, senators, writers and philosophers, who came to him to seek advice and consolation in difficult and complex questions of internal and external life. and no one left him without receiving the necessary help and moral support, so that the words of the Apostle, which were later inscribed on his tombstone, were fulfilled in all exactness: "I am weak as I am weak, that I may gain the weak: I may save all of all, that I may save every one." For all his extreme infirmity and sickness, which almost always chained him to bed, he received visitors from morning until late at night, with a short break for lunch and a short rest, and this activity of his continued uninterrupted for 30 years.

In the last 10 years of his life, he took upon himself a new concern for the maintenance and improvement of the crowded Shamordin women's community, which he founded 12 versts from the Optina Hermitage, and in which, in addition to 1000 sisters, most of whom did not have any personal means, and sometimes were completely sick and elderly, there was also an orphanage, a school. an almshouse for 60 old women and a hospital. With the help of devoted, spiritual children, of whom it is impossible not to mention the families of the Klyucharevs, Perlovs and Bakhrushins, the elder not only maintained this huge monastery, but also built in it a majestic church and a refectory, rare in their beauty. In the midst of such a multitude of people and such cares, the elder did not stop the work of the book publishing house and also carried on a huge correspondence. When Elder Ambrose died in 1891, everyone felt that the enormous moral and material support for a great multitude of destitute and unfortunate people had collapsed, and the great sorrow and loud sobs that accompanied his burial were unfeigned.

The abbot of the Optina Hermitage under Elder Ambrose was Archimandrite Isaac. He came from a rich, Kursk merchant family of the Antimonovs. In his youth, he sold cattle and traveled to fairs. Having decided to enter a monastery, he quietly left his father for the Optina Hermitage and came to the elder Leo. The elder, as usual, sat surrounded by people, wove his usual needlework - belts - and talked. Young Antimonov sat behind everyone. Suddenly he heard the elder's loud shout: "Vanyushka!" Not thinking that this shout referred to him, an unknown old man and a fashionable provincial dandy, Antimonov continued to sit quietly. However, the people began to fuss, they began to push him and said: "Go, it is the elder who is calling you." Struck by the elder's perspicacity, Antimonov approached him, and after a conversation with him he remained in the monastery forever. At first he was a disciple of Father Leo, then of Father Macarius, and, finally, of Elder Ambrose, on whose instructions, quite unexpectedly for himself, after the death of Father Moses, he was appointed abbot of the monastery. Father Isaac was distinguished by deep humility, a deep reverent mood and silence. He died at a very old age in 1894.

Other remarkable Optina residents include: Hierodeacon Palladius, who moved to the Optina Hermitage from Ploshchanskaya in the time of Abraham in 1815 and lived in the Optina Hermitage for 46 years; Hierodeacon Methodius, who had been paralyzed for 22 years. He could say "yes, yes" and "Lord have mercy." Lev Nick knew him. Tolstoy liked to point to it as an example of great suffering and great patience fostered by the Christian faith; the blind schemamonk Carpus, about whom the elder Leo said: "Carpus is blind, but he sees the light"; Hieroschemamonk Gabriel, founder and elder of the Belokopytov women's community; Hieroschemamonk Theodotus, spiritual father and elder of the Gethsemane Skete and the Paraclete Hermitage at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra; Hieroschemamonk Hilarion, spiritual father and head of the skete, was the cell-attendant of Elder Macarius, and then shared with Elder Ambrose the labors of the eldership, Elisey, a novice, a forest watchman, who lived in the Optina Hermitage for 52 years, refused promotions and was a favorite guest of Elder Ambrose; Hieromonk Clement (Zederholm) - student, clerk and collaborator of Elder Ambrose in book publishing. Clement's fate is especially remarkable. He was the son of the chief Lutheran pastor of Moscow, the superintendent, a very learned and serious man, deeply devoted to Lutheran teaching. Fr. Clement brilliantly graduated from the Faculty of Philology of Moscow University and was preparing for the title of professor. Finding no satisfaction in Lutheranism, he became close to Elder Macarius through his Orthodox friends in Moscow, felt the beauty and truth of Orthodoxy, accepted the Orthodox faith, and then monasticism, and settled in a skete at the Optina Hermitage, where the strictest ascetics lived, became the most devoted disciple of Elder Ambrose and helped him in writing and publishing. His correspondence with his father about his conversion to Orthodoxy is remarkable. A very interesting biography of Clement was compiled by the famous Russian writer and philosopher, the spiritual son of Elder Ambrose, K.N. Leontiev.

Let's continue our list of outstanding Optina residents: Konstantin Nikolaevich Leontiev is a Russian consul in the Middle East, a highly educated man, an original Russian thinker who hated and rejected socialism as a desire for universal leveling and depersonalization, who recognized that the world lives and is saved by beauty, the author of the book: "The East, Russia and the Slavs". During his stay on Athos, he suffered from a serious illness (cholera), and miraculously, through prayer before the icon of the Mother of God, he was healed of it. After that, he became a deeply believing Orthodox Christian, who felt with particular strength the truth of the two dogmas of Orthodoxy - about eternal torment and about eternal bliss. Having moved to the Optina Hermitage in the 70s of the last century, he became acquainted with the elder Ambrose and became his devoted disciple. Before the death of Father Ambrose, he moved to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, became a monk and died in 1892. Flavian, a disciple of the elders Leo, Macarius and Hilarion, is a strict ascetic. Anatoly (Zertsalov), hieroschemamonk and head of the skete after the death of Father Hilarion, a disciple of Elders Macarius and Ambrose, from the clergy, a seminary student. Together with Joseph, he was the successor of Father Ambrose in the eldership; known as a doer of mental prayer, he was the spiritual father of the Shamordin sisters, and died in 1894. Daniel Bolotov, a hieromonk from a well-known noble family, brother of the famous first abbess of the Shamordin community - Schema-nun Sophia, graduated from the Academy of Arts, a wonderful iconographer and portraitist, a very educated person, an unusually kind and pure-hearted disciple of Elder Ambrose, who painted his best portrait. He died in 1907. Joseph, a hieroschemamonk, cell-attendant and disciple of Elder Ambrose, his successor in eldership, a humble and meek elder. Elder Ambrose said about him to his spiritual children: "I have given you wine and water to drink, and Joseph will give you pure wine to drink." He died in 1911. Benedict, archimandrite, successor in the skete leadership and eldership of Father Anatoly Zertsalov, from the white clergy. Having become a widower, he turned to the elder Ambrose for advice, and at his direction he entered the Optina Hermitage. He was the clerk of Father Ambrose and the spiritual father of the Shamordin sisters. He died as an archimandrite of the Borovsk Monastery. Yuvenaly (Polovtsev), a collaborator of the elders Macarius and Ambrose in book publishing, later the abbot of the Glinsk hermitage, the abbot of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra and the Alexander Nevsky Lavra, Bishop of Kursk and Archbishop of Lithuania. Leonid Kavelin, also a collaborator of the elders Macarius and Ambrose in book publishing, later the abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. Xenophon, archimandrite and abbot of the Optina Hermitage, humble, strict, silent and reverent guardian of the Optina legends, from a peasant background. The last elders of the Optina Hermitage were Hieromonk Nektarios, a practitioner of mental prayer, a disciple of the head of the skete Anatoly, and Hieromonk Anatoly, the former cell-attendant of Elder Ambrose, and later his universally recognized deputy.

With these last names we conclude the far from complete list of the remarkable Optina ascetics who have died, who preserved the behests of Elder Paisius. The Optina Hermitage in its constant spiritual growth was a powerful spiritual center, from which the spirit of true Orthodox monasticism spread widely throughout Russia. Closely observing the Optina Elders, Lev Nik. Tolstoy, acknowledging that Christian feelings are deeply rooted in the Russian people, says in one of his letters that these feelings were nurtured in them by Russian monasteries and their elders.

Let us now name those monasteries and those persons on whom the spiritual influence of the Optina Hermitage and its elders extended. The Optina Elder Anthony, having been appointed abbot of the Maloyaroslavetsky Monastery, transferred there the traditions of the Elder Paisius. His work was continued by Archimandrite Paphnutius, who had previously been the head of the skete in the Optina Hermitage. Elder Leo, through his disciple Gerontius, planted an eldership in the Tikhonova Hermitage of the Kaluga Diocese. In addition to Gerontius, ascetics are known in the same Tikhon Hermitage: Ephraim, the spiritual father of the monastery, and Moses, the abbot of the Tikhon Hermitage, a disciple of the elders Leo, Macarius and Moses of Optina. In the Nikolo-Ugreshsky Monastery of the Moscow Diocese there were disciples of Elder Leo - the abbot of the monastery Hilary, and Hegumen Anthony - Hieroschemamonk Joseph. In the Belevsky Convent, the eldership was implanted by Father Lev through his spiritual daughter Anthia, who endured many sorrows for her devotion to Father Lev, as well as through Abbess Pavlina, the abbess of the Belevsky Convent, under whom this monastery began to flourish especially. Under the spiritual guidance of Elder Lev was also the Borisov Tikhvin Convent of the Kursk Diocese. The disciples of the Optina Elders were also Macarius, abbot of the Mozhaisk Luzhetsky Monastery, Nikodim, abbot of the Meshchevsky and Maloyaroslavetsky monasteries, Hilary, the elder of the Meshchevsky monastery, the abbess of the Kashira monastery Makaria and the abbess of the same monastery, Abbess Tikhon; the founder of the Belokopytovsky Kazan Convent Alexandra and the priest of the same monastery, Archpriest Andrei; the abbot of the Likhvin Monastery, Archimandrite Agapit, who wrote the best of the descriptions of the life of Elder Ambrose; abbot of the Odrinsky Monastery, Hegumen Serapion; the spiritual father of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Hieroschemamonk Anthony; Archpriest of the village of Spasa Chekryak in the Oryol Diocese, Father Georgy Kossov, a well-known man of prayer, who possessed the gift of clairvoyance and healing, who created in his poor and remote village a beautiful stone church, school, orphanage and almshouse (frightened by the poverty of his parish, Fr. George decided to flee from it, and came to Fr. Ambrose for advice, but the latter resolutely forbade him to leave the parish. "There are two of you (with God), and he is one (the devil)," the elder said to Fr. George); Schema-nun Sophia (Bolotova), the spiritual daughter and disciple of Elder Ambrose, the first abbess of the Kazan Shamordin Convent, after whose death Elder Ambrose said: "Oh, mother, she has found grace with God!"; Abbess Euphrosyne, 2nd Abbess of Shamordin, blind; Abbess Catherine and Abbess Valentina, the last Shamordin abbess.