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.

The following convents enjoyed the spiritual guidance of Elder Macarius: the monasteries of Velikolutsk, Vyazma, Kursk, Serpukhov, Sevsk, Kaluga, Yeletsk, Bryansk, Kazan, Ostashkov, Smolensk, and others. Thus, under his leadership were: the Borisov Hermitage, the Kashira Monastery, the Belevsky Monastery and the Volkhov Monastery; with his blessing, the Akhtyrka Gusev Monastery of the Saratov Diocese, the Kozelytsan Monastery of the Poltava Diocese, the Pyatnitskaya Women's Community, the Forerunner Hermitage of the Oryol Diocese, the Nikolo-Tikhvin Community of the Voronezh Diocese, and, finally, the Kazan Shamordin Hermitage of the Kaluga Diocese arose and were established.

Speaking of the spiritual influence of the Optina Hermitage, one cannot remain silent about its influence on the Russian intelligentsia. We have already mentioned I. V. Kireevsky, Father Clement Zederholm and K. N. Leontiev. Let us also mention: N. V. Gogol, who had correspondence with Elder Macarius and Archimandrite Moses; professors of Moscow University Shevyrev and Yurkevich, and who visited Elder Ambrose F. M. Dostoevsky, V. S. Solovyov, Count A. K. Tolstoy, V. K. Konstantin Konstantinovich and Gr. Leo Tolstoy, who even in the last fateful days of his life was drawn first of all to the Optina Hermitage, to its elders. In Shamordin lived Leo Tolstoy's sister, Maria Nikolaevna, about whom the elder Lev said in her childhood: "This Masha will be ours." In general, it should be said about Shamordin that there, under the wing of Elder Ambrose, hundreds of Russian educated women found refuge, whose names are impossible to enumerate.

It remains for us to consider the southern branch of the Russian eldership, which originates from Elder Paisius. Of the direct disciples of Elder Paisius in the south of Russia, the following are known: the monk Gerasim, tonsured by Elder Paisius, who after leaving for Russia lived in the Sophroniev Hermitage, Kursk Province; in the Ekaterinoslav diocese asceticized Hieroschemamonk Liverius, who died at a very old age in 1824. He had as his student the inspector of the Ekaterinoslav Theological Seminary, the learned monk Macarius, who later became the famous head of the Altai Mission. The most widespread influence in the south of Russia was undoubtedly the famous Hieroschemamonk Vasily (Kishkin). He came from the nobility of the Kursk province, traveled a lot and lived for a long time on Athos and in Moldavia with the elder Paisius. Returning to Russia, he was the builder of the Beloberezhskaya Hermitage, then lived in the Kremenets Monastery, in the Sarov Hermitage, in the Kursk, Glinsk, Sophronieva and Borisov Hermitages of the Kursk Diocese, in the Rykhlov Monastery of the Chernigov Diocese, in the Ustmedveditsky Monastery of the Don Diocese, in the Sevsky Monastery and in the Ploshchansk Hermitage of the Oryol Diocese. In all these monasteries he left numerous disciples and died in 1831. He had the good fortune to listen to the talks of Tikhon of Zadonsk and was a friend of Anthony, Archbishop of Voronezh. He was a remarkable ascetic, distinguished from his youth by chastity, humility, patience and love for those who offended him. Of his disciples, the following are known: the Optina Elder Lev, who was under his leadership in the White Shores; Seraphim, former abbot of the Beloberezhskaya hermitage; Arsenius, who asceticized in the Roslavl forests; Schema-Hierodeacon Melchizedek; Schema-monk Macarius of the Beloberezhskaya hermitage and other ascetics of this monastery, of which it must be said that it was also a remarkable center of the Paisius movement. Further, the disciples of Elder Basil were: Athanasius, schema-monk of Athos, Hierodeacon Anastassy, who asceticized in the Svensk monastery and in the Roslavl forests; Archimandrite Melchizedek of the Simonov Monastery in Moscow, Archimandrite Moses of Optina, Abbess Augusta of the Ustmedveditsky Monastery.

His disciple, and at the same time a disciple of the elder Archimandrite Theodosius from Moldavia, was the famous ascetic of the Glinsk hermitage Philaret, from whom the Glinsk line of Russian asceticism originates. Let us name the most famous ascetics of this line: the monk-elder Theodotus, a clairvoyant; Macarius, a hieroschemamonk, a clairvoyant elder who attained high spiritual perfection; Martyrius, a great faster, who did not eat food for a week and loved solitude and silence; Schema-monk Evfimy, Father Philaret's cell-attendant; Panteleimon, a hermit hieroschemamonk, buried in a skete, built by his care at the place of the appearance of the miraculous icon of the Nativity of the Mother of God; Hieromonk Anthony, assistant to the brother's spiritual father, silent; Hierodeacon Serapion, who saw his guardian angel and after his death went through his rosary for three hours; the monk Dositheus, who possessed the gift of insight and healing, who was vouchsafed to hear angelic singing at the death of the elder Theodotus; Schema-Archimandrite Iliodor, who for eight years was the abbot of the Rykhlov Monastery and the abbot of the Peter and Paul Monastery of the Chernigov Diocese; Schema-monk Lavrenty, a disciple of Archimandrite Heliodor and his successor in eldership; Archimandrite Innokenty, a disciple of many elders, and chiefly of Elder Macarius, who possessed a loving heart and the gift of healing; Hieroschemamonk Iliodor, a man of prayer, who predicted his death a year in advance; Schema-monk Archippus, who possessed the gift of insight and prayer, the leader of the spiritual life of schemamonks; the ascetic-clairvoyant Luke, and many others.

Of the individuals who did not belong to the brethren of the Glinsk hermitage, but who used its spiritual guidance, we know: Philaret - abbess of the Ufa Annunciation Monastery, a student of Philaret Glinsky; Macarius, Archimandrite of the Altai Mission, later abbot of the Bolkhov Trinity Monastery, Bible translator, clairvoyant; Theodosius, spiritual father of the Svyatogorsk hermitage of the Kharkov diocese, a disciple of Filaret; Hieroschemamonk John, a hermit of the Svyatogorsk hermitage, a disciple of Father Philaret; Ioannikii, spiritual father of the Svyatogorsk hermitage, healer of the possessed; Archimandrite Paisius, abbot of the Vysokogorsk Nikolaevskaya hermitage, a disciple of Father Philaret, Venerable Seraphim of Sarov predicted for him the leadership of monks 24 years in advance; Macaria, clairvoyant schema-nun of the Gamaleevsky Monastery of the Chernigov Diocese, spiritual daughter of the Elder Anatoly of the Glinsk Hermitage; Cleopatra, Abbess of the Sevsky Monastery; the elder of the Glinsk hermitage Anatoly blessed her to go to the monastery and predicted to her that she would be abbess.

To the short list of disciples of Elder Paisius (which is far from complete), we consider it necessary to add a list of lavras, monasteries, hermitages, sketes and communities that received their rules from him or his disciples, their elders or abbots, or who had his disciples and followers among their brotherhood. We make a reservation that this list of ours is far from complete.

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