Venerable Ambrose of Optina
In the history of our country, as well as in world history, there are saints who are, as it were, “milestones” on the path to the Almighty. One of these righteous people was the Monk Ambrose of Optina, whose memory is celebrated on October 23.
Venerable Ambrose of Optina
The future great Optina elder Hieroschemamonk Ambrose was born on December 4, 1812 in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa, Tambov province, into the large family of sexton Mikhail Fedorovich Grenkov and his wife Marfa Nikolaevna. At the age of 12, Sasha (that was his name) was sent to the first grade of the Tambov Theological School, after which in 1830 he entered the Tambov Theological Seminary. Six years later, his studies were successfully completed, but Alexander did not enter the theological academy. He did not become a priest either. For some time he was a home teacher in a landowner family, and then a teacher at the Lipetsk Theological School.
At the age of 27, tormented by reproaches of conscience about the unfulfilled vow he made to God in the last class of the seminary - to become a monk if he recovered from a serious illness - Alexander Mikhailovich secretly, without even asking permission from the diocesan authorities, fled to Optina Pustyn, which was then “a pillar of fire in the darkness of the surrounding night, which attracted to itself all the little ones seeking light.”
According to legend, this monastery, located three miles from the city of Kozelsk, and surrounded on three sides by impenetrable virgin forests, and on the fourth by the Zhizdra River, was founded by a repentant robber named Opta, an associate of Ataman Kudeyar. The life of the monastery was based on strict observance of three rules: strict monastic life, preservation of poverty and the desire to always and in everything carry out the truth, in the complete absence of any partiality. The monks were great ascetics and prayer books for Orthodox Rus'. During his lifetime, Alexander Mikhailovich saw, one might say, the very flower of her monasticism, such pillars as Abbot Moses, elders Leo and Macarius.
In April 1840, almost a year after his arrival, Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov became a monk. He was actively involved in the everyday life of the monastery: he brewed yeast, baked rolls, and was an assistant cook for a whole year. Two years later he was tonsured and named Ambrose. After five years of living in Optina Pustyn, in 1845, 33-year-old Ambrose already became a hieromonk.
His health deteriorated greatly during these years, and in 1846 he was forced to leave the state, being unable to fulfill obediences, and became a dependent of the monastery. Soon the state of his health became threatening, the end was expected, and according to ancient Russian custom, Father Ambrose was tonsured into the schema. But the ways of the Lord are inscrutable: two years later, unexpectedly for many, the patient began to recover. As he himself later said: “In the monastery, those who are sick do not die quickly until the illness brings them real benefit.”
During these years, the Lord raised the spirit of the future great elder not only through physical infirmities. Particularly important for him was communication with the elders Leo and Macarius, who, seeing Ambrose as the chosen vessel of God, said about him nothing less than: “Amvrosy will be a great man.” Listening to the wise instructions of Elder Leo, he at the same time became very attached to Elder Macarius, often talked with him, opening his soul to him and receiving important advice for himself, and helped him in the publication of spiritual books. The young ascetic finally found what his soul had long thirsted for. He wrote to friends about the spiritual happiness that opened up for him in Optina Pustyn.
“Just as all the paths leading there converge at the top of a mountain, so in Optina - this spiritual peak - the highest spiritual feat of internal work and service to the world in its entirety, both its spiritual and everyday needs, converge.” They went to the elders in Optina for consolation, healing, for advice... Those who were confused in their everyday circumstances or in philosophical quests came to them, those who thirsted for the highest truth strove there, in this “source of living water” everyone quenched their thirst. Outstanding thinkers of the era, philosophers, writers were there more than once or twice: Gogol, Alexei and Leo Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Vladimir Solovyov, Leontyev... - you can’t count them all. After all, for a Russian person, an elder is a person sent by God Himself. According to F. M. Dostoevsky, “for the soul of a Russian person, exhausted by work and grief, and most importantly, by everlasting injustice and everlasting sin, both one’s own and the world’s, there is no stronger need and consolation than to find a shrine or a saint, to fall before him and bow to him. If we have sin, untruth and temptation, then all the same, there is a saint and a higher one on earth somewhere - he has, but there is truth. This means that she does not die on earth, and therefore, someday she will come to us and reign over the whole earth, as promised.”
S. Ivleva. Venerable Ambrose of Optina. 2002
It was Ambrose who, by Divine Providence, was destined to become one of the links in the ranks of the 14 Optina elders: after the death of Elder Macarius, he took his place and for 30 years cared for suffering souls.
Elder Ambrose appeared in Optina Pustyn and attracted the attention of exclusively intelligent circles at a time when this intelligentsia was captured by Western philosophical thought. Having previously been the soul of society, who loved everything secular (he sang and danced well), for whom “the monastery was synonymous with the grave,” he understood better than anyone else the spiritual quest of the intelligentsia and with his very life testified that the path he had chosen was the ideal of that happiness that everyone should strive for.
No wonder it is said: “The power of God is made perfect in weakness.” Despite his physical suffering, which almost always confined him to bed, Elder Ambrose, who by that time already possessed a number of spiritual gifts - insight, healing, the gift of spiritual edification, etc. - received crowds of people every day and answered dozens of letters. Such gigantic work could not be accomplished by any human forces; life-giving Divine grace was clearly present here.
Among the spiritual grace-filled gifts of Elder Ambrose, which attracted many thousands of people to him, one should first of all mention his insight: he penetrated deeply into the soul of his interlocutor and read it as if in an open book, without needing his confessions. And charity was simply his need: Elder Ambrose generously distributed alms and personally took care of widows, orphans, the sick and suffering.
In the last years of the elder’s life, 12 versts from Optina Pustyn, in the village of Shamordino, with his blessing, a women’s Kazan Pustyn was established. The construction of the monastery, its rules - everything was established by Elder Ambrose himself; he personally tonsured many of the sisters of the monastery into monasticism. By the 90s of the 19th century, the number of nuns in it reached a thousand. There was also an orphanage, a school, an almshouse and a hospital.
It was in Shamordino that Elder Ambrose was destined to meet the hour of his death - in October 1891, at the 79th year of his life.
Teachings and aphorisms of Elder Ambrose:
- We must live as a wheel turns - just one point touches the ground, and the rest strive upward.
- Why is a person bad? Because he forgets that God is above him!
- If you do good, then you should do it only for God, why should you not pay any attention to the ingratitude of people.
- The truth is rough, but God loves it.
- Affection makes people have completely different eyes.
- To live is not to bother, not to judge anyone, not to annoy anyone, and to everyone - my respect.
- He who reproaches us gives us gifts. And whoever praises steals from us.
- We need to live unhypocritically and behave exemplarily, then our cause will be true, otherwise it will turn out badly.
- Hypocrisy is worse than unbelief.
- If you don’t humble yourself, that’s why you don’t have peace.
- Our self-love is the root of all evil.
“Go to Optina and you will be experienced”
After seminary, he worked as a home teacher for the children of a wealthy landowner. Then he was invited to teach Greek at the Lipetsk Theological School. They say that at this time he fell ill again and therefore secretly went to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, as well as to the then-famous Elder Hilarion. The elder gave him simple advice: “Go to Optina, and you will be experienced.” Alexander never returned to Lipetsk. The seminary authorities did not even suspect that their Greek teacher was already gaining experience in the monastery.
A few years later he was tonsured a monk with the name Ambrose - in honor of Ambrose of Milan . Then he became a hierodeacon and then a hieromonk. During his elevation to the rank of hieromonk, Ambrose of Optina suffered such a severe illness that he was then almost unable to serve. But this was also Divine Providence: Ambrose was to become an old man, communicate with people and strengthen them on the spiritual path. But more on this a little further.
God sent Ambrose of Optina wonderful spiritual fathers, and the young monk grew up under the tutelage of Saints Leo and Macarius.
Father Ambrose took the path of eldership, received people, blessed and gave advice
On September 7, 1860, Father Ambrose decided to inherit the work of eldership, which was carried out by Father Macarius, his spiritual mentor in the monastery.
Every day, Father Ambrose lived according to the following schedule:
- 4:00/5:00 — rise;
- Before 9:00 - reading the morning rule;
- From 9:00 - reception of monastics and laity;
- 14:00 - lunch and an hour and a half rest;
- Followed by vespers and reception until 23:00. The day ended with reading the evening rule.
A variety of people visited Father Ambrose. There were also celebrities among them. For example, Leo Tolstoy, who spoke of the elder like this:
"This Father Ambrose
quite a holy man.
I talked to him, and somehow it was easy
and my soul felt joyful.
When you talk to such a person,
then you feel the closeness of God.”
Lev Tolstoy
writer
This is a very remarkable review, because Leo Tolstoy had no sympathy for Christianity and preferred Eastern religious traditions to it, so Father Ambrose really made a positive impression on the writer.
Ambrose Optinsky
And the queues for the elder’s advice and blessing did not end.
Although Father Ambrose’s illnesses did not leave him, he learned to get along with them. In winter he did not show himself on the street, he alleviated illnesses with a prayer service and an akathist. One day his condition was improved by the icon of the Kazan Mother of God.
Illnesses tormented Father Ambrose all his life.
In 1870 he received a gold pectoral cross.
Hieroschemamonk Ambrose of Optina died on October 10, 1891. In 1891 he was canonized.
The relics of the saint were found on June 27. The Elder's Memorial Day is October 23.
Adolescence. The beginning of the way
The parents tried to instill in the boy a love of reading the Word of God and raised him in a religious direction. Every church holiday, the family went to the Temple of God, where the boy really enjoyed singing in the choir.
At the age of 12, the boy entered the theological school in the city of Tambov, and upon graduation he became a student at the theological seminary. Gifted by nature, the seminarian successfully studied science and found it easy to study. At a time when his peers were poring over textbooks, Grenkov, having read the material being studied once and hastily, answered in class without hesitation, as if written.
Most of all, he fell in love with the Holy Scriptures, history, theological and verbal sciences.
Among his seminary friends, he was famous for his cheerful and kind disposition, he was a sympathetic and cheerful comrade, the soul of society. He was fond of music and singing, loved poetry and even tried to write poetry himself, secluded in the lap of nature. The youth did not turn out to be a poet, but being an old man, he was very fond of altering his teachings into rhyme.
Being a witty, merry fellow, Alexander retained deep religious feelings, which he had known since childhood.
Icon depicting Ambrose of Optina
parents revived. Possessing a lively character, the young man was thinking about entering military service and did not even realize that the fate of a monk - a heavenly angel - was destined for him from Above.
The sayings of Elder Ambrose are useful for believers; they are published in books
Even a short life of Ambrose of Optina cannot do without mention of his spiritual instructions. The statements of the Optina Elders have always been especially valued in Orthodoxy.
The Monk Ambrose of Otpinsky left for posterity a lot of information about the spiritual path of man. Here are some books dedicated to this heritage:
Collection of Letters of the Optina Elder Ambrose.
The book contains spiritual instructions from Ambrose of Optina to the laity and monastics. For example, here is one of the sayings:
“Collected Letters of the Optina Elder Ambrose” Buy on PSALOLM.RU
“You are worried about N’s poor health, and you are afraid that she will die soon. God be merciful!
In the monastery, the sick do not die soon, but drag on and drag on until the illness brings them real benefit.
In a monastery it is useful to be a little sick, so that the flesh, especially among young people, will rebel less, and less trifles will come to mind.
Otherwise, with full health, especially young people, what kind of wasteland does not come to mind.
The enemy, in order to lure them out of the monastery, promises them almost the entire kingdom of earth, and all sorts of benefits, and all sorts of pleasures, and things that are inconvenient to write. But in fact, if they listen, he rewards them with disgust.
Saint Demetrius of Rostov writes that the world promises gold, but gives gold.”
The prayer rule of Ambrose of Optina, read during temptations.
The elder’s sayings make it clear that he knew very well what kind of prayer helps with what. He composed his own prayer rule to strengthen a person’s spirit. Quote:
“The prayer rule of Ambrose of Optina, read during temptations” Buy at Orthodox Word on Pyatnitskaya
“Trust in the mercy and help of God and believe that the Lord is strong to deliver you from all the snares of man and the enemy.
It is said in the Psalms: “The Lord destroys the councils of tongues and sweeps away the thoughts of men; But the counsel of the Lord endures forever."
I am writing out for you the psalms that Saint David prayed when he was persecuted by his enemies: 3rd, 53rd, 58th, 142nd.
Choose words that are appropriate for you from these psalms and read them often, turning to God with faith and humility.
And when despondency overcomes you or unaccountable sorrow torments your soul, read Psalm 101.”
How the elder supported monks and priests
While the elder was still alive, one spiritual daughter, with the blessing of the monk, founded a convent in the village of Shamordino. Ambrose of Optina helped in the arrangement of the monastery, in which after some time about 1000 nuns served, a hospital, a school for girls and shelters were built - separately for girls and elderly women.
He also supported the priests. When one parish priest, serving in the outback, could not stand the conditions and wanted to leave the ministry, the elder strengthened him. Go back, father! He is one, and there are two of you! - said the elder, they say, the evil one is one, and you are with God, therefore there are two of you. Thanks to the advice of the reverend, the priest returned to his parish. After years of pastoral service, coupled with patience and humility, people also began to come to him as an elder.
This is just one example, and many of them can be found in the life of the saint.
School of Humility
Saint Ambrose went through an amazing school of humility. Imagine yourself in the place of a person who knows five languages, but instead of cultural and educational activities, he brews yeast and bakes bread.
Moreover, this person has many natural gifts, he is interesting to listen to, but he spends his time in silence and solitude and... frequent illnesses.
Such circumstances perfectly humble and strengthen Ambrose of Optina. Having acquired such an important feeling for a monk as humility, he eventually receives obedience for the soul. Thanks to the efforts of the Monk Ambrose as a translator and publisher at Optina, the most useful spiritual works were published - “The Ladder” of John Climacus, letters of the Monk Macarius.
