There were two of us in this world. The blessing of the schema-nice, as if in paradise. Here he found his true purpose. The elder's guidance. Nikolka will sleep it off, it will be useful to everyone. Years of monastic feat. You see how sometimes learning is needed. Elder Nektary and painting. He quickly grew spiritually. From a solitary cell to public service. The spiritual height and foolishness of the elder. Elder Nektary on prayer. We've become like kindred spiritsArrest and prisonThe former elder in all the strength of his spirit From all over RussiaThe strength of the elder was fading In the face of the saints
The last council-elected Elder of Optina was the Venerable Nektarios, a disciple of the monastery leader, the Venerable Anatoly (Zertsalov) and the Venerable Elder Ambrose. He bore the cross of senile service during the years of difficult trials for the Russian Orthodox Church, for all of Russia. Elder Nektarios spent fifty years in the Optina Hermitage Skete, twenty of them in seclusion. He climbed the spiritual ladder from seclusion to public service and was a worthy successor to the Optina eldership. Endowed by God with the great gift of prophecy and foresight, long before the revolution and civil war he saw the coming troubles and sorrows of people. Elder Nektarios prayed for all of Russia, consoled people, and strengthened them in their faith. During the years of severe temptations, the Monk Nektarios took upon himself the burden of human sins. He shared the fate of many of his believing compatriots: he was persecuted, exiled, and died in exile. Less is known about his life path - in connection with the persecution of the Church, the persecution of monasticism - than about his illustrious predecessors.
DOLLIES FOR THE LORD
Outwardly, Father Nektary made a rather strange impression: in his youth, they say, he was handsome, but in his old age he had a wedge beard, his legs were swollen like logs from constantly standing in prayer, his ageless face was senile one second, youthful the next. lively and expressive. The elder’s behavior was even more incomprehensible - it surprised even those who had known him for a long time, and sometimes simply frightened those who were ignorant.
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Now the monk has laid out the dolls in front of him. I took one. He muttered something angrily, Feofan could barely make out the words: “Go to prison! On camera! That’s it!” Photo by VirtualWolf
The old man acted like a fool. He puts on a colored knitted jacket over his cassock - awkward, out of size - and walks around the monastery. Otherwise he will throw a robe over his naked body, a red bow on his chest and show off, embarrassing the brethren. During the meal he plays pranks: he pours sour, sweet, and salty things into one bowl, and eats and praises! I even got myself a gramophone and wanted to play records in the monastery, but the monastery authorities found out and didn’t allow it. He dragged all sorts of rubbish into the cell - pebbles, glass, clay, put it in a cabinet and began to brag to everyone: “Look what a museum I have!”
In the 1910s, Bishop Feofan of Kaluga came to Optina. The distinguished guest entered the cell of Elder Nektarios with outright distrust. Theophanes did not believe in the holiness of the new clairvoyant, about which the bishop was repeatedly reported. And he was not deceived in his assumptions: when he looked into the cell, Nectarius was there... playing with toys! He didn’t even raise his head to the Metropolitan, as if he didn’t exist. Nektarios's entire cell was filled with children's trinkets - airplanes, cars, trains, steamships... Now the monk has laid out the dolls in front of him. I took one. He muttered something angrily, Feofan could barely make out the words: “Go to prison! On camera! That’s it!” He took another: “I’ll punish you too!” Bad!” He started hitting the third one: “So you’ll know!”
One can imagine what the bishop was thinking about as he left the elder’s cell. What holiness there is! Senile infirmity, and nothing more. Apparently, Nektary has lost his mind...
Years have passed. After the revolution of the seventeenth year, the meaning of Nektarios’ strange actions began to be revealed to people. The monastery was turned into a museum (“Look what a museum I have!”). Students, female students and office workers, due to the poverty of the Civil War, began to go to work barefoot, wearing coats over torn underwear, but each had a red bow on their chest (exactly like the old man). And what happened to Bishop Theophan, who was so amazed at Nektarios’ dolls? He ended up in exile. He lived in the house of a cruel owner named Plokhin, and suffered greatly from his inhuman treatment. In 1937, Feofan was arrested. In the special corps of the Nizhny Novgorod prison, the bishop was brutally tortured - they beat him, put him in a basement cell, which was filled with water. It was then that Feofan remembered the Optina holy fool: “I am a sinner before God and before the elder: everything I said was about me, and I thought he was crazy...” In October 1937, Metropolitan Feofan was shot.
Yes, the words and actions of Father Nektary could indeed seem incomprehensible and provocative to people. But Father Nektary did not act arbitrarily - he received the blessing of the elders for his foolishness. Under his foolishness, the monk humbly hid his spiritual gifts - the ability to help people with advice to get out of specific and very difficult life situations and warn them about upcoming trials...
“NIKOLKA WILL WAKE UP - IT WILL BE USEFUL FOR EVERYONE!”
The last Optina elder, Venerable Nektarios, became such, in general, by accident. There were no prerequisites for this, other than God’s Providence. The origin of the future hieromonk was that of a worker and peasant, his education was elementary...
Nikolai Tikhonov was born in provincial Yelets in 1857 or 1858. The boy's parents loved him, but raised him in strictness. They were assigned to study at a rural school. His father, a mill worker, died when Kolya was seven years old. The mother outlived her husband by four years and managed to get her son into a merchant's shop. At the age of eleven, Kolya Tikhonov, a handsome, curly-haired, quiet boy, was left an orphan. Until the age of eighteen he worked as a junior clerk. I read a lot and spent all my free time in church.
Yelets . View of the city in the 19th century
The senior clerk had a beautiful daughter. The young people looked at each other. The girl’s father was already preparing the wedding, the merchant Khamov was not against it, he only advised her to receive a blessing from the hundred-year-old wise schema-nun Feoktista, the spiritual daughter of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk. Everyone in Yelets came to her for advice.
The old woman herself did not give the blessing - she sent Nicholas to Optina Pustyn, to Elder Hilarion, thereby determining his fate. The owner let the young man go reluctantly and did not give him a penny for the journey. So the eighteen-year-old groom came to the monastery with one Gospel. I didn’t know Hilarion or anyone else in the monastery. And a lot of people gathered in Optina at that time - crowds of people came to see Elder Ambrose, famous throughout Russia.
Nicholas was struck by the beauty of the monastery and its surroundings - flowers everywhere, green meadows, ship forests... Zhizdra meanders, glistening in the sun. Snow-white monastery walls with towers and weathervanes-angels...
View of the Optina Hermitage in the 19th century.
The monastic fathers he met sent him one to another. Finally, Elder Ambrose himself received the young man. High-ranking, noble pilgrims sometimes waited for weeks to be received by the saint, but for some reason the saint called the poor, uneducated orphan right away. We talked for two hours and... the young man did not return to his bride and remained in the monastery forever.
Little pilgrim
But let's return to the monastery of St. Nectarius of Aegina. Extremely bright, sunny, joyful, it seems to radiate Divine grace. The young lady Ninochka is especially happy, who, to our unspeakable joy, is making a pilgrimage with us this time.
Our little pilgrim is trying very hard to behave piously
Much is new to her, and our little pilgrim is trying very hard to behave piously, and we help her in every possible way.
The splendor of nature is complemented by a picturesque pond
How I want to wander along the sacred paths, pray and cry, constantly praising the Lord for His innumerable mercies.
I want to wander along the monastery paths endlessly
But time is inexorable. It expires quickly, and it’s time for us to get ready for the road again.
Abode in the rays of the setting sun
Unfortunately, we did not have the slightest opportunity to stay in the monastery for a long time. A long and exciting journey lay ahead along picturesque mountain roads, and by nightfall they were already waiting for us in Novo-Diveevo...
Paradise
The roads that we choose lead to a reserved, wondrous land, Where the day above the earth is like a ringing rainbow, Where the bottomless sky cries with dew, Where the grass is tall, clean rivers, Where Light and Good triumph forever And where the clouds glow at sunset, -
The roads we choose.
Tatiana Lazarenko
Novo-Diveevo
FATHERS-MENTORS
Two great elders took the young man under their wing: the Monk Anatoly (Zertsalov) became his spiritual father, and Ambrose of Optina himself became his main adviser! It was they who formed from a poorly educated orphan a giant of spirit, to whom, many years later, the philosopher Konstantin Leontyev read his manuscripts and to whom the holy Patriarch Tikhon himself turned for advice.
And the young man’s “monastic career” began very modestly. The year was 1876. Nikolai Tikhonov’s first obedience was assigned to care for those very monastery flowers that he liked so much. Then Nikolai became a sexton. He tried very hard, didn’t get enough sleep, was late for church, scared the monks with his red, swollen eyes. They complained about him to Elder Ambrose. And he just smiled and said: “Wait, Nikolka will sleep it off, it will be useful to everyone.”
…Nikolai Tikhonov’s first obedience was to take care of those very monastery flowers that he liked so much. Photo las - initially
Experienced elders tested and humbled the young “in the eyes”. “It used to be that I would come to Father Fr. Ambrose, and he said to me: “Why are you walking around doing nothing? I would sit in my cell and pray!” It will hurt me, but I don’t complain, but go to my spiritual father, Father Anatoly. And he greets me menacingly: “Why are you wandering around doing nothing? Have you come to celebrate?” So I’ll go to my cell. And there I have a large, full-length image of the Savior; It happened that I would fall before Him and cry all night: “Lord, what a great sinner I am, if even the elders do not accept me!”
In fact, the monks loved Nektarios very much, and he reciprocated their feelings. About Elder Anatoly, Nikolai recalled: “I treated him for twenty years and was the very last son and student, for which I still cry.” And about Elder Ambrose he wrote this: “...I turned (to him) only in rare and exceptional cases. Despite all this, I had great love and faith for him. It used to be that you would come to him, and after a few words of mine he would reveal the entire depth of my heart, resolve all my perplexities, pacify and console me. The elder’s care and love for me, unworthy, often amazed me, for I realized that I was unworthy of them.”
Prayer book
Prayers to the Optina Elder are considered one of the most powerful. Prayerful appeals to Saint Nektarios help to get out of any difficult life situation and to recover from serious mental and physical illness.
Most often, the monk is approached with prayer from the Antichrist. There are two versions of the sacred text: a short prayer and a full one.
Brief prayer text
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, who is coming to judge the living and the dead, have mercy on us sinners, forgive the fall of our entire lives and through their own destinies hide us from the face of the Antichrist in the hidden desert of Your salvation. Amen.
Full version
O Venerable and Blessed Father Nektarios, Ever-Bright Lamp of the Eldership of Optina! He rises up to foolishness and denounces the madness of the world, has valiantly endured the misfortunes of those who fight against God and has tasted the bliss of those who were exiled for the sake of the Lord Jesus. Look down now from heaven and come to us from the Garden of Eden. Raise our wisdom from earthly concerns and teach us to think about heavenly life. As if you have adorned yourself with divine virtues and tasted the fruits of Paradise sweets incessantly, from the agitation of passions and the bitter fruits of the love of sin, snatch us away with your abundant intercession. In the Orthodox Faith until our last breath we are confirmed to stand both in the footsteps of our fathers and in the tradition of St. The apostle made us wise to walk.
Pray to the Lord and God, God-wise Father, to deliver us from the coming Antichrist and from his insidious snares and to inhabit us in the hidden desert of salvation. May we end a quiet, peaceful and pious life in this world and, through your prayers, be worthy of inheriting the Paradise villages. Where together with you and with the elders of Optina we will sing and glorify the Beginningless and Indivisible and Consubstantial Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit forever and ever. Amen.
TWENTY YEARS OF READING
In 1887, a thirty-year-old student was tonsured into a mantle with the name Nektary. “For a whole year after that, I felt like I had wings behind my shoulders.” Seven years later he was ordained a hierodeacon, and four years later he was ordained a hieromonk by the Kaluga bishop.
Nectarius was known as strict among his brothers, but first of all he was strict with himself. No longer having vigilant mentors over him, he continued to humble himself in everything. It's no joke - a man went into seclusion for twenty years! He covered the windows of his cell with blue paper, covered himself with books, and began to receive an education. Myself. I read and prayed, prayed and read. He left his cell only to go to the temple.
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“I’m drawn to science,” the reverend liked to say. Photo las - initially
Nektarios had a lot of books - he ordered them himself, they were brought and given as gifts by those who came... Of course, these were not only theological and patristic publications. Mathematics and painting, Russian and foreign literature, geography and history, French and Latin - everything interested the recluse. The priest himself did not go out to people, but hundreds of people came to him. Among the visitors were scientists, artists, and philosophers. The hieromonk closely communicated with the writer, publicist, doctor, diplomat Konstantin Leontyev, and Nektary was taught painting by Alexander Bolotov, an artist, friend of Vasnetsov and Repin, who founded an icon-painting workshop in the monastery. “I’m drawn to science,” the reverend liked to say.
The priest generously shared the results of his reflections with everyone, sometimes combining scientific terms and theology in his reasoning: “Life is defined in three senses: measure, time, weight. The kindest, most beautiful deed, if it is beyond measure, will have no meaning. You get used to mathematics, you are given a sense of proportion. Remember these three meanings. All life is determined by them.”
Based on the numerous toys that children gave to Nektary, friends sent and brought to him - music boxes, cars and airplanes - the saint got an idea about modern technology; from new books - about literature, about the education system...
Nektary gladly gave his books to read. But for a reason. In the “hut” of the former elders, where the monk later himself received visitors, there was a table. It used to be that a man would come into a hut, but the old man was not there. But there is an open book on the table. A man looks into it, and on the page is the answer to the question with which he came to Nectarius. When they asked the elder how this happened, he just chuckled: “I’m not the one answering, the cell itself speaks for me.”
After a long conversation with the priest, people, amazed by his erudition and knowledge, asked the monks: “What university did Father Nektary graduate from?” - “No way! The parish school, that’s all the universities...” And the elder clarified: “All our education comes from Scripture.”
But for all his education, Father Nektary really did not like idle talk. He didn’t directly tell the person about this, but the newcomer will begin to complain to him about his troubles and sorrows, the elder listens and listens, then hands him a toy, a bird-whistle: “Blow!” He doesn’t understand anything, he blows. The bird whistles. For what? He came to the conclusion that a person’s sorrows are empty, only to “whistle” and distract from business. Or a parishioner will ask for advice on how to get out of a difficult life situation, but the priest himself will not say a word - he will hand the guest a children’s book, look for the answer in it, they say, and leave.
Do you see how sometimes learning is needed?
With the blessing of the elders, Father Nektary read spiritual books in retreat. In those years, Optina had a large library with more than thirty thousand books. He became acquainted with the works of the holy fathers: Abba Dorotheus, Saints John Climacus, Isaac the Syrian, Simeon the New Theologian, Macarius the Great, Saints Tikhon of Zadonsk and Demetrius of Rostov.
After ten years in seclusion, his spiritual fathers blessed him to read secular authors and study secular sciences, apparently with the goal of acquiring the knowledge that could help him lead the restless souls of the seeking intelligentsia to salvation. He read Dante and Shakespeare, Pushkin, Gogol, Dostoevsky.
He studied geography, mathematics, studied foreign languages, Latin. In his only hour of rest, after lunch, he read Pushkin or folk tales. I could recite Pushkin and Derzhavin by heart. He once said: “Many people say that you shouldn’t read poetry, but Father Ambrose loved poetry, especially Krylov’s fables.” And until the last days of his life, the Elder asked to bring him books, was interested in the trends of modern art, and asked about the organization of education in modern times. Having only graduated from a rural parochial school, he could easily communicate with writers and scientists.
One spiritual daughter of Father Nektary told a friend in his reception room: “I don’t know, maybe education is not needed at all, and it only causes harm. How can it be combined with Orthodoxy?” The elder, leaving his cell, objected: “Once a man came to me who could not believe that there was a flood. Then I told him that on the highest mountains there were shells and other remains of the seabed in the sands, and how geology testified to the flood. And he understood. You see how sometimes learning is needed.”
The elder said that God not only allows, but also requires that a person grow in knowledge. An example of this is Divine creativity, where there is no stop, everything moves, and angels do not remain in one rank, but ascend from level to level, receiving new revelations. A person must learn and move towards new and new knowledge.
One day, seminarians and their teachers came to Father and asked him to say a word for good. And the Elder advised them to live and study in such a way that learning would not interfere with piety, and piety would not interfere with learning. At the same time, Father Nektariy clarified that science brings a person closer to true knowledge, but its depth defies the human mind. He advised reading patristic literature, the lives of saints, but above all, he taught close and attentive reading of the Holy Scriptures. He repeated more than once that there could be nothing in the world higher than the truths of Divine Scripture: “All the verses in the world are not worth a line of Divine Scripture.”
DIDN'T SLEEP, DIDN'T LEAVE, DIDN'T LEAVE
Bishop Macarius, ordaining Nectarius as a hieromonk, gave him an instruction that the monk remembered for the rest of his life: “Nectarius! When you are sorrowful and despondent and when a grave temptation comes upon you, then repeat only one thing: “Lord, have mercy, save and have mercy on Your servant Hieromonk Nektarios.” Apparently, what was said was useful - the monk escaped from great temptations more than once.
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By coincidence, then a demand came to Optina: they needed a hieromonk for a trip around the world! Photo by Thomas Hawk
Possessing a magnificent voice and perfect pitch, in the first years of his life in the monastery, young Nikolai Tikhonov sang in the right choir. Once a year, the regent from the monastery came to the monastery, listened to the monks and selected the best for the choir of the Optina Hermitage. For the regent’s next visit, the brothers were learning “The Prudent Robber.” Nektary was very happy about this and was looking forward to the performance, but when he realized that after the selection he was likely to be removed from the monastery and transferred to a monastery, he began to deliberately fake it in front of the regent, misinterpreting “The Robber” so that the careless singer was hastily removed further to the left choir. There was no longer any talk about his translation.
Another time, already being a hieromonk in retreat, Nektary “plotted an escape.” During the years of seclusion, he read amazing stories about different countries and wonders of the world and knew as much as not every geographer and ethnographer knows. It is not surprising that at some point Nektarios had the idea to finally go on a journey and see the beauty of the world with his own eyes. By coincidence, then a demand came to Optina: a hieromonk was needed for a trip around the world! The acting archimandrite of the monastery turned first to Nektarios. The monk's joy knew no bounds! Almost ready to set off, Nektary went to Elder Joseph for a blessing, but he... did not bless. The hieromonk remembered the instructions of his teachers and humbly repeated to himself: “Lord, have mercy, save and have mercy on Your servant Hieromonk Nektarios!” - and remained in the monastery.
There was a third temptation. By that time, the Monk Nektarios was already nearly seventy and had already been elected an elder and spiritual father of all Optina. Anticipating the troubles that threatened the monastery, the brethren, and all of Russia, Nektary decided to abandon his obedience, quit his eldership and leave the monastery as a wanderer. “Only here did I realize that this was a temptation, I overcame myself and stayed.”
“WELL WHAT ELDER AM I?..”
Eldership for Nectarius was an obedience that he never aspired to; on the contrary, at first he avoided it in every possible way. In 1912, the question arose about a new spiritual mentor for Optina. First, at the council of the brethren, Archimandrite Agapit was offered to become an elder. He categorically refused, proposing instead the candidacy of one of his students, Nektarios. Father was not at the meeting. They sent for him, and he said, “Father Archimandrite sent me for you and asks me to come!” Hearing this, Nektary immediately put on his cassock, put one foot in a shoe, the other in a felt boot, and in such a buffoonish manner hurried to the meeting.
“Well, what an old man I am. How can I be the heir of the former elders? I am weak and infirm. They had whole loaves of grace, but I had a slice.”
How the fathers reacted to the strange appearance of the monk is unknown. But the dialogue went something like this. “Father, you have been chosen as the confessor of our monastery and an elder!” - “No, fathers and brothers! I am feeble-minded and cannot bear such a burden...” Then the archimandrite stood up and said imperiously: “Father Nektarios, accept obedience!” Nektariy considered humility and obedience to be the main virtues, so, of course, he immediately agreed. Although I cried for three days afterwards.
Many years later in exile, Nektary recalled in conversations with his spiritual daughter, the poetess Nadezhda Pavlovich: “Even when I was elected, I foresaw the defeat of Optina, and prison, and deportation, and all my present suffering - and I did not want to take all of this ..." And in his native monastery he repeated everything, embarrassed and shying away from the glory and attention of the parishioners: "Well, what an old man I am. How can I be the heir of the former elders? I am weak and infirm. They had whole loaves of grace, but I had a slice.”
Monastery in the name of St. Nectarius of Aegina in Roscoe (New York State)
From the book “The Experience of Comprehension of America”
Monastery in the name of St.
Nektarios of Aegina in Roscoe (New York State) Several years ago, on one of the last days of our stay on American soil during the Nativity Fast, we first visited the hospitable Greek monastery in the name of St. Nectarios of Aegina, one of the most revered saints in Greece, to whom people pray for healing from cancer.
The monastery is located a three-hour drive from New York on a picturesque hill with stunning views of the surrounding area.
At the Holy Gates of the monastery
“STAND HERE AND PRAY!”
The elder’s speech was clear and transparent. He loved to give examples that were understandable to any person: both a simple worker and a well-read intellectual. In his youth, he had to work as a junior clerk in a shop, so Nektary added his life experience to his discussions about prayer:
“We must continue to pray and not lose heart. Prayer is capital. The longer it sits, the more interest it earns. The Lord sends His mercy when it pleases Him, when it is useful for us to accept it..."
The Monk Nektarios was demanding, sometimes ironic with clergy and the intelligentsia, but unusually kind and approachable with ordinary people. He gave money simply, but always asked in detail what it was for - shoes, a cow, a horse, explaining that alms should be given with reason, otherwise it could harm a person.
Elder Nektarios with spiritual children Drawing optina.ru
The priest paid special attention to those of his spiritual children who were indignant against him, protested, and were angry with him. He took care of severely sinful parishioners, was kind to them, called them “my little sheep,” “my child,” and people humbled themselves and calmed down from his love and sincerity. “My child! We love with a love that never changes. Your love is a one-day love, ours is still the same today and in a thousand years.”
From the instructions of the monk
The holy elder's interest was not limited to the study of religious literature. Nektary spent a lot of time getting acquainted with the latest secular books, asking about the process of teaching in schools, and learning about the interests of the intelligentsia. The monk used this knowledge to serve the Lord and for the benefit of people.
While talking with people, the elder gave them very wise advice. Here are some of them:
- Never judge your loved ones. As soon as the thought of condemnation comes, immediately turn to the Lord, asking for the opportunity to see your sins and help you refrain from condemning your loved one.
- Force yourself to do anything. Even to eat lunch, you need to take a spoon, scoop up the soup and bring it to your mouth. Nothing can be done instantly; everything requires effort.
- Life should serve man, and not vice versa. You cannot sacrifice your desires in the name of external circumstances. Otherwise, a person will become depressed because he will no longer see the meaning of life.
- Accept any trials, difficulties, illnesses sent by the Lord with humility. Humility and hope for God's help will bring the mercy of the Heavenly Father closer. And vice versa, despair and despondency will distance you from him.
- One should live by adhering to Christian commandments. Any thoughts, words and actions should serve the glory of God and be an example to others.
The monk attached particular importance to prayer. He taught patience. The saint considered the failure of the Lord to fulfill the request as a good sign. The longer a person has to wait while praying to God, the more generous is God's mercy. All the instructions of Saint Nektarios have not lost their relevance over time.
UNOPENED LETTERS, RAINY SKY, AN UNLIFTABLE JUG...
Many of his contemporaries testified to the elder’s amazing gifts. They told how he read sealed letters: without opening the envelopes, he put some in one direction: “We need to give an answer here!”, others in the other: “But these letters of gratitude can be left unanswered.” He blessed some letters, gave others to his assistants: “Read it out loud, it will be useful!” All without knowing the contents! At the same time, he did not accept any praise or surprised admiration: “Look, they call me an old man. What an old man I am! When I receive more than a hundred letters every day, like Father Barsanuphius, then I can call him an old man who has so many spiritual children...”
Mothers Alexia and Ksenia thought of dedicating their lives to the Lord. And suddenly the elder announced to Alexia: “You will go to the Holy Land, and you will have many children.” Photo by Zamil Ul Hasan
Once a couple, acquaintances of the Monk Nektarios, came to Optina. The wife, shocked by the beauty of the place, painted a landscape here - river bank, sunset, clear, cloudless sky... She left the drawing on the open balcony and went for a walk with her husband. The dear couple had a serious quarrel. They return home, and the landscape... has changed! The sky is already covered with dark clouds, lightning is sparkling... The colors are fresh. Whose job? Father Nektarios. A talented painter, he sensed something was wrong, looked in to the couple and, in his own style, gave them a signal: a storm was hanging over the family ties! This made such an impression on the spouses that they immediately forgot about the quarrel and made peace.
Elder Barsanuphius once walked past Nektarios’s porch and heard: “You have exactly twenty years left to live.” The words spoken “as a joke” on April 1st fatefully came true: exactly twenty years later, to the same day—April 1st—Reverend Barsanuphius died.
Mothers Alexia and Ksenia thought of dedicating their lives to the Lord. And suddenly the elder announced to Alexia: “You will go to the Holy Land, and you will have many children.” Mothers are horrified: how is this possible?! However, in 1933 they actually find themselves in the Holy Land and, with the blessing of Metropolitan Anastassy, they begin to take in Arab children, novices, to raise them. And later, after moving to Chile, they organized an orphanage for John of Kronstadt and a school for 89 children.
And there are still many, many similar stories told by their direct witnesses...
Christmas tale
We have been here before, on the eve of the Nativity of Christ, when the monastery, decorated with a festive nativity scene and an elegant Christmas tree, literally shone with a wide variety of colors.
On Christmas Eve
The colorful nativity scene was especially magnificent. Decorated with love, it literally attracted you. The most real Christmas fairy tale on American soil! And above all this splendor - an immense sky with twinkling lamps of stars and a ringing silence, to break which seemed almost sacrilege...
Somehow I forgot that a huge, noisy metropolis with a concrete jungle of skyscrapers and bright advertising lights was located very close by. Here everything took on some special, lofty meaning.
Here everything takes on a special, high meaning
The impression remained indelible. Ordinary words cannot convey this amazing feeling of standing before the Living Eternal God. Time seemed to stand still. Eternity seemed to be looking at us.
Time and Eternity
LAST DAYS
In March 1923, on Palm Sunday, Optina Pustyn was closed. Father Nektary, a sick old man who could barely stand on his feet, was arrested. They were kept in a tiny room, partitioned not all the way to the top. Behind the partition, his guards smoked cigarettes like locomotives. The Reverend was coughing and choking. Five days later he was taken to Kozelsk prison. There, the old man’s eyes really hurt; they transferred him to a hospital, but they stationed guards at the door.
After being expelled from the Kaluga region, Nektary settled in the Bryansk region, in the village of Kholmishchi, with a relative of his spiritual son. The owner of the house that sheltered the saint was threatened by the security officers: “We will send you to Kamchatka!” They didn’t deport me, but they imposed an exorbitant tax.
The last photo of Elder Nektarios Photo optina.ru
The spiritual children did not forget their father even in the wilderness. Here, where in the spring it was impossible for anyone to cross over the flooded rivers, where horses could not get through and they had to go around on foot seventy-five miles along a bad road through forests where wolves howled - people flocked to these very remote Hills. Hundreds of people from all over Russia. The saint prayed for their safe journey, and the wolves really did not touch the travelers.
Nectarius did not hold a grudge against his offenders. After all, back in the revolutionary seventeenth, he predicted: “Russia will rise up and will not be materially rich, but will be rich in spirit, and in Optina there will be seven more lamps, seven pillars.”
Elder Nektarios maintained a spiritual connection with Patriarch Tikhon. There were no personal meetings, there was no correspondence, but the Patriarch resolved many issues in agreement with the opinion of the monk through his proxies who communicated with the priest.
At the end of the twenties, the old man’s health deteriorated greatly. He was sick for a long time. On April 29, 1928, Father Nektary died quietly in the arms of his spiritual son, Father Adrian Rymarenko.
The grave of Elder Nektarios Photo optina.ru
Before his death, which Nectarius foresaw, he said goodbye to his loved ones, blessed them and asked them to bury him in the local cemetery. I didn’t want to lie either in Kozelsk or in Kholmischi near the Church of the Intercession: “It will be worse than a pig pasture there!” And indeed, the Church of the Intercession was later destroyed, and a fair and dance floor were set up on the cathedral square. And the elder rested peacefully in a small rural cemetery three miles from Kholmishchi.
However, his peace did not last long. Seven years later, local hooligans, hoping to make money, dug up the saint’s grave. No valuables were found, but the coffin was opened, leaned against a tree, and the veil was torn off the face. And they ran away in horror! The old man stood imperishable - waxy skin, soft hands... In the morning, the village boys drove the horses from the night. They noticed the coffin and galloped towards the village shouting: “The monk has risen!” The collective farmers ran to the cemetery, saw the incorrupt old man, covered their faces with a white scarf, and buried the coffin while singing “Holy God.”
RETURN TO OPTINA
In 1989, on July 16, the relics of St. Nektarios were found and transferred to the revived Optina Pustyn. In 1996, the Monk Nektarios was canonized as a locally revered saint of the Optina Hermitage, and in August 2000, by the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church, he was glorified for church-wide veneration.
Meeting of the relics of St. Nektarios in Optina Hermitage optina.ru
Icon of the saint optina.ru
Now the shrine with the relics of Elder Nektarios, who for a whole decade held on his shoulders the cross of prayer for perishing Russia and for her children, is located in the western part of the St. Ambrose chapel of the Vvedensky Cathedral of the monastery.
Cancer with the relics of St. Nektarios Photo optina.ru
Notes:
- Shkarovsky, M.V.
Russian Orthodox Church in the 20th century. M.: Veche, Lepta, 2010. P. 100. - The complete life of St. Nektarios // Optina Pustyn. Official website of the Vvedensky stauropegial monastery. URL: https://www.optina.ru/starets/nektariy_life_full/ (Access date: 05/17/2017).
- Fudel S.I.
At the walls of the Church, p. 170 - 171. - Fudel S.I.
Memoirs, p. 84 - 85. - Vasily Shustin, priest.
Record about the Optina elders // Blessed Optina: Memoirs of pilgrims about the monastery and its elders. M.: Father's House, 1998. pp. 160-164. - This is the name given to the indigenous people of North Africa who speak a separate language. Starting from the 7th century, after the Muslim conquest, most Berbers became Sunni Muslims, and before that many of them were Christians: in particular, Bl. Augustine was probably of Berber descent.
- Strizhev A.N.
Notes // Blessed Optina: Memoirs of pilgrims about the monastery and its elders.
M., 1998. P. 294. Cf. Kontsevich I.M.
Optina Pustyn and its time. New York, 1970. P. 590. - Blessed Optina: Memoirs of pilgrims about the monastery and its elders. M.: Father's House, 1998. P. 278.
