Ambrose's father. Rev. Ambrose of Optina: All were struck by his love for God and people

(1812 - 1891)
Rev. Ambrose  Optina (1891).
  Great Ambrose, the Elder of Optina and All Russia the Miracle-worker (1891).
  Ὁ Ὅσιος Ἀμβρόσιος τῆς πτινα (σος) 10/10/1891
*
Memory October 10/23, June 27 / July 10 and at the Optina Elders' Cathedral on October 11/24

Ambrose of Optina, Rev. Optina Elder   Life of St. Ambrose of Optina

================
Ambrose of Optina, Rev. Optina Elder
(1812 - 1891)

Rev. Ambrose Optina, (in the world Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov) was born on November 23, 1812 in the village of Bolshaya Lipovka of the Tambov province in the family of a sexton. At the age of 12, he entered the Tambov Theological School, and in 1830 - at the Tambov Theological Seminary. A year before its completion, the seminarian Alexander became dangerously ill and made a vow if he recovered to become a monk. In 1836 he graduated from the seminary and postponed his vow for four years. In 1839, arrived in Optina desert. He became the attendant of the elder Lev (Nagolkin), then he performed various monastic obediences in the monastery itself and in the hermitage. In the summer of 1841, he was tonsured into a Riasofor, in 1842 - into the mantle, and in 1843 he was ordained a hierodeacon.
  In 1843, on the way to Kaluga, Father Ambrose caught a cold and became seriously ill. In December 1845 he was ordained a hieromonk, but due to his illness he could hardly serve. In the period of exacerbation of the disease in 1846 - 1848. The monk was tonsured to the great schema without changing his name.
  Physically weak, Hieromonk Ambrose had great spiritual power. From the age of 36 he was appointed assistant to the Optina Elder Macarius in the work of clergy and the nourishment of the laity. With him, he shared the works on the translation and publication of patristic books.
  After the death of the elder Macarius in 1860, Father Ambrose became the only confessor of the Optina brethren and pilgrims. Not far from the Optina Hermitage in the village of Shamordino, the works of the Reverend Ambrosy arranged the female Kazan Mountain Convent.
  The Monk Ambrose died in 1891. He was buried in the walls of the Optina Monastery. Immediately after his death, numerous posthumous miracles began.

  http://iconsv.ru/
*
============

=============
Ὁ Ὅσιος Ἀμβρόσιος τῆς Ὄπτινα (Ρῶσος)

Γεννήθηκε στὶς 23 Νοεμββίίυ τοῦ 1812 στὸ χωριὸ Μεγάλο Λιπόβιτς τῆς περιφέρειας τοῦ Ταμπώώ. Ὁ πατέρας του ὀ νομαζόταν Μιχαὴλ εοδώροβιτς Γρένκωφ κα ἡ μητέρα του Μάρθα Νικολάγββα. Εἶχαν συνολικὰ ὀκτὼ παιδιὰ καὶ ὁ ισιος Ἀμβρόσι ἦταν κτος στὴν σειρά. Τὸ βαπτιστικὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Ὁσίου ἦταν Ἀλέξανδρος καὶ ἡ εὐσεβὴς οἰκογένειά του τὸν ἀνέθρεψε σύμφωνα μὲ τὶς ἐπιταγὲς τοῦ Εὐαγγελίου, ἂν καὶ ὁ ἴδιος, ἀπὸ μικρός, ἦταν πολὺ ζωηρὸς ἀλλὰ καὶ πολὺ εὐφυής.

  Σπούδασε ερατικὸ σεμινάριο κα στὴν ἀρχὴ ἔγινε δάσκα. Κατόπιν ἔγινεμοναχὸς στὴν Ὄπτινα καὶ στὶς 2 Φεβρουαρίου τοῦ 1843 Διάκονος. Στὰ τέλη τοῦ 1845 (9 Δεκεβροο) καὶ σὲ ἡλικία 33 χρονῶν, ἔγινε ἱερέας.

  Σὲ λίγο ὅμως ἡ ὑγεία του χειροτέρεψε, ἀλλὰ ἡ ζωὴ του ὑπῆρξε ὁσιακῆ καὶ ἄκρως εὐεργετικὴ στοὺς συνανθρώπους του. Εἶχε προορατικὸ χάρισμα καὶ ἵδρυσε γυναικεῖο κοινόβιο τὸ 1872. Οἱ δοκιμασίες ποὺ ὑπέστη ἦταν πολλές, ἀλλὰ αὐτὸς στάθηκε βράχος ὑπομονῆς καὶ ἔμπρακτος διδάσκαλος τῶν θεϊκῶν ἀρετῶν.
  Πέθανε στὶς 10 Ὀκτωβρίου τοῦ 1891 καὶ ἁγιοποιήθηκε τὸ 1990.
*
============

=============
Rev. Ambrose of Optina

July 10
  Alexander Grenkov, the future father of Ambrose, was born on November 21 or 23, 1812, in the spiritual family of the Great Lipovitsy village of the Tambov Diocese. After graduating from the Spiritual School, he then successfully completed a course at the Theological Seminary. However, he did not go to the Theological Academy or to the priests. For some time he was a home teacher in one landlord family, and then a teacher at the Lipetsk Spiritual School. Possessing a lively and cheerful character, kindness and wit, Alexander Mikhailovich was very loved by his comrades and colleagues. In the last class of the Seminary, he had to endure a dangerous illness, and he vowed to become a monk if he recovered.

Upon recovery, he did not forget his vow, but for several years postponed his execution, “huddled”, in his words. However, the conscience did not give him peace. And the more time passed, the more painful the reproaches of conscience became. Periods of carefree fun and carelessness were replaced by periods of acute melancholy and sadness, enhanced prayer and tears. Once, while already walking in Lipetsk, walking in a nearby forest, he, standing on the bank of a stream, clearly heard in his murmur the words: "Praise God, love God ..."

At home, secluded from prying eyes, he ardently prayed to the Mother of God to enlighten his mind and direct his will. In general, he did not have a strong will and already in old age he spoke to his spiritual children: “You must obey me from the first word. I am a compliant person. If you argue with me, I can yield to you, but it will not be to your advantage. ” Exhausted from his indecision, Alexander Mikhailovich went for advice to the famous ascetic Hilarion who lived in that area. “Go to Optina,” the elder told him, “and you will be experienced.” Grenkov obeyed. In the autumn of 1839, he arrived at Optina Hermitage, where he was kindly received by the old man Leo.

Soon, he took the veil and was named Ambrose, in memory of St. Of Milan, then he was ordained a hierodeacon and, later, a hieromonk. When Father Macarius began his publishing business, Father Ambrose, who graduated from the seminary and was familiar with the ancient and new languages ​​(he knew five languages), was one of his closest assistants. Soon after his ordination, he fell ill. The disease was so severe and long lasting that it undermined the health of Ambrose’s father forever and almost confined him to bed. Owing to his painful condition, he could not perform liturgy until his very death and participate in long monastic worship services.

The Monk Ambrose died on October 23, 1891 in the Shamordinsky monastery and was buried in the Optina Monastery near the tomb of the Monk Elder Macarius. After his death, the old man Ambrose appeared to many people in different parts of Russia, healing the sick, helping the suffering. The sanctity of the life of the elder Ambrose is manifested in his active love for his neighbors, and the Orthodox people have always responded to them with deep reverence. In 1988, at the Local Russian Cathedral Orthodox Church  Rev. Ambrose was canonized as holy saints of God. His honest relics found rest in the Vvedensky Cathedral of the Optina Monastery.

http://www.calend.ru/
  Orthodox holidays
*
===============

Rev. Ambrose of Optina. Modern icon.

================
Akathist to Rev. Ambrose of Optina
http://www.kotlovka.ru/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=482

Kontak 1
   Chosen to God's favor and wonderworking, great older, Ambrose, Optina praised all Russia, a marvelous instructor, glorifying your life in a good living, bring mnogokvalnoe singing, you, as if you have boldness to the Lord, praying for all of us, the shelters of the gentlemen.

Ikos 1
Imitating the angelic life, rejecting you all the red and fast-moving perishing of this world and your foot sent it to the spiritual teacher and seer elder Hilarion, let him guide you to the path of true residence and bless you for the feats of salvation. He, having seen your future charitable life, sent to the monastery of Optina, and there you found good self-shelter. This this he saw as God's good will about you, was a text verb:
   Rejoice, God-chosen branch of the piety of the parents!
   Rejoice, lover of thy Lord's love!
   Rejoice, for the book of wisdom, have zeal from your youth;
   Rejoice, you know the spirited teachings of the holy fathers.
   Rejoice, rejection of the benefit of this world!
   Rejoice, imperishable treasure of unremitting desire.
   Rejoice, seeking God's salvation for the soul of your soul;
   Rejoice, having received the monastic blessing path.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontak 2
   Seeing your heart a good intention, Christ predestined the narrow and thorny path of your salvation, and, always, you suddenly on the deathbed of your illness, gave the Lord a promise: if you heal thee, give yourself all over to the feat of monasticism. But, by the grace of God, stand up from the bed of sickness, and abie has glorified the whole God, the Doctor of the soul and the body, calling: Alleluia.

Ikos 2
   Having reasoned the Divine Scriptures, in the fear of God, you thought how the Lord will arrange the coming path of your salvation, and how to enter the path of a difficult and mournful monastic residence. We, marveling at your good intention, chant:
   Rejoice, at Providence Provider's God, placing all hope;
   Rejoice, demanded of His blessings.
   Rejoice, ready to bear every trial for the salvation of the soul;
   Rejoice, having followed your conscience.
   Rejoice, amusement of worldly hate;
   Rejoice, earthly, not loving, wealth.
   Rejoice, O thou who didst work alone unto God;
   Rejoice, delight Tom tochiy please.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontak 3
   By the power of love it was asserted, in faith it was jealous of the gospel life of the fellow in the image rev. Fathers  The church is ancient. Whereas, the Lord grant the understanding of this graciousness, you have sung with emotion: Alleluia.

Ikos 3
   Having strong faith in the good will of God for the salvation of man, you flow to the honest image of the Most Holy Theotokos "Tambovskiy", even you have a parental blessing, and humbly prayed for your Lady, to rule your way. We, seeing your relentless reliance on the mercy of the Queen of Heaven, we sing:
Rejoice, faithful and beloved child of God’s Mother!
   Rejoice, Her secret cover of power is a secret attainment.
   Rejoice, blessings of the parent through Her, a kindly image of the guardian;
   Rejoice, zealous devout supporters.
   Rejoice, many parts in the book of prayer to her, tearfully lifted up;
   Rejoice, heavenly help from Ney is a perceptive perceiver.
   Rejoice, having found a sweet in your heart, a taco of solace;
   Rejoice, O thou a decency priyal thou the most charitable.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontak 4
   Burea of ​​thoughts, driven by, came to the monastery of the venerable Sergius of Radonezh, may your heart be strengthened in the exploits of the coming foreign field of all Russia, the miracle worker and the teacher of the monastic work, who bestow upon his honest relics, flows the beneficent help from his honest relics. Being touched by the tamo, you cried with joy: Alleluia.

Ikos 4
   Hearing the greatness and piety of the divinely wise fathers and elders of Optina deserts, secretly left the world and the whole, even in it, and didn’t come to this abode in the humility of the soul, while he was saved and please God. We, who see your soul's jealousy, bring a song of praise:
   Rejoice, imbued blessings of this world, not at all imputed;
   Rejoice, knowing the sweetness of the church.
   Rejoice, dwell in the monastery of the holy;
   Rejoice, giving yourself all to God.
   Rejoice, uncommonly fulfilling the commandments of God;
   Rejoice, the fruits of Christ's doctrine is sweet and tasty.
   Rejoice, deeds of the holy fathers jealous!
   Rejoice, vigilant guardian of purity of soul.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontak 5
   God-given deserts priya tia, supposedly in the arms of the father, hovered meekly in the lower place, and there, first carried the works of obedience in the cell of the great elder, God-enlightened Leo, and he was instructed in spiritual work. Having learned of the sweetness of the abdication of his will, he cried out: Alleluia.

Ikos 5
   Seeing your monastic success, putting the fathers of the desert around you in vestments of great schema. And bestow on you the subordinate Christ, by the grace of the angelic order, join in, for the sake of crying:
   Rejoice, thou loving God with all your heart!
   Rejoice, having served with all my soul.
   Rejoice, faith through many labors is immutable;
   Rejoice, hope for help from above armed with yourself.
   Rejoice, love of the gospel treasure!
   Rejoice, Holy Spirit's receptacle.
   Rejoice, valiant warrior of monastic warriors;
   Rejoice, Equal-to-angels life to the imitator is a predatory.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontak 6
   Preacher orthodox faith and the true life in Christ Jesus appeared to you, opposing the gospel and the Church, denying the teachings, and turned many things from the path of error to Christ the Life-giver, singing thanks: Alleluia.

Ikos 6
   Thou hast arisen, for it is signifying the many-luminous, in the land of Russia, enlightening every man coming to you, with the light of truth, people, burdened with sins and sorrows by many, gaining in you a Godly rational mentor of godliness and good father with all the infirm, suffocating beggles.
   Rejoice, lampshit of the Orthodox countries of Russia;
   Rejoice, mirror of divine love.
   Rejoice, pillar of faith of the apostles;
   Rejoice, stone of hope of eternal life.
   Rejoice, mentor in all circumstances God-inspired;
   Rejoice, zealous preacher of repentance.
   Rejoice, physician of physical afflictions;
   Rejoice, healer of mental diseases.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontakion 7
   Although follow Christ Himself, imitated Thou art All-Haph with Him, taking His yoke upon myself, and learning from Him meekness and humility, I found the rest of my soul, calling for it: Alleluia.

Ikos 7
   A new and marvelous star of holiness appeared in heaven a church, when you descended the stairs more spiritually to the perfection of angels, stretched the rays of your love on the face of all the lands of Russia and drew you to yourself a noble and skinny, wise of this century and unwise, crying to you
   Rejoice, hail, stand on top of the mountain;
   Rejoice, luminary, driving dark ignorance.
   Rejoice, all feeble physicians!
   Rejoice, from the troubles and deceptions of the enemy.
   Rejoice, sorrowful to the comforter;
   Rejoice, thirsting for the spiritual drinker.
   Rejoice, artful wisdom of the century to this reprover.
   Rejoice, many misguided ones on the path of truth to the redeemer.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontak 8
   You have become a stranger and a stranger in the earthly world, seeking for the city of heaven, and you have suffered the pain and infirmity of the help of your neighbor, and fulfilled it as a law of Christ, singing with thanksgiving: Alleluia.

Ikos 8
   The whole fire of Divine love fulfilled, the cross of the complex bodily diseases carried by you through all your monastic life, in patience having acquired your soul, according to the word of the Gospel of Christ, and all of us taught you the uncomplaining christening, telling you:
   Rejoice, leader of those who seek salvation!
   Rejoice in the form of true obedience.
   Rejoice, the very grievous ills themselves are endured to the end;
   Rejoice, having come to you in sickness and grief, having taught patience.
   Rejoice, thine congregation for a fair soul care;
   Rejoice, eager seekers of eternal life.
   Rejoice, insulted by the patron;
Rejoice, disobedient will of God in the Reaper.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontak 9
   All human nature in sickness and bodily infirmities experienced hastiness, crucified the flesh with passions and lusts, and with tireless prayer he chased away adversity and temptations of evil spirits, and so all taught hast resistance to the devil's goat, calling out with faith: Alleluia.

Ikos 9
   Vytiysiya sumudryh, unaware of the power of the Orthodox faith, dismissed thou by the word of God and your pure living, and truly arose thou, as the radiant pillar of piety and keeper of the pagan tradition, diligently putting the ancient writings of the fathers into writing with reasonable intelligence. And we, marveling at your labor, sing a song:
   Rejoice, faith in the right adamant;
   Rejoice, life by faith fortress.
   Rejoice, spirit of piety to the planter;
   Rejoice, virtues of the Christian sower.
   Rejoice, progress of the eldership;
   Rejoice, many monks spiritual enlightenment.
   Rejoice, having brought those to salvation!
   Rejoice, turning many sinners to repentance.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontakion 10
   Helping the exacting Kingdom of Heaven by rescuing themselves, the faithful guide appeared to be worldly and spiritual ruling: at the end of his many years of work he set up the shamordina monastery, and the sisters would find peace of mind and salvation, praising a praise song: the sisters would find spiritual peace and salvation, singing a praise song, and the sisters:

Ikos 10
   The wall and the refuge have been your child, guarding vigilant from demonic obsessions; To the invisible swearing with the spirits of wickedness, they were inspired by ecstasy, the pride and glory of humility abolishing, but rejoicing, calling upon us:
   Rejoice, the arrows of the enemy fade away;
   Rejoice, the demonic regiment is victorious.
   Rejoice, liberated from the spirits of malice;
   Rejoice, out of the prison of the passions of many souls known.
   Rejoice, having converted to God through love and prayers of error;
   Rejoice, kind-hearted orphans and widows.
   Rejoice, guidance of the monks and nuns of God-bearing creator;
   Rejoice, humble wisdom and meekness, good-natured preacher.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontakion 11
   We bring Tatios affectionate, to the speedy helper in the needs and sorrows of all, to you with faith and love, flowing to the end of your days was the loving father of those who were suffering and burdened with the consolation of the soul. However, God, who is wondrous in His saints who call unceasingly, is glorified with your liberty: Alleluia.

Ikos 11
The lamp of the virtues sees in you all ends, our Father Ambrose, as if in patience and humility, earthly wanderings died before you and fulfilled everything, even preached to us by Christ in the Holy Doctrine, and settled into the heaven of the Lord, joyful slave of Christ. However, rejoice, sing such ti:
   Rejoice, zealous servant, having done the will of your Lord;
   Rejoice, soldier of Christ, for the bustle of life that is left.
   Rejoice, lord of he who serves one;
   Rejoice, you have fulfilled all the commandments of God.
   Rejoice, honored abode of heaven!
   Rejoice, pride of glory
   Rejoice, heir of everlasting life!
   Rejoice, most gracious of God.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontakion 12
   By the grace of God the treasure of the nekradomoy was inherited by you and the quiet, undisturbed refuge in heaven has been found by you. By the action of God's providence in the days of the triumphant millennium of the Baptism of Russia, it was glorified and you could be counted among the saints, indulging your holy memory, we sing all: Alleluia.

Ikos 12
   Singing your All-Russian glorification, we offer, as the incense fragrance is centered, our humble prayers, do not forget your children who honor your holy name and call to you in thanksgiving:
   Rejoice, Ambrose, Divine immortality, name-named;
   Rejoice, Orthodox Church. Praise.
   Rejoice, face of the holy saints;
   Rejoice, host of the venerable fathers of Sotinniche.
   Rejoice, before the throne of God Most High, our firm representative.
   Rejoice, before the judgment of God, our warm supporter.
   Rejoice, us, wandering in the vale of the pitiable, guidebook!
   Rejoice, vigilant prayer book of the whole earth of Russia.
   Rejoice, Reverend Ambrose, God-wise teacher of faith and piety.

Kontakion 13
   O wondrous pleasures of Christ and wonderworking, Reverend our Ambrose, accept now a small prayer to your unworthy children, do not leave us in sorrow and sickness, come and stretch a helping hand, guide us to the path of repentance and salvation, in other words, get rid of eternal pain, and you praise God, crying: Alleluia.
This kondak is read thrice, then Ikos 1 and Kondak 1
*
========

=======================

Prayer to Rev. Ambrose of Optina

O great starchee and pleasing to God, our Father Ambrose is reverend, Optina praises and all of Russia to the teacher of piety! Praise your humble living in Christ, and God, too, exalt your name still on the earth, to you, especially as you crowned with heavenly honor upon your departure to the eternal glory. Accept now the prayer of us, unworthy children of yours, who honor thee and call upon your holy name, deliver us with your intercession before the throne of God from all sorrowful circumstances, mental and bodily ailments, evil misfortunes, pernicious and wicked temptations, and our own family from the goodness and wicked temptations, low wages and wicked temptations, and our own family. peace and prosperity, wake the immutable patron of the holy abode of this, in the very best prosperity, you yourself willed yourself and pleased you with all in the Trinity to our glorious God, He also befits all glory, honor and worship, Father and Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forever and ever and ever.
  Amen.
*

Prp. Ambrose in life. Monk Artemy. Icon. Optina desert. 1990s. Vvedensky Temple Optina Desert. The icon is located at the shrine of relics.

*
Other prayer

About the Reverend and God-bearing Father our Ambrose!

You have worked for the Lord, wishing, here hast implanted yourself and unlearnly in the labors, in vigils, in prayers and postex thou fled, and you were a mentor to a monk, and to all people a zealous teacher. Now, fearful, after your departure from the earthly Heavenly King is coming, pray for His goodness, even diminish the place of your village, this holy monastery, and go by your love spirit, relentlessly abide, and all your people, with faith to your worship of priesthood, for the good of them do it. Receive from the gracious of our Lord, grant us an abundance of earthly blessings, moreover, may our souls grant the benefit of our souls, and end this life in repentance and honor, for the rest of the time and grace in the kingdom for ever and ever .
  Amen.
*

*
Third prayer

O Honorable Starder of the most glorious and wondrous Optinah of the Desert, our Father and Father God Ambrose! Our church is a kind decoration and a blessed lamp, illumine all with the heavenly light, the red and spiritual fruit of Russia and all the sunflower, the souls of the faithful abundantly delight and cheer! Now, with faith and trembling, we fall down before the celibateous crayon of your holy relics, and for the consolation and help of those who suffer, mercifully bestowed upon us; on your children, who sinned in words and deeds, and visit us with many and holy love, you have succeeded gloriously in the days of the earth. And especially because of your righteous demise, instructing in the rule of the holy and God-enlightened fathers, instructing us in the commandments of Christ, in them, too, have dearly been jealous of your long-lived foreign life; ask us, the infirm soul and the afflicted in grief, a favorable and saving time for repentance, a true correction and renewal of our life, in it we, the sinners, slandered our mind and heart, predach our obscene and fierce passion, vice and lawlessness, and not a number ; Take care of us, keep and cover us with your blood, many graces, give us a blessing from the Lord, let us bear the good yoke of Christ in patience until the end of our days, the rest of our belly and Kingdom, but there is sadness and joy, but life and joy are endless, abundant stemming from the one, all holy and blessed source of immortality, in the Trinity we bow to God, the Father and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, now and forever, and forever.
  Amen.
*
===============

Alexander Grenkov, the future father of Ambrose, was born on November 21 or 23, 1812, in the spiritual family of the Great Lipovitsy village of the Tambov Diocese. After graduating from the Spiritual School, he then successfully completed a course at the Theological Seminary. However, he did not go to the Theological Academy or to the priests. For some time he was a home teacher in one landlord family, and then a teacher at the Lipetsk Spiritual School.

Possessing a lively and cheerful character, kindness and wit, Alexander Mikhailovich was very loved by his comrades and colleagues. In the last class of the Seminary, he had to endure a dangerous illness, and he vowed to become a monk if he recovered.

Upon recovery, he did not forget his vow, but for several years postponed his execution, “huddled”, in his words. However, the conscience did not give him peace. And the more time passed, the more painful the reproaches of conscience became.

Periods of carefree fun and carelessness were replaced by periods of acute melancholy and sadness, enhanced prayer and tears. Once, while already walking in Lipetsk, while walking in a nearby forest, he, standing on the bank of a stream, clearly heard in his murmur the words: "Praise God, love God ..."

At home, secluded from prying eyes, he ardently prayed to the Mother of God to enlighten his mind and direct his will. In general, he did not have a strong will and already in old age he spoke to his spiritual children: “You must obey me from the first word. I am a compliant person. If you argue with me, I can yield to you, but it will not be to your advantage. ”

Exhausted from his indecision, Alexander Mikhailovich went for advice to the famous ascetic Hilarion who lived in that area. “Go to Optina,” the elder told him, “and you will be experienced.” Grenkov obeyed. In the autumn of 1839, he arrived at the place where he was kindly received by the old man Leo.

Soon, he took the veil and was named Ambrose, in memory of St. Pauli, then was ordained a hierodeacon and, later, a hieromonk. When Father Macarius began his publishing business, Father Amvrosy, who graduated from seminary and was familiar with ancient and new languages ​​(he knew five languages), was one of his closest assistants.

Soon after his ordination, he fell ill. The disease was so severe and long lasting that it undermined the health of Ambrose’s father forever and almost confined him to bed. Owing to his painful condition, he could not perform liturgy until his very death and participate in long monastic worship services.

Comprehended about. Ambrose was a serious illness for him of undoubtedly providential meaning. She moderated his living nature, protected him, perhaps, from the development of self-esteem in him and made him go deeper into himself, to better understand himself and human nature. No wonder later on. Ambrose said: “It is good for the monk to be ill. And in the disease do not need to be treated, but only to heal! "

Helping the elder Macarius in publishing, Fr. Ambrose and after his death continued to engage in this activity. Under his leadership, were published: "Ladder" prep. John Climacus, letters and biography of Fr. Macarius and other books. But not publishing was the focus of senile work on. Ambrose.

His soul was looking for a lively, personal interaction with people, and he soon began to gain the fame of an experienced mentor and leader in matters of not only spiritual but also practical life. He had an unusually lively, sharp, observant and penetrating mind, an enlightened and in-depth, constant, focused prayer, attention to himself and knowledge of ascetic literature. By the grace of God, his discernment turned into insight. He deeply penetrated the soul of his interlocutor and read in it, as in an open book, without needing his confessions. His face, a great-peasant, with outstanding cheekbones and a gray beard, shone with intelligent and lively eyes.

With all the qualities of his richly gifted soul, oh. Ambrose, despite his constant illness and sickness, combined inexhaustible cheerfulness, and was able to give his teachings in such a simple and humorous form that they were easily and forever remembered by each listener.

When it was necessary, he knew how to be exacting, strict and demanding, using “admonition” with a stick or imposing on the punished by penance. The elder made no distinction between people. Everyone had access to it and could talk to him: a St. Petersburg senator and an old peasant woman, a university professor and a capital woman of fashion, Soloviev and Dostoevsky, Leontyev and Tolstoy.

With what only requests, complaints, with what only people did not come to their elders with their sorrows and needs! A young priest comes to him, a year ago, appointed, at his own request, to the most recent parish in the diocese. He could not bear the poverty of his parish existence and came to the old man to ask for blessings for a change of place. Seeing him from a distance, the old man shouted: “Go back, father! He is one and you two! ”

Wonderingly, the priest asked the elder what his words meant. The old man replied: “Why, the devil who tempts you is alone, and your assistant is God! Go back and do not be afraid of anything; it's a sin to leave the parish! Serve liturgy every day and everything will be fine! ”The delighted priest perked up and, returning to his parish, patiently led his pastoral work there and after many years became famous as the second elder Ambrose.

After talking with Fr. Ambrose, said joyfully:

"It `s that. Ambrose is a very holy man. I talked to him, and somehow it became easy and pleasant in my heart. When you speak with such a person, you feel the closeness of God. ”

Another writer, Yevgeny Pogozhev (The Villager) said:

“I was struck by his holiness and that incomprehensible abyss of love that was in it. And looking at him, I began to understand that the significance of the elders is to bless and approve life and the joys of God, to teach people to live happily and help them to bear the burden of whatever they are. ”

V. Rozanov wrote:

“The blessing from him pours spiritual, and, finally, physical. Everyone stands up in spirit, only looking at him ... The most principled people visited him (Father Ambrose), and no one said anything negative. Gold passed through the fire of skepticism and did not dim. "

In the old man, to a very strong degree, there was one Russian trait: he loved to arrange something, to create something. He often taught others to do something, and when private people came to him for a blessing on such a thing, he eagerly began to discuss and give not only blessing, but also good advice. It remains completely incomprehensible from where Father Ambrose took the deepest information on all branches of human labor that were in it.

The outer life of the elder in the Optina hermitage proceeded as follows. His day began at four or five in the morning. At this time, he called his clergymen, and the morning rule was read. It lasted more than two hours, after which the cell attendants left, and the old man, left alone, indulged in prayer and prepared for his great day service. Reception began at nine o'clock: first the monastics, then the laity. Reception lasted until dinner.

At about two o'clock they brought him meager food, after which he remained alone for an hour and a half. Then vespers was read, and reception was resumed until nightfall. At about 11 o'clock a long evening rule was made, and it was not until midnight that the old man was finally alone. Father Ambrose did not like to pray in plain sight. The lay brother who read the rule had to stand in another room. One day, one monk violated the prohibition and entered the old man’s cell: he saw him sitting on a bed with his eyes fixed on the sky, and his face shone with joy.

So for more than thirty years, from day to day, Elder Ambrose performed his feat. In the last ten years of his life, he took another care: the foundation and organization of the women's monastery in Shamordin, 12 versts from Optina, where in addition to 1000 nuns there were also an orphanage and a girls' school, an almshouse for old women and a hospital. This new activity for the elder was not only unnecessary material care, but also a cross, the Providence entrusted to him and ending his ascetic life.

1891 was the last in the earthly life of an old man. He spent the whole summer of this year in the Shamordinsky Convent, as if hurrying to finish and arrange everything unfinished there. There was a rush of work, the new abbess needed guidance and directions.

The elder, in obedience to the orders of the consistory, repeatedly appointed the days of his departure, but the deterioration of his health, the onset of weakness — the result of his chronic illness — made him postpone his departure.

So it went until autumn. Suddenly, the news came that the bishop himself, displeased with the slowness of the old man, was going to come to Shamordino and take him away. Meanwhile, the elder Ambrose was weakening every day. And so - just the bishop managed to drive half way to Shamordin and stopped to spend the night in the Peremyshl monastery, as he was sent a telegram informing him of the death of the old man.

The Right Reverend changed his face and said embarrassedly: “What does this mean?” It was the evening of October 10 (22). His grace was advised to return to Kaluga the next day, but he replied: “No, it’s probably God's will!” The hierarchs do not read the simple hieromonks, but this is a special hieromonk - I want to perform the old man's funeral. ”

It was decided to transport him to Optina Hermitage, where he spent his life and where his spiritual leaders — the elders Leo and Macarius — were buried. The words of the Apostle Paul are engraved on the marble tombstone: “The poor are weak, they are weak, and the weak will be acquired. I will save everyone all, but I will save every one of them ”(1 Cor. 9, 22). These words accurately express the meaning of the elder's life feat.

The great Optina Elder Ieroshimonakh Ambrosy was born, as is commonly believed, on the day of memory of Saint Alexander Nevsky on November 23, 1812 in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa, Tambov Province, in the family of the sexton Mikhail Fedorovich, whose father was a priest. “On what date was my birth,” the elder later recalled, “Mother herself did not remember, because on that very day, as I was born, my grandfather went to the house where my mother lived then, many guests (my grandfather was royal), so my mother had to be escorted out, and in that confusion she forgot what time I was born. It must be assumed that it was around November 23. ” And, speaking of the circumstances of his birth, Father Ambrose loved to joke: "As I was born in humans, I live everything in public." At baptism, the newborn was given the name Alexander in honor of the holy prince.

As a child, Alexander was a very lively, cheerful and intelligent boy. According to the custom of the time, he learned to read the Slavic primer, the Book of Hours, and the Psalter. Every holiday he, along with his father, sang and read on the choir. He had never seen or heard anything bad, since he was educated in a strictly church and religious environment.

When the boy was 12 years old, his parents assigned him to the first class of the Tambov Theological School, after which in 1830 he graduated from the Tambov Theological Seminary. Both in college and in seminary, thanks to his rich abilities, Alexander Grenkov studied very well .   “Grenkov does little to do,” said his comrade in the seminary, “and when he comes to the class, he will respond, just as in writing, better than anyone.” Ob-la-dai from nature with a cheerful and lively disposition, he was always the soul of a society of young people. In the seminary, Alexander's favorite occupation was the study of the Holy Scriptures, theological, historical and verbal sciences. And therefore he never thought about the monastery, although some had predicted this to him. A year before the end he was seriously ill. There was almost no hope of an amendment, and he made a vow to go to the monastery if he recovered.

A whole year of seminary life, conducted by him in the circle of a cheerful society of young comrades, could not help weakening his jealousy for monasticism, so that after completing the seminar course he did not immediately decide to enroll in our monarchy. A year and a half Alexander Mikhailovich stayed in a landlord's house. And in 1838 the place of the teacher of the religious school in the city of Lipetsk was freed, and he took this position.

But, often recalling this vow to go to the monastery, he always felt remorse. Here is how the old man himself told about this period of his life: “After recovery, I spent four whole years cuddling, I did not dare to immediately end the world, but continued to visit my friends and not leave my talkativeness ... restless; and you think: well, now it's all over forever - I’ll stop chattering at all. You look, again called for a visit, and again embroider. And so I suffered for four years. ” To ease his soul he began to retire and pray at night, but this caused ridicule of his comrades. Then he began to go to pray in Cher-Dak, and then out of town into the woods. That was how his denouement with the world approached.

In the summer of 1839, on the way to the pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Alexander Mikhailovich, together with his friend P. P. Pokrovsky, drove into Troyekurovo to the famous reclusive Fr. Hilarion. The holy ascetic accepted the young people fatherly and gave Alexander Mikhailovich a very definite instruction: "Go to Optina, you are needed there." At the tomb of St. Sergius, in a fervent prayer asking for blessings for a new life, in his decision to leave the world he felt the presentiment of some kind of immense exciting happiness. But, returning to Lipetsk, Alexander Mikhailovich continued, in his words, to still “press”. It happened that after one evening at a party, at which he especially made everyone present laugh, his vow, given to God, was presented to his imagination, he remembered the burning spirit in the Trinity Lavra, the former long prayers, sighs and tears, the definition of God transmitted through Fr. Hilarion, and along with this, he felt the failure and shakiness of all intentions. In the morning the resolve was firmly ripe this time. Fearing that the entreaties of his relatives and friends would shake him, he decided to flee to Optina from all but not asking for permission from the diocesan authorities. Being already in Optina, he reported on his intention to the Tambov bishop.

On October 8, 1839, arriving at Optina, Alexander Mikhailovich found during his life the very color of her monasticism — such pillars as Hegumen Moses, the elders Leo (Leonid) and Makariya. The head of the hermitage was equal to ieroshimonah Anthony, brother of Fr. Moses, the devotee and the protester of the Liver. In general, all monasticism under the guidance of the elders bore the imprint of spiritual virtues; simplicity (non-skill), meekness and humility were the hallmarks of Optina monasticism. The younger brethren tried in every way to humble themselves, not only in front of their elders, but also in front of their peers, even fearing to offend the other and, at the slightest pretext, immediately asked each other for forgiveness. In such a high spiritual level of the monastic environment was the newly arrived young Grenkov.

Alexander Mikhailovich had such traits as excessive liveliness, sharpness, wit, sociability, had the ability to grab everything on the fly. It was a strong, creative, rich nature. Subsequently, all these qualities that constituted his essence did not disappear in him, but as his spiritual growth was transformed, spiritualized, imbued with God's grace, giving him the opportunity, like the apostle, to become “all things” to gain many.

The spiritual leader of the Optina Brotherhood, the elder Shekhiarchimandrit Lev, received Alexander Mikhailovich with love and blessed him to live in the monastery’s living room courtyard. Living in a hotel, he daily visited the elder, listened to his instructions, and in his spare time, on his instructions, translated the manuscript of “Sinful Salvation” from modern Greek.

For half a year there was clerical correspondence with the diocesan authorities about his disappearance. Only on April 2, 1840, the Kaluga Spiritual Consistory issued a decree on the definition of Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov as a brotherhood, and soon after that he was dressed in a monastic dress.

For some time in the monastery he was the attendant of the elder Leo and the reader (that is, he read the prayer rules for the elder at the appointed time, as the elder, because of the weakness of his physical strength, could not go to the temple of God). His relationship to the elder was the most sincere. Why, for his part, the elder also treated the novice Alexander with a special, gently paternal love, calling him Sasha.

In November 1840, Alexander Grenkov was transferred from the monastery to the monastery, where he was under the close supervision of the elder Macarius. But even from there, the novice novice did not cease to go to the old man Leo in the monastery for edification.

In the skete, he was an assistant cook for a whole year. He often had to come to the service of the elder Macarius: either to be blessed with respect to ku-sha-niy, then to strike at the table, then for other reasons. At the same time, he had the opportunity to tell the elder about his state of mind and get wise advice, how to act in tempting cases. The goal was: that the temptation did not defeat the person, but that the person overcome the temptation.

At the end of the days of his hardworking godly life, the elder Fr. Leo, seeing his future elder in eldership in his beloved novice Alexander, entrusted him to the special care of his fellow elder Fr. Macarius, saying: “Here is a man who painfully huddles with us, the elders. I am now very weak. So I give it to you from the floor to the floor - own it, as you know. ” It seems that these floors of the great elders were, for a disciple close to them, the likeness of the grace of Ilia, thrown upon Elisha.

After the death of the elder Leo, brother Alexander became the attendant of the elder Macarius. Obedience is he passed four years (from autumn 1841 to January 2, 1846).

In the next, in 1842, the year, November 29, he was shorn in the mantle and named Ambvros, in the name of St.. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, commemorated on December 7/20. This was followed by the hierodeacon (1843), in whose dignity Amv-rosy always served with great reverence. After spending almost three years as a deacon, oh. Ambrose at the end of 1845 was presented to ordination as a hieromonk.

For this purpose (dedication) o. Ambrose went to Kaluga. There was a strong cold. O. Ambrose, emaciated by fasting, seized a strong cold that affected internal organs. From now on, I could never get better for us.

At the beginning, when oh. Ambrose still held on, pre-accustomed Nikolai Kaluzhsky came to Optina. He told him: “And you help Fr. Macarius in the clergy. He is already getting old. After all, it is also a science, only not this - Mi-nar, but the monastic ”. And about. Ambrose was beaten then for 34 years. He often had to deal with visitors, pass the questions to the old man and give answers from the old man. It was so until 1846, when after a new attack of his illness, Fr. Ambrose was forced to leave the state due to illness, being recognized as incapable of obedience, and began to count on the dependency of the monastery. He has since been unable to perform liturgy; barely moved, suffered from perspiration, so he changed clothes several times a day. I could not stand the cold and drafts. I used liquid food, ground a grater, ate very little.

Despite this, he not only did not grieve for his illnesses, but even considered them necessary for his spiritual success. Believing completely and comprehending with his own experience, that “even our external man is smoldering, even the inner one is renewed all the days” (2 Cor. 4, 16), he never wished himself a perfect recovery. And therefore he always said to others: “A monk should not be seriously treated ,   but only to heal, ”in order, of course, not to lie in bed and not to be another. So he himself was constantly healing. Knowing from the teachings of the holy ascetic fathers that bodily illness is higher and stronger than fasting, bodily works and deeds, he reminded himself that, in edification and comfort to his disciples, he used to say: “God does not require bodily deeds from a sick person, but only patience humility and thanksgiving. "

His obedience to his elder, Father Fr. Macarius, as always, was inconspicuous, even in the smallest thing gave an account. Now he was entrusted with the translation work, the preparation for the publication of the patristic books. He translated into easy comprehensible Slavic language “The Ladder” of John, Abbot of Sinai.

This period of life is about. Ambrose was the most auspicious for the pro-walking of art from the arts - a clever prayer. Once the elder Macarius asked his beloved disciple Fr. Ambrose: “Guess who got his spa session without troubles and sorrows?” Elder Ambrose himself attributed such salvation to his leader, elder Macarius. But in the life story of this elder it is said that "the passage of clever prayer to them, according to the degree of the spiritual age of that time, was premature and almost hurt him." The main reason for this was that Fr. Macarius did not have with him a permanent leader in this high spiritual endeavor. Father Ambrose had in the face of Fr. Macarius, the most experienced spiritual mentor, ascended to the heights of spiritual life. Therefore, he could be trained in intelligent prayer, indeed, “without misfortune,” that is, bypassing the intrigues of the enemy, introducing the ascetic to the charm, and “without sorrows,” who were adventurous as a result of our falsely specious desires. External sorrows (as a disease) are considered as devotees useful and soul-saving. And the whole monastic life from the very beginning, Fr. Ambrose under the care of the wise elders went smoothly, without any stumbling, directed toward greater and greater spiritual development.

And what words about. Macarius treated about. Ambrose, you can see more of what oh. Ambrose in the last years of his elder's life has already achieved a high perfection in the spiritual life. For, as the old man Leo called Fr. Macarius is holy, as now the elder Macarius treated Fr. Ambrose. But this did not prevent him from subjecting him to blows to his ego, cultivating in him a strict devotee of poverty, humility, patience, and other monastic virtues. When once for oh. Ambrose stood up: "Father, he is a sick man," the elder replied: "Do I really know you worse? But after all, the monk's remarks and remarks are the brushes that erase the sinful dust from his soul, and without this the monk will rust. ” So, under the experienced guidance of the great old man, she imperceptibly worked out at Fr. Ambrose is the height of the spirit, the power of love that he needed when he took upon himself the high and difficult labor of eldership.

During the life of the elder Macarius, with his blessings, some of the brethren came to Fr. Ambrose for the revelation of thoughts. So the elder Macarius was gradually preparing himself a worthy successor. And therefore, seeing his loyal disciple and son of the spiritual surrounded by the crowd and talking with his neighbors for the benefit of his soul, passing by, humorously said: “Look, look, look! Ambrose takes bread from me. ” And sometimes, among conversations with people close to the occasion, she will say: “Father Ambrose will not abandon you.”

At this time, the spiritual nourishment of Fr. Ambrose has already been assigned to the Optina Elders nuns of the Boris desert in the Kursk province. And therefore, when they came to Optina, he, on a duty, immediately went to their hotel. He went with the blessing of Fr. Macarius and to the world visitors.

When the elder Makarii reposed (September 7, 1860), although he was not directly appointed, but gradually the circumstances were such that Fr. Ambrose took his place. For after 12 years of his seniority, depending on the elder Macarius, he was already so prepared for this service that he could well be his predecessor's deputy.

After the death of Archimandrite Fr. Moses was elected head of Fr. Isaac, who belonged to Fr. Ambrose as his elder until his death. Thus, in the Optina Hermitage, there was no friction between government officials.

The elder went to live in another building, near the skete fence, on the right side of the bell tower. On the western side of this building was an extension, called the "hut" for the reception of women. And for 30 years he stood at the Divine guard, serving the service of others.

The old man was already secretly tonsured into a schema, obviously, at that moment when his life was in danger during his illness. With him there were two cell mates: o. Michael and about. Joseph (the future elder). The chief clerk was Fr. Kli-ment (Zederholm), the son of a Protestant pastor who converted to Pravoslavia, the most learned man, master of Greek literature.

The daily life of Elder Ambrose began with a cell rule. To listen to the morning rule, at first he got up at 4 o'clock in the morning, rang the bell, which the attendants came to him and read: morning prayers, 12 selected psalms and the first hour, after which he was alone in clever prayer. Then, after a brief rest, the old man listened to the third, sixth clock with graphic, and, depending on the day, the canon with the Akathist to the Savior or the Mother of God, which he listened to while standing.

O. Ambrose did not like to pray in plain sight. The lay brother who read the rule had to stand in another room. Once they read the prayer canon of the Blessed Virgin, and one of the sketic hieromonks decided at that time to approach the priest. Eyes about. Ambrose was aspired to heaven, her face was radiant with joy, a bright radiance rested upon it, so that the priestly women could not bear it. Such cases, when the face of the elder, filled with wondrous kindness, miraculously transfigured, being lit up with a blessed light, almost always occurred in the morning during or after his prayer rule.

After prayer and tea drinking, the working day began with a short break in the lunchtime. During the meal, the cell attendants continued to ask questions on the instructions of visitors. But sometimes, in order to alleviate the clouded head in any way, the elder ordered him to read one or two of Krylov's fables. After some rest, intense work was resumed - and so on until deep evening. Despite the extreme exhaustion and soreness of the elder, the day always ended with the evening prayer rules consisting of a small compline, a canon to the Guardian Angel and evening prayers. From the all-day reports the cell attendants, who kept bringing the old man and those who had brought the visitors, were barely able to stand. The elder himself at times lay unconscious. After the rule, the elder asked for forgiveness, great sin by deed, word, thought. The cellists received the blessing and headed for the exit.

Two years later, an old man suffered a new disease. His health, already weak, was completely weakened. From then on, he could no longer go to the temple of God and had to take communion in the cell. And such severe deterioration was repeated more than once.

It is hard to imagine how he could, being nailed to such a suffering cross, in complete exhaustion of strength to take daily crowds of people and respond to dozens of letters. The words came true on it: My strength in weakness is committed  (2 Cor. 12, 9). If he were not the chosen vessel of God, through which God Himself spoke and acted, such a feat, such a gigantic work could not be accomplished by any human forces. The life-giving Divine grace was clearly present and conducive.

“Completely uniting his feelings with God,” says Ladchnik, “he secretly learns His words from him.” This living communion with God is the gift of the prophetic, that extraordinary insight that Fr. Ambrose. Thousands of his spiritual children testified to this.

Let us cite the words of the old man of one of his spiritual daughters: “How easy is your heart when you sit in this cramped and stifling hovel, and how bright it seems when its mysterious half-light. How many people have been here! They came here, shedding tears of grief, and left with tears of joy; desperate - comforted and encouraged; unbelievers and doubters are faithful sons of the Church. Here the father lived - a source of so many benefits and consolations. Neither the title of a man nor a state had any meaning in his eyes. He needed only the soul of a man who was so dear to him that, forgetting himself, he tried with all his might to save her, to put her on the true path. "

From morning to evening the dejected old man received visitors. People came to him with the most burning questions that he assimilated to himself, with whom he lived in a minute of conversation. He always grasped the essence of the case at once, inexplicably wisely explained it and gave an answer. There were no secrets for him: he saw everything. A stranger could come to him and be silent, and he knew his life and his circumstances, and why he came here. His words were received with faith, because they were with authority based on closeness to God, who gave him omniscience. To understand any movement of Fr. Ambrose, you have to imagine how hard it is to talk more than 12 hours a day!

He also liked to talk with worldly pious, especially educated, people whom he had a lot of. Owing to the common love and respect for the old man, people of the Catholic and other non-Orthodox religions came to Optina, who, with his blessing, immediately accepted Orthodoxy.

For the love of God, Fr. Ambrose left the world and took the path of moral improvement. But as the love of God in Christianity is inextricably linked with the feat of love for one's neighbor, so the feat of improvement and personal salvation from an old man was never separated from his feat of service to people.

Spiritual poverty, or humility, was the basis of the whole ascetic life of the old man Ambrose. Humility also made the elder all his labors and exploits, as much as possible, to shelter from the curious, or self-reproach, or joking speech, or sometimes even not quite plausible actions, or just silence and restraint, so that the people closest to him sometimes looked at him like a very ordinary man. At all times of the day and night, the cell attendants came to him on a call, and only with prayer, and therefore could never notice any outstanding features in him.

Living himself in humility, without which salvation is impossible, the elder and in those who remained, always wanted to see this essential virtue, and he treated the humble rather favorably, as, on the contrary, he could not tolerate the proud.

When he was asked: “Is it possible to desire perfection in the life of the spiritual?”, The elder answered: “Not only can you desire, but you should also try to improve in humility, that is, to consider yourself in the heart’s feeling worse and lower all people and every creature. " "Only a man will humble himself," said the old man, "as immediately humility delivers him on the eve of the Kingdom of Heaven, which is not in words, but in power: it is necessary to interpret less, to keep silence, not to condemn anyone, and my respect to all." “When a person forces himself to humble himself,” he instructed one nun, “the Lord comforts him inwardly, and this is the grace that God gives to the humble.”

“Have the fear of God and keep your conscience in all your deeds and situations, more humble yourself. Then surely you will receive the great mercy of God. ”

With deep humility, in spite of his cheerful nature and his restraint, the elder Ambrose often shed tears and against his will. He wept among the services and prayers that went on any occasion in his cell, especially if, at the request of the petitioners, a prayer service was served with an akathist before the especially venerable cell icon of the Heavenly Queen "It is Worthy". During the reading of the akaphist, he stood near the door, not far from the holy icon, and tenderly looked at the gracious face of the All-Sung Mother of God. Everyone and everyone could see how tears streamed down his emaciated sanitizers. He was always grieving and ill, sometimes before shedding tears, about some of his spiritual children who suffered from mental illnesses. He cried for himself, cried for private persons, grieved and ill the soul and about all the fatherland dear to him, and about the pious kings of the Russians. At one time, the elder appeared and tears of spiritual joy, especially when he listened to the harmonious note music of some church chants.

The old man, who has learned through experience the price of mercy and compassion for his neighbors, encouraged his spiritual children to this virtue, encouraging them in graciousness from the Most Gracious God for the mercy they have shown to their neighbors.

The councils and teachings with which the elder Ambrose healed the souls who came to him with faith, he taught either often in solitary conversation, or in general to all those around him, in the form of the simplest, most fragmentary and often playful. In general, it should be noted that the humorous tone of the edifying speech was its characteristic feature, which often caused a smile on the lips of frivolous listeners. But if it is more serious to penetrate this instruction, then everyone will see in it a deep meaning. “How to live?” - was heard from all sides a common and very important question. And as usual, the elder replied: “We must live impartially, and behave approximately; then our business will be true, and ina will come out badly. " Or this: “You can live in the world, but not with the Jurassic, but live quietly”. But these old man’s teachings tended to acquire humility.

In addition to verbal, personally taught by the elder Ambrose councils, the multitude sent them letters to those who were not able to come. And with his answers he directed the will of a person to good: “You will not force anyone to salvation ... The will of the person and the Lord Himself does not compel, although he instructs in many ways.” “The whole life of a Christian, and even more so of a monk, must pass in repentance, for with the cessation of repentance, the spiritual life of man also ceases. The gospel is the beginning and ends: "Repent." Humble repentance blots out all sins, it draws God's mercy to a repenting sinner. ”

A great place in letters is given and reasoning about prayer. “There is no greater consolation for a Christian, how to feel the nearness of Heavenly Father and talk with Him in his prayer. Prayer has great power: it pours into us a new spiritual life, comforts us in afflictions, supports and supports us in despondency and despair. God hears every breath of our soul. He is omnipotent and loving - flax - what peace and silence is established in such a soul, and from the depths of it one wants to say: "Thy will be in all, O Lord,”. The prayer of Jesus the Elder Amv-rosiy puts in the first place. He writes that in the prayer of Jesus we must abide constantly, not limited to either place or time. During the prayer, we should try to reject all thoughts and, not paying attention to them, continue the prayer.

Prayer, uttered in the humility of the heart, according to the old man Ambrose, allows a person to recognize all the temptations inflicted by the devil, and helps the prayer to triumph over them. In order to guide a reasonable prayer through the prayer of Jesus, the elder handed out pamphlets entitled "Interpretation to" Lord, have mercy. "

It should also be noted that, with the blessing of the old man and under his direct supervision and guidance, some of the Optina monks were engaged in translating paternal books from Greek and Latin into Russian and compiling psychologically useful books.

The grace of God is poured out on all those who seek salvation, but especially it pours out on those chosen by God who have renounced worldly life and day and night with many feats and tears trying to cleanse themselves from all filthy and carnal wisdom. The elder expresses the idea that the essence of monastic life consists in cutting off passions and achieving dispassion. The image of monasticism is called angelic. "Monasticism is a mystery." "It is possible to understand about monasticism that it is a sacrament covering former sins, like baptism." “The shima is three times baptism, cleansing and forgiving sins.”

The monastic way is the renunciation of all earthly things and the taking on of the yoke of Christ. Having entered the path of monasticism, those who want to completely follow Christ must first of all live the gospel according to the commandments. Elsewhere, the elder writes: “The wise and experiential-spiritual have spoken that reasoning is above all, and prudent silence is best, and humility is the strongest; obedience, according to the words of Lestvich, is such a virtue, without which none of those braided with passion will see the Lord. ” Therefore, we can say that the general content of the letters is about. Ambrose for the monastics next: bezro-potnost, humility, self-reproof, the patience of finding sorrows and surrender to the will of God.

In letters to worldly people, the elder resolved some perplexities regarding the faith of the Orthodox and the Catholic Church; denounced heretics and sectarians; interpreted some significant dreams; prompted how to proceed. The elder writes that you need to pay special attention to raising children in the fear of God. Without the inspiration of the fear of God than the children do not take, nothing will bring the desired fruits in respect of good morality and a comfortable life.

Elder Ambrose had a comprehensive experience, a broad range of people, and could give advice on any issue not only in the spiritual, but also in the spiritual. To many worldly people in their economic affairs, the old man gave wonderful practical advice. And the cases of perspicacity were numerous and often striking.

Many have turned to the elder Ambrose with the petition of his holy prayers for the healing of serious illnesses and for the most part in extreme cases when the medical skill was impotent. In such cases, the elder often advised everyone to use the sacrament of unction through which the sick were often healed. In all the diseases in general, the elder appointed to serve the moleben before the local miraculous icons or sent to Tikhonov pus-tyn (18 versts from Kaluga) to pray to the saint of God Tikhon Kaluzhsky and to be bought in his healing well, and the cases of healing on the holy prayers of the saint of God were numerous.

However, Elder Ambrose didn’t always act that way. By the grace of God given to him, he healed both himself and such examples, one might say, there were many ...

The elder pre-cleared his soul with many feats, making it the chosen co-judgment of the Holy Spirit, who abundantly acted through him. This spirituality is about. Ambrose was so great that even the intelligentsia of the 19th century noticed and appreciated it, and even the intelligentsia of the 19th century, who at that time was often weak in faith, was tormented by doubts, and sometimes hostile to the Church and the whole church, noticed him.

The elder, if possible, inclined some pious wealthy individuals to the organization of women's communities, and he himself, as much as he could, contributed to this. His care was organized by the women's community in the town of Kromakh, Oryol Province. He took a lot of cares especially for the improvement of the Gusev women's monastery in the Saratov province. With his blessing, Kozelshchanskaya community in the Poltava province and Pyatnitskaya in Voronezh settled down as philanthropists. The old man had not only to consider plans, give advice to bless people for the cause, but also to protect both benefactors and nuns from various misfortunes and punctuation on the part of some unfriendly lay people. On this occasion, he even entered into correspondence with diocesan bishops and members of the Holy Synod.

The last women's monastery, on which the elder Ambrose was especially successful, was the Shamorda Kazan community.

In 1871, the estate of Shamordino, in 200 acres of land, was bought by an obedient elder, widowed landowner Klyucharyova (in the monastic style Amvrosy).

Shamordinsky monastery primarily satisfied that ardent thirst of sweetheart to the suffering, which Fr. was always full of. Ambrose. Here he sent many helpless. The elder took the most active part in the device of a new monastery. Even before its official opening, one building after another began to be built. But there were so many who wanted to enter the community that these premises were not enough for widows and orphans who were in extreme poverty, as well as for all those suffering from any illness and who could not find comfort or shelter in life. But young female students also came here, looking for and finding the meaning of life from the old man. But most of all, simple peasant women were begging into the community. They all made up one close family, united by love for their old man, who gathered them and who loved them as well and passionately as fathers.

The one who came to Shamordino was, first of all, amazed at the extraordinary structure of the monastery. There were no commanders or subordinates here - everything was from Batyushka. He asked: “Why are they so willingly, freely ready to do everything his will?” And from different persons received the same answer: “Only that is good, to which Batyushka will bless.”

They brought, it happened, dirty, half-naked, covered with rags and a rash from uncleanness and exhaustion of a child. “Take him to Shamordino,” the elder is in charge (there is a shelter for the poorest girls). Here, in Shamordino, I don’t ask whether a person is capable of benefiting and delivering the benefits of my-us-tyryu. Here they saw that the human soul was suffering, that there was no place to lay one's head, and everyone accepted, reposed.

Every time the elder visited the orphanage in the community, the children sang a verse written in his honor: “Father, holy father! How to thank you, we do not know. You saw us, you dressed us. You saved us from poverty. Perhaps we would now all wandered around the world with suma, we would not know the shelter we would be anywhere and would be hostile with destiny. And here we pray only the Creator, and for you we praise Him. We pray to the Lord Father that we, orphans, do not leave us ”- or the troparion of the Kazan Icon, to which the monastery was dedicated, sang. Seriously and thoughtfully listened to Fr. Ambrose these children's prayers and often large tears rolled down his sunken cheeks.

The number of sisters in the elder monastery at the end exceeded five hundred.

Already in the beginning of 1891, the old man knew that he was to die soon ... Anticipating this, he especially hurriedly tried to build a monastery. Meanwhile, an unwitting bishop was going to personally appear in Shamordino and take out an old man in his carriage. Sisters addressed him with questions: “Batyushka! How do we meet the Lord? ”The elder replied:“ We will not meet him, but he will meet us! ”“ What should we sing for the lord? ”The elder said:“ We will give him “Alleluia” to sing. And indeed, the bishop found the old man already in his grave and entered the church under the singing "Alleluia."

Providence and the last days of his life the elder spent in the Shamor-Dina monastery. AT recent times  he was very weak, but no one could believe that he could die, so everyone needed him. “Father has weakened. Batiushka was ill, ”was heard in all the ends of the monastery. The old man's ears became very sick and his voice was weak. “This is the last test,” he said. The disease gradually progressed, pain in the head and in the whole body was added to the pain in the ears, but the elder answered questions in writing and gradually received visitors. Soon it became clear to all that the old man was dying.

Seeing that the old man came very close to the end, oh. Joseph hurried off to the skete to take from there the old man kept in the cell for his sake, the thing: a fly-vest old mantle, which he once wore when sheared, and a hair shirt, and also an old man Macari's canvas shirt, to which the priest about. Ambrose, as stated above, throughout his life, wrote a deep devotion and respect. In this shirt was the handwritten inscription of the elder Amv-rosy: “Upon my death, put on me without fail”.

As soon as the waste was finished, the old man began to run out. The face became in-seething with deathly pallor. The breath was getting shorter and shorter. Finally, he strongly pulled the air. Two minutes later it was repeated. Then Batiushka raised his right hand, folded it for the sign of the cross, brought it to his forehead, then on his chest, on his right shoulder and, reaching to his left, hit him hard on his left shoulder, it can be seen because it was a terrible effort for him, his breathing stopped . Then he sighed for the third and last time. It was exactly half past midday on October 10, 1891.

For a long time the surrounding bed of the peacefully departed old man stood still, being afraid to disturb the solemn minute of separation of the righteous soul from the body. All were, as it were, in a daze, not believing themselves and not understanding: what is it - a dream or a truth. But his holy soul has flown away in another measure, in order to stand before the Throne of the Most High in the radiance of that love with which he was full on earth. Light and calm was his old face. An unearthly smile illuminated him. The words of the perspicacious old man came true: “Behold, I’m all my people on the people, and I will die.”

From the body of the deceased, a heavy, deadly smell soon began to be felt. However, about this circumstance a long time ago he directly spoke to his cell mate, Fr. Joseph. To the latter’s question why this is so, the humble old man said: "This is to me for the fact that in life I have accepted too much undeserved honor."

But it is marvelous that the longer the body of the deceased stood in the church, the less began to feel the deadly smell. There was an unbearable heat in the church from a multitude of people, which did not leave the coffin for several days, which should have contributed to the rapid and strong decomposition of the body, but it was the opposite. On the last day of the old man’s funeral, a pleasant smell began to be felt from his body, as if from fresh honey.

The death of the elder was a nationwide grief, but for Optina and Shamordin and for all spiritual children it was immense.

By the day of burial, up to eight thousand people had gathered in Shamordino. After the liturgy, Bishop Vitaly, in co-service of thirty clergymen, performed the rite of burial. Seven hours continued the transfer of the body of the deceased old man. During all this time, the candles at the tomb never went out and even the usual cod was not heard, which happens when water droplets click on the candle of the burning candle (it rained heavily). During the life of his old man, Ambrose was a lamp, which in all conditions of life shone brightly with the light of its virtues to humanity, exhausted from sinful life, and now, when it did not, the Lord witnessed holiness with burning candles in inclement rainy weather. his life.

On October 14, in the evening, the coffin with the body of the elder who had appeared was brought to the Optina Monastery. On October 15, after the liturgy and memorial service, the coffin was lifted up by the clergy and, in the presentation of the holy icons and banner, the funeral procession went to the prepared grave. Elder Ambrose was buried next to his predecessors in old age, Fr. Leo-Nidom and Fr. Macarius Elder Ambrose was counted among the holy saints of God at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1988.

The elder Ambrose lives with eternal life, like having received great boldness toward the Lord, and in the popular consciousness will never fade away the memory of this great prayer book of the Russian land.

Elder Ambrose was born on November 23, 1812, in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa, Tambov Province and the same county, from the sexton Mikhail Feodorovich and his wife Marfa Nikolayevna Grenkovyh. The newborn was named in sv. the baptism of Alexander, in honor of the faithful Grand Duke Alexander Nevsky, whose memory fell on the very birthday of the baby. The name bore the blessed king Alexander Pavlovich. At this very time, there was a retreat from Russia by the Napoleonic army, which caused so much destruction and grief, and the long-suffering Russia especially celebrated the memory of the saint and the namesake day of Tsar Alexander the Blessed. Before the birth of the baby to his grandfather, the priest of this village, many guests came together. The puerperal was transferred to the bath, because in the house of Fr. Theodora was a great commotion, and people crowded in front of the house. Elder Ambrose later jokingly said: “As I was born in public, I live everything in public”.

The clerk of Mikhail Feodorovich had all eight children — four sons and four daughters; Alexander Mikhailovich was the sixth of them.

As a child, Alexander was a very lively, cheerful and intelligent boy. He was devoted to children's fun, so to speak, with his whole being, and therefore he could not sit in the house. Sometimes his mother instructed him to shake the cradle of one of her younger children. The boy sat down at the work boring for him, but only until his mother, busy with household chores, did not lose sight of him. Then he cautiously made his way to the window, just as carefully opened it and instantly disappeared from the room in order to frolic with his peers. He told himself the elder and some more of his childhood pranks. Once he was crawling under the roof behind the pigeons, but fell and stripped his back. Meanwhile, no one from home has dared to say this, fearing more punishment for prank. And another time, despite the remark of the mother, he did not stop to lash one gentle horse in his yard, which, coming out of patience, hurt him with a hoof in the head. It is clear that for such behavior, Alexander was not loved in the family. Neither the grandfather, the grandmother, nor even his own mother, who most of all loved her elder son Nicholas and the younger Peter, had any special favor for him.

Clever Sasha understood very well his awkward position among his native family who disliked him, although he didn’t know the reason for this, and maybe he did know, in part, he couldn’t and did not know how to behave so as to earn the love of his elders. Nevertheless, at times he was annoyed that his younger brother enjoyed, in comparison with him, a special all-family love.

  “Once,” the elder himself later reported, “I was very annoyed by this and decided to take revenge on my brother. Knowing that my grandfather doesn’t like noise, and that if we, the children, get upset, he will indiscriminately all of us — right and the guilty, otteret for the forelock, I, in order to take my little brother under the heavy hand of my grandfather, mocked him . He shouted, and the grandfather who was put out of patience tore both me and him. And the last thing I needed was.

Talking about his tricks, the humble old man reproached himself to the listeners: “I repent before you, I did this and that”.

In fact, he was just a living child, like mercury, and was not able to walk on the line, as was required in a strictly patriarchal family.

According to the custom of the time, he learned to read the Slavic primer, the Book of Hours, and the Psalter. Every holiday he, along with his father, sang and read on the choir. He had never seen or heard anything bad, because brought up in a strictly religious and religious environment.

With the onset of time, the young man’s teaching was determined first at the Theological School, and then, in 1830, at the seminary. From the strict family environment, he got, at that time, even more stringent - school. His abilities were exceptional. His seminary companion recalled: “It happened that you would buy a candle for the last money, repeat, set the lessons, he (the Croutons) does little, but comes to class, he will answer the instructor, just as in written form, ". In July 1836, Alexander Grenkov perfectly graduated from the science course with good behavior.

At first, Aleksandr Mikhailovich served as a home teacher in a landlord family, and then he entered as a mentor at the Lipetsk Theological School.

Soon he became seriously ill. There was almost no hope of an amendment, and he made a vow to go to the monastery if he recovered.

Although he recovered, but the internal struggle continued for a long time. Alexander Mikhailovich was by nature a cheerful, cheerful - the soul of society. Here is how the old man himself tells about this period of his life: “After recovery, I spent four whole years cuddling, did not dare to immediately end the world, but continued to visit my friends and not leave my talkativeness ... You come home - it’s restless in your heart, and you will think : well, now it's all over forever, I’ll stop talking altogether. You look, again called for a visit, and again embroider. And so I suffered for four years. ” To ease his peace, he began to retire and pray at night, but this caused ridicule from his comrades.

Once, while already in Lipetsk and walking in a nearby forest, he, standing on the bank of a stream, clearly heard in his murmur the words: "Praise God, love God ..." At home, secluded from curious glances, he ardently prayed to the Mother of God to enlighten him mind and direct his will. In general, he did not have an insistent will and already in old age he spoke to his spiritual children: "You must obey me from the first word. I am a compliant person. If you argue with me, I can give in, but this will not be to your advantage."

In the same Tambov diocese, in the village of Troekurovo, lived the ascetic known at that time, Fr. Hilarion. Alexander Mikhailovich, exhausted from his indecision, came to him for advice, and the elder said to him: "Go to Optina Pustyn and you will be experienced. You could go to Sarov, but there are no longer any experienced elders as before." (The elder, Rev. Seraphim, died shortly before this). When the summer holidays of 1839 came, Alexander Mikhailovich, together with his fellow seminary and colleague from the Lipetsk school of Pokrovsky, equipped the tent, went on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra to bow to the abbot of the Russian land - Rev. Sergius.

Returning to Lipetsk, Alexander Mikhailovich, according to him, continued to “huddle” and could not immediately decide to break with the world. It happened, however, after one evening at a party, when he was especially in shock, he made everyone laugh until he fell. Everyone was cheerful and contented, and went home in great spirits. As for Alexander Mikhailovich, even if in such cases he had felt remorse, now his vividly introduced his vow to his imagination, given to God, he remembered the burning spirit in the Trinity Lavra, and the old long prayers, sighs and tears, the definition of God transmitted through God. . Hilarion and, along with this, felt his inconsistency and the shakiness of his intentions.

In the morning the resolve was firmly ripe. Alexander Mikhailovich decided to flee to Optina secretly from everyone, without even asking for permission from the diocesan authorities. He feared that the entreaties of his relatives and friends would shake his determination, and therefore he left secretly.

Being already in Optina, Alexander announced his intention to become a monk to the Tambov hierarch.

Arriving on October 8, 1839 in Optina, Alexander Mikhailovich found the very color of her monasticism, such pillars as Hegumen Moses, the Elders Leo (Leonid) and Makariy, during his lifetime. The head of the monastery was the Reverend Anthony, brother of the teacher, equal in spiritual height. Moses, the devotee and the seer.

In addition to them, among the brethren there were many outstanding devotees: archim. Melchizedek, an ancient old man, at one time awarded conversations with St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, Fleet hieromonk Gennady, ascetic, formerly the confessor of Emperor Alexander I, hierodeacon Methodius insightful, lying for twenty years on the couch of the disease, the former Valaam abbot Varlaam, who had the gift of tears and the virtue edge noncontracting They told about the latter that once, after thieves visited the skete, they asked him: “And you, father, were thieves, robbed you?”. - “What to steal? Slivers what? ”, - smiled old man. He was a sotininnik prep. Herman of Alaska in their young years on Valaam. Palladium, also a non-wearer, contemplator, connoisseur of church office, also lived in Optina; ieroshimonah John - from schismatics, mild, with childlike simplicity, lovingly giving advice, beloved by all; Hieromonk Innocent - Elder Macarius' confessor, lover of silence, and others.

In general, all monasticism under the guidance of the elders bore the imprint of spiritual virtues: simplicity, meekness and humility were the hallmarks of Optina monasticism. The younger brethren tried to humble themselves in every way, not only in front of their elders, but also in front of their peers, fearing even to insult the other with a look, and at the slightest pretext they immediately asked each other for forgiveness.

In such a high spiritual level of the monastic environment was the newly arrived young Grenkov.

Leaving the cabman on the courtyard, he immediately hurried to the church, and after the liturgy - to the old man Leo, to ask for blessings to remain in the monastery. The elder blessed him to live the first time in the hotel and rewrite the book about the struggle with the passions "Sinful salvation" (translated from modern Greek).

In January 1840, he moved to live in a monastery, while not wearing a cassock.

At this time, there was a clerical correspondence with the diocesan authorities about his disappearance, and the Kaluga bishop had not yet decreed the abbot Optinsky to admit Grenkov to the monastery.

In April 1840, Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov was finally dressed in a monastic dress. For some time he was the attendant of the elder Lev and his reader (rule and services). He worked in the monastery bakery (bread), cooked hops (yeast), baked bread and was healthy. Then in November 1840 he was transferred to the monastery. From there, the young novice did not stop going to the old man Leo for edification.

In the skete, he was an assistant cook for a whole year. He often had to come to the service of the elder Macarius: either to be blessed with regard to food, then to hit the bell at the table, then for other matters. At the same time, he had the opportunity to tell the old man about his state of mind and received answers. The goal was that not temptation defeats man, but that man defeats temptation.

The elder Leo especially loved the young novice, affectionately calling him Sasha. But for educational reasons, he experienced humility in people. He pretended to be raging against him with anger. To this end, he gave him the nickname “Chimera”. By this word, he meant the barren flower, which happens on cucumbers. But behind his eyes he said about him: “There will be a great man.”

At the end of his life, the elder Leo called the elder Macarius and told him about Alexander: “Here is a man who painfully huddles with us, the elders. I am now very weak. So I give it to you from the floor to the floor, own it, as you know. ”

After the death of the elder Leo, brother Alexander became the attendant of the elder Macarius (1841–1846). In 1842, he was tonsured in the mantle and named Ambrose in honor of Ambrose of Milan (Comm. 7 December). This was followed by the hierodeacon (1843), and two years later - the ordination of a hieromonk.

For this purpose (dedication) in December 1946 prep. Ambrose went to Kaluga. It was very cold. Exhausted by fasting, he grabbed a strong cold that affected the internal organs. From now on, the elder could never recover in the present. However, he was not discouraged and admitted that bodily weakness has a beneficial effect on his soul. “It is useful for a monk to be ill,” stared Elder Ambrose loved to repeat, “and you don’t need to be treated in a disease, but only to heal.” And to others, in consolation, he said: "God does not require bodily feats from the patient, but only patience with humility and thanksgiving."

Once, when the elder Ambrose was still holding on somehow, Right Reverend Nikolai Kaluzhsky came to Optina. He told him: “And you help Fr. Macarius in the clergy. He's getting old. After all, it is also a science, but not a seminar, but a monastic one. ” Prep. Ambrose was then 34 years old. He often had to deal with visitors, pass the old man their questions and give answers from the old man. It was so until 1846, when, after a new attack of his illness, the monk was forced to leave the state due to illness, being recognized as incapable of obedience, and became registered as a dependent of the monastery as an invalid. He has since been unable to perform Liturgy; barely moved, suffered from perspiration, so he changed clothes and changed his shoes several times a day. I could not stand the cold and drafts. I used liquid food, ground a grater, ate very little.

From September 1846 to the summer of 1848, Ambrose's father was in such a threatening state of health that he was shorn in a cell in the schema with the same name preserved. However, quite unexpectedly for many, the patient began to recover and even go outside for walks. This fracture in the course of the disease was the apparent effect of the power of God, and the elder Ambrose himself later said: “God mercy! In the monastery, those who are sick do not die soon, but stretch and stretch until the disease brings them real benefit. In the monastery it is helpful to be a little sick so that the flesh would rebel less, especially among the young, and less trifles would come to mind. "

Despite the disease, prep. Ambrose was still in complete obedience to the old man, even in the slightest thing gave an account to him.

Now he was entrusted with the translation work, the preparation for the publication of the patristic books. He translated into Russian the “Ladder” of John, hegumen of the Sinai mountain.

  “One may think,” says the compiler of his life, “that these book lessons were for the elder Ambrose and a very educational significance in spiritual life. One of the participants in these classes, by the way, writes: “How generously we were rewarded for our small works! Who of those who listen to themselves would not have given several years of life to hear what our ears have heard: these are the explanations of old man Macarius, to such places of the writings of the fathers about which no one would dare to ask him if it were not for these lessons, if I dared to do this, I would certainly get a humble reply: “I do not know this, this is not my measure; maybe you have achieved it, but I only know: grant me, my God, look into my sins! Cleanse your heart, then you will understand. ”

This period of life prep. Ambrose was the most favorable for the passage of art from the arts - a clever prayer. Once the elder Macarius asked his beloved disciple: “Guess who got his salvation without troubles and sorrows?”. Elder Ambrose himself attributed such salvation to his leader, the elder Macarius, but in the biography of this elder it was said that "the passage of intelligent prayer, according to the degree of his spiritual age, was premature and almost hurt him."

The main reason for this was that prep. Macarius did not have with him a permanent leader in this high spiritual endeavor. The Monk Ambrose, in the person of the elder Macarius, had a most experienced spiritual mentor, ascended to the heights of spiritual life. Therefore, he could be trained in intelligent prayer truly “without misfortune”, i.e. bypassing the intrigues of the enemy, introducing the devotee to the charms, and the “no sorrows” that come about as a result of our falsely specious desires, with which we often deceive ourselves. External sorrows (as diseases) are considered as devotees useful and soul-saving. And the whole, from the very beginning, monastic life of prep. Ambrose, under the care of the wise elders, went smoothly, without any stumbling, directed towards greater and greater spiritual development.

And that acquiring, with the help of God, a high intelligent prayer, is, so to speak, a crown, or the completion of salvation made by man on earth, can be seen from the words of Rev. John of the Ladder, who defined the prayer "by the abiding and uniting of man with God, for whoever is united with God and abides in Him, he, although still in this mortal body, is already saved."

The fact that the words of the elder Macarius related to prep. Ambrose, you can also see from the fact that prep. Ambrose in the last years of his elder's life has already achieved high perfection in spiritual life. For, as the time of the old man Leo called prep. Macarius is holy, as now the elder Macarius treated the venerable st. Ambrose.

But this did not prevent him from subjecting him to blows to his ego, cultivating in him a strict devotee of poverty, humility, patience, and other monastic virtues. When one day for the elder Ambrose they stood up: “Batyushka, he is a sick man!”, The elder Macarius answered: “But I really know you worse! But after all, the monk's reprimands and remarks are the brushes that erase the sinful dust from his soul, and without this the monk will rust ”

During the life of the elder Macarius, with his blessings, some of the brethren came to the elder Ambrose for revelation of thoughts.

This is how Fr. Hegumen Mark (who later ended life at rest in Optina). “How much I could notice,” he says, “oh. Ambrose lived at this time in complete silence. I went to him daily for the revelation of thoughts, and almost always found him reading patristic books. If he didn’t find him in his cell, it meant that he was with the elder Macarius, who was helped in correspondence with spiritual children, or worked in translating patristic books. Sometimes I found him lying on a bed and tearing, but always restrained and barely noticeable. It seemed to me that the elder always walked before God, or, as it were, always felt the presence of God, according to the word of the psalmist: I took the Lord's Eve before me (Ps.K15, K8), and therefore tried everything for the Lord’s sake to create Through these things, he was always complained, fearing how not to offend the Lord, which was reflected on his face. Seeing such concentration of my old man, I was always in reverent awe in the presence of him. Yes, otherwise I could not be. I, who, as usual, became kneeling before him and received a blessing, he would very quietly make the question: “What do you say, brother, pretty?”. Puzzled by his focus and complacency, I would say: forgive, for God's sake, sir, maybe I didn’t come at the right time? - No, - the elder will say, - say the necessary, but in brief. “And, having listened to me with attention, he will give a useful instruction with blessing and let it go with love.” He did not teach instructions from his wisdom and reasoning, although he was rich in spiritual intelligence. If he taught spiritually to him, then at the rank of a student, he offered not his own advice, but the certainly active teaching of St. fathers. ”

If about. Mark complained to him about someone who had offended him, the old man would sometimes say in a pitiful tone: “Brother, brother! I am a dying man. ” Or: “I will die today or tomorrow. What will I do with this brother? After all, I'm not the abbot. It is necessary to reproach yourself, humble yourself before a brother - and you will calm down ”. Such a response caused in the soul of Fr. Mark self-reproach and he, humbly bowing to the old man and asking for forgiveness, left reassured and comforted, “flew away like on wings”.

In addition to monks, prep. Macarius brought Elder Ambrose closer together with his worldly spiritual children. Seeing him talking to them, the elder Macarius jokingly says: “Look, look! Ambrose takes bread from me. ”

So the elder Macarius gradually prepared for himself a worthy successor. When prep. Macarius reposed (September 7, 1860), although he was not directly appointed, but gradually the circumstances were such that the elder Ambrose took his place.

After the death of the prep. Moses was elected rector prep. Isaac, who belonged to prep. Ambrose, as his elder until his death. Thus, in the Optina Hermitage, there was no friction between the authorities.

The elder went to live in another building, near the skete fence, on the right side of the bell tower. On the western side of this building was an extension, called a “hut”, to accommodate women. And for 30 years (before leaving for the Shamorda women's community), he stood on the Divine guard, serving the people.

With him there were two cell mates: o. Michael and about. Joseph (the future elder). The chief clerk was Fr. Clement (Zederholm), son of a Protestant pastor who converted to Orthodoxy, the most learned man, master of Greek literature.

To listen to the morning rule, at first he got up at four in the morning, rang the bell, which the attendants came to him and read the morning prayers, twelve selected psalms and the First hour, after which he was alone in intelligent prayer. Then, after a brief rest, the old man listened to the Clock: Third, Sixth with graphic, and looking at the day, the canon with the Akathist to the Savior or the Mother of God, which akathists he listened to while standing.

After prayer and tea drinking, the working day began with a short break at lunchtime. Food was eaten by the monk in such quantity as is given to a three-year-old child. At meal time, the cell attendants continued to ask him questions on behalf of the visitors, but sometimes, in order to alleviate the loaded head in any way, the elder ordered him to read one or two Krylov's fables. After some rest, intense work was resumed, and so on until deep evening. Despite the extreme debility and soreness, the day prep. Ambrose always concluded the evening prayer rule, consisting of the Small Compline, the canon to the Guardian Angel and the evening prayers. From day-long reports the cell attendants, who kept bringing him and bringing visitors to him, could barely stand. The elder himself at times lay almost without feelings. After the rule, he asked for forgiveness of “a great number of sinners by deed, word, thought”. The caretakers took the blessing and headed for the exit. The clock will ring. "How much it? The old man will ask in a weak voice. They will answer him: "The Twelve." - “Late” - will say.

Two years later, the monk suffered a new disease. His health, already weak, had completely weakened. Since then, he could no longer go to the temple of God and had to take communion in the cell. In 1868, his state of health was so bad that they began to lose hope of recovery. The “Kaluga” miraculous icon of the Mother of God was brought. After the moleben and the cell vigil, and then the unction, the old man's health yielded to treatment, but extreme weakness did not leave him throughout his life.

Such severe deterioration was repeated more than once; the old man said about himself: “Sometimes it will press that way, I think, that’s the end!”

It is hard to imagine how he could, being nailed to such a suffering cross, in complete exhaustion, accept daily crowds of people and respond to dozens of letters. The words came true on him: “The power of God is in weakness.” If he had not been the chosen vessel of God, through which God himself spoke and acted, such a feat, such a gigantic work, could not be accomplished by any human forces. The life-giving Divine grace here was clearly present and facilitated.

So enlightened, penetrated by the grace of God and was in reality great old man about. Ambrose. “Completely uniting his feelings with God,” says Ladder, “he secretly learns His words from Him.” This living communion with God is the gift of the prophetic, that extraordinary insight that the prof. Ambrose. Thousands of his spiritual children testified to this. Neither the past, nor the present, nor the future was hidden from him. Let us cite the words about the old man of one of his spiritual daughters: “How joyfully your heart will beat when, walking through a dark forest, you see a skittant bell tower at the end of the walkway, and on the right side a wretched cell of a humble devotee! How easy it is on your soul when you sit in this cramped and choppy hut, and how light it seems when it mysteriously half-light. How many people have been here! And they came here, shedding tears of grief, and left with tears of joy; desperate comforted and encouraged, unbelievers and doubters of faithful children of the Church. Here lived the "father" - the source of so many good deeds and consolations. Neither the title of a man nor a state had any meaning in his eyes. He needed only the soul of a man who was so dear to him that, forgetting himself, he tried with all his might to save her, to put her on the right path. From morning to evening, the aged man, dejected by illness, received visitors, serving each according to his needs. His words were accepted in faith and were law. His blessing or special attention was considered a great happiness, and those who were honored were left baptized and thanked by God for consolation.

From morning to evening, people came to him with the most burning questions that he assimilated to himself, with whom he lived in a minute of conversation. He always grasped the essence of the case at once, inexplicably wisely explaining it and giving an answer. But in the course of ten to fifteen minutes of such a conversation, not one issue was resolved: at that time the monk could hold the whole person in his heart — with all his attachments and desires — with all his inner and outer worlds. From his words and his instructions it was obvious that he loves not only the one with whom he speaks, but all those loved by this person, his life, all that is dear to him. Offering his decision, the elder Ambrose meant not only one thing in itself, not the dependency that could have consequences on him both for the person and for others, but he had in mind all aspects of life with which the matter had any contact. What must be mental strain to solve such problems? And such questions were offered to him by dozens of laymen, not counting monks and fifty letters that came and sent daily. The word of the old man was with authority based on closeness to God, which gave him omniscience. It was a prophetic ministry.

There were no secrets for him: he saw everything. A stranger could come to him and be silent, and he knew his life and his circumstances, and why he came here. Prep. Ambrose asked his visitors, but it was clear to the attentive person how and what questions he posed that he knew everything. But sometimes, by the vividness of nature, this knowledge was revealed, which always caused the old man to be embarrassed. One day, a young man from the burgher with a hand in a sling approached him and began to complain that he could not cure her. The elder had another monk and several laymen. He did not have time to finish speaking: “... it hurts, it hurts a lot…”, - as the elder interrupted him: “And it will hurt, why did the mother hurt?”. But at once he was embarrassed and continued: “Do you behave well? Are you a good son? ”

Elder Ambrose cannot be imagined without a sympathetic smile, from which it became somehow merry, warm and good, without a caring gaze, which says that now he is coming up with something for you and saying something very good; without that revival in everything - in the movements, in the burning eyes - with which he listens to you, and by which you understand well that at that moment he lives with you all and that you are closer to him than you yourself.

From the liveliness of the elder, his expression constantly changed. Then he looked at you with affection, then laughed with you animated young laughter, then sympathetically sympathized, if you were pleased, then quietly bowed his head, if you told something sad, then for a minute he plunged into thinking. When you wanted him to say what to do, you resolutely began to shake his head, when he discouraged any thing, he looked at you intelligently and in detail, started to explain everything, you began to explain how to arrange your business.

During the whole conversation, the old man’s expressive black eyes stare at you. You feel that these eyes see through you, with all that is bad and good in you, and you are pleased that it is so that there can be no secret in it for you.

To understand, at least in some way, asceticism prep. Ambrose, you have to imagine how hard it is to speak for more than twelve hours a day, when the tongue from fatigue refuses to act, the voice goes into a whisper, and the words fly out with an effort that is barely pronounced. It was impossible to calmly look at the terribly tired old man, seeing his head falling on the pillow; hearing how his tongue barely speaks, when at the same time he tried to get up, talk in detail about what came to him.

His creative activity was in the blood. He often taught others to do some work, and when private people came to him for a blessing on such a thing, he eagerly began to discuss and give his explanations. The elder loved vigorous, quick-witted people who obeyed the words “do not commit yourself,” and gave blessings, and with him the faith in good luck to the most daring enterprises.

One landowner, Optina monk's son-in-law, who often visited Optina and prep. Ambrose, once came to him. The elder addressed with the words: “They say (the father loved to use the word“ speak ”to cover his vision), they say, near you, a profitable estate is for sale, buy.”

The landowner was surprised. “It’s for sale, father, how good it is to buy, but this is a dream: a large estate, asking for clean money — at least cheap, but I have no money.”

"Money ...," repeated the old man quietly, "there will be money." Then they turned to other conversations. At the farewell prep. Ambrose said: “Hear, buy something.” The landowner went home on his horses. On the way, his uncle lived, a rich but terribly greedy old man, avoided by all his kindred. It so happened that there was nowhere to land and had to call on my uncle. During the conversation, the uncle asks: “Why don't you buy the estate that is for sale near you: a good purchase!” And he answers: “What are you asking, uncle! Where can I get so much money? ”. - "And if there is money: if you want, I will give a loan?". Nephew took it for a joke, but my uncle was not joking. The estate was purchased, and the new owner came to dispose. Not even a week passed, the master was told that merchants had come to trade in the forest. The forest of this estate they wanted to buy not all, but part of it. We started talking about the price: “We are not going to bargain with you, sir, we will immediately set the price,” and called the price for which the whole estate was bought.

Prudence of the elder extended to practical questions, far from the problems of spiritual life. Here is an example.

The wealthy Orlov landowner comes to the Rev. and, by the way, announces that he wants to arrange a water supply system in his extensive apple orchards. The old man is already covered by this water supply. “People say,” he begins with his usual in such cases words, “people say that this is the best of all,” and describes in detail the water supply. The landowner, returning to the village, begins to read about this subject; It turns out that the elder described the latest inventions in this regard. The landowner is back at Optina. “Well, what is the water supply system?”, Asks the reverend. Around the apples rot, and this landowner had a rich harvest of apples.

An honorable woman arrived at the elder, whom she considered necessary to immediately report to him. “All are equal with me,” said the reverend, “and the mouse is small, go and catch it.”

Love and wisdom - these qualities attracted people to the elder. From morning to evening they came to him with the most pressing questions, which he deeply penetrated, with which he lived in a minute of conversation. He always at once embraced the essence of the case, inexplicably wisely explained it and gave an answer. But in the course of 10–15 minutes of such a conversation, not one issue was resolved, but at that time Fr. Ambrose contained in his heart the whole man - with all his affections, desires - with all his world, internal and external. From his words and his instructions it was obvious that he loves not only the one with whom he speaks, but all those loved by this person, his life, all that is dear to him. Offering your solution, oh. Ambrose had in mind not just one thing in itself, regardless of the consequences that might arise from it, both for this person and for others, but referring to all aspects of life with which this matter was in any way in contact. What must be mental strain to solve such problems? And such questions were offered to him by dozens of lay people, not counting monks and fifty letters that came and sent daily. The word of the old man was with authority based on closeness to God, which gave him omniscience. It was a prophetic ministry.

Little things for the elder did not exist. He knew that everything in life has a price and its consequences, and therefore there was no question to which he would not answer with the participation and desire for good. Once the old man was stopped by a woman who was hired by a landowner to go after the turkeys, but for some reason the turkeys died and the hostess wanted to calculate her. “Batyushka,” she turned to him with tears, “my strength is gone; I don’t eat up on them myself, the bank of my eyes is more eager, but they are rushing. To drive me mistress wants. Have pity on me, dear ”. Those present laughed at her, and the elder asked her about how she feeds them, and gave her advice on how to keep them differently, blessed her and let her go. To those who laughed at her, he noticed that in these turkeys her whole life. After it became known that the turkeys from the woman did not die anymore.

Regarding healings, they didn’t have a number and it’s impossible to list them in this short essay. The elder covered these healings in every possible way. He sent the sick to the desert to prep. Tikhon Kaluzhsky, where was the source. Until Elder Ambrose was heard in this Desert about the healed. You may think that prep. Tikhon began to heal by prayer. Sometimes prep. Ambrose sent the sick to St. Mitrofan of Voronezh. It happened that they healed on the way there and came back to thank the old man. Sometimes, like a joke, he will hit his head with his hand - and the disease will pass. So one day the reader, who read the prayers, suffered a strong toothache. Suddenly the elder hit him. The participants smiled, thinking that the reader had correctly made a mistake in reading. In fact, he stopped a toothache. Knowing this old man’s habit, some women addressed him: “Father Abrosim! Beat me, my head hurts. ”

People were healed not only from infirmities, but also from incurable diseases.

We give one case. It was told by the nun of the Shamorda community Agrippina. “In the spring of 1882, at Easter, my throat ached, a wound formed in it, and I could neither eat nor drink. The doctor declared that I had a pharynx and I should expect death. She went to the priest, he said to me: “From the well, that behind the hermitage, take water into your mouth, and daily throat your throat up to three times.” Three days later he called me to him. He took out three eggs from under the pillow and ate yolks, put the squirrels into one another. Then blessed oh. Joseph, the attendant, bring water from the well. Having blessed the water, he ordered her to rub off, returning to his cell, and eat the egg whites.

Upon arrival in the cell, I was rubbed with water and gave me egg whites, which I swallowed without pain. After that, I slept the whole day and, on waking up, felt that my illness had passed, and I completely recovered. Without delay, I went to the elder. The nuns did not recognize me, thinking that it was not me, but my dear sister. Batiushka met me and blessed me, said that St. healed me. Tikhon Kaluzhsky. Since then, I have not suffered a throat. When I announced to the doctor about my healing, he said that this was a miracle done by me, and that my disease could not be cured by natural means. ”

Ivan Kontsevich during the war in 1915, spent the summer holidays in the Optina Pustyn. Daily going to the skete has always been instructive for a young student, but the old men, occupied by visiting visitors, who came to them with all kinds of sorrows, did not specifically devote time to the young alien. They gave him “to be educated” to father Joseph (Field), experienced in spiritual life, who lived in Optina for decades. In the world director of the bank, he was a widely educated person. During the two months spent by Ivan Mikhailovich in Optina, often after the church services, Fr. Joseph invited him to his cell. In a conversation with him before the young student revealed the spiritual world.

From about. Joseph Ivan Mikhailovich heard a case from the life of the old man Ambrose, who did not fall into his biographies.

Once the old man Ambrose, bent, leaning on a wand, from somewhere was walking along the road to the hermitage. Suddenly a picture appeared to him: there was a loaded cart, a dead horse was lying next to it, and the peasant was crying over it. The loss of the horse-breadwinner in peasant life is a real disaster! Approaching the fallen horse, the elder began to go around it slowly three times. Then, taking a twig, he whipped the horse, shouting at her: “Get up, lazy!”, And the horse obediently rose to its feet.

Elder Ambrose appeared to many people at a distance, like Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, either for the purpose of healing or for deliverance from calamities. To some, very few, it was revealed in visible forms, however strongly the prayerful intercession of the elder before God. Let us cite the memories of a nun, the spiritual daughter of Fr. Ambrose.

“In his cell, lamps and a small wax candle burned on the table. It was dark and there was no time to read me a note. I said that I remembered, and then hurriedly, and then added:“ Batyushka, what can I say to you? What repent? “I forgot.” The elder reproached me with this. But suddenly he got out of the bed on which he was lying. After taking two steps, he found himself in the middle of his cell. I involuntarily turned on my knees behind him. The elder straightened up to his full height, raised his head and I raised my hands up, as if in a prayer position. At that time, I imagined that his feet were separated from the floor. I looked at his head and face lit. I remember that there was no ceiling in the cell, it was gone, and the head of the old man would go up. It was clearly presented to me. After a minute, the priest bent down to Noah, amazed he had seen, and cross over me and said the following words: "Remember, this is what can bring repentance. Go. "I left him, staggering, and cried all night about my foolishness and negligence. In the morning we were given horses and we left. During the life of the old man, I could not tell anyone this. He once and for all forbade me to talk about such cases, saying with a threat: "Or you will lose my help and grace."

The skete hieromonk Benedict transmitted: “Mrs. Carbonière was seriously ill and lay on her bed for several days without getting up. At one time, she saw that the elder Ambrose entered her room, went up to the bed, took her hand and said: "Get up, it is full of you to be sick." At the same time, she felt so strong that she could get up, and the next day she went on foot from Kozelsk to Shamordino, where the father lived then, to thank him for his healing. Batyushka accepted her, but did not disclose this until his death. ”

The perspicacity of the elder Ambrose was combined with another valuable gift, especially for the shepherd - prudence. His teachings and advice were a clear and practical theology for people thoughtful about religion. The elder often gave instructions in a humorous form, which encouraged the despondent, but the deep meaning of his speeches did not diminish at all. People could not help thinking about the figurative expressions of Fr. Ambrose and for a long time memorized the lesson given to them. Sometimes at the general techniques one could hear the invariable question: "How to live?" In such cases, the elder answered complacently: "We must live on the ground as the wheel spins, just a single point touches the ground, and the rest goes up; and we, as we lay down, cannot stand up."

The elder taught the people folk proverbs and sayings with his usual humor. He put the deepest wisdom into apt and witty words, for easier learning and memorization.

For example: "Where it is simple, there are angels with a hundred, and where it is surprising, there is not one."

  “Do not boast peas that you are better than beans: you will soak, you will burst”.

  “Why is a person bad? - because it forgets that God is above it. ”

  "He who thinks about himself that he has something will lose."

  “The good thing to say is to scatter silver, and prudent silence is gold.”

One person, ashamed to confess to sin, he said: “Sidor da Carp lives in Kolomna, and sin and disaster do not happen to anyone?”. She burst into tears, threw herself at the elder's legs and confessed her sin.

  “The Apostle Peter leads the Righteous to the Kingdom of God, and the Queen of Heaven himself leads sinners.”

On the Day of All Saints, the elder said: "All of them were, like us, sinful people, but repented and, embarking on the work of salvation, did not look back like Lot's wife." To the remark that we are all looking back, the priest explained: “For this they urge us on with rods and whip, i.e. sorrows and troubles so that they would not look around. ”

The monk who condemned others said: “... they may have such secret good that buys out all the other flaws in them and which you cannot see. You have a lot of ability to sacrifice. But the Lord said: I want mercy, not sacrifice (Hos. 6, 6). And you have little mercy ... You see your sacrifices and you extol them. Humble more with spirit — humility and deeds replace. Suffer all adversity and surrender to God. ”

With such and in many other words he taught and saved the people coming to him.

From all over Russia, the poor and the rich, the intelligentsia and the commoners flocked to the old man’s hovel. He was visited by famous public figures and writers: F. M. Dostoevsky, V. S. Solov'ev, K. N. Leontyev, L. N. Tolstoy, M. N. Pogodin, N. M. Strakhov, and others.

Tolstoy, after talking with Fr. Ambrose, happily said: "This is about. Ambrose is a very holy man. I talked to him, and somehow it became easy and pleasant in my heart. When you speak with such a person, you feel the closeness of God. ”

Another writer, Yevgeny Pogozhev (The Peasant), said: “I was struck by his holiness and that incomprehensible abyss of love that was in it. And looking at him, I began to understand that the significance of the elders is to bless and approve life and the joys of God, to teach people to live happily and help them to bear the burden of whatever they are. ” V. Rozanov wrote: “The blessing from him pours spiritual, and, finally, physical. Everyone stands up in spirit, only looking at him ... The most principled people visited him (Father Ambrose), and no one said anything negative. Gold passed through the fire of skepticism and did not dim. "

And he received everyone with the same love and goodwill. Charity was always his need, he distributed alms and through his cell-mate, and he himself cared for widows, orphans, the sick and the afflicted.

In the last years of the life of an old man, 12 versts from Optina, in the village of Shamordino, the Kazan Deserts was built with his blessing, in which, unlike other convents of the time, more poor and sick women received. Shamordin monastery primarily satisfied that ardent thirst for mercy for the suffering, which the prep was always full of. Ambrose. Here he sent many helpless.

A young woman comes to the priesthood and remains a sick widow in a strange family. Her mother-in-law persecutes her and says: "You, miserable, even if it is stuck: you are not a sin." The elder listens to her, peering into her, and says: “Go to Shamordino”. The husband left the seriously ill wife: in the summer they brought her to the old man. The monk came out to her, blessed him and said jokingly: “Well, this rubbish will come down for us: take her to Shamordino”.

The extensive Shamordinsky shelter was made up of carefree children. The elder loved, visiting Shamordin, to come to this shelter. Children gently crowded to him, and he sat among them on the bench. They sang to him a song composed in his honor: “Native father” or sang the troparion of the Kazan icon to which the monastery is dedicated. During children's singing, the old man's heart overflowed with love, and tears flowed down a stream along his pale, sunken cheeks.

By the 90s of the 19th century, the number of nuns in it reached 500 people.

It was in Shamordino that the elder Ambrose was destined to meet the hour of his death. June 2, 1890, he, as usual, went there for the summer. At the end of the summer, the elder tried three times to return to Optina, but could not because of his illness. “Mothers and sisters, I am here on the cross with you!” He said to the nuns. And indeed, his life, according to close friends, was at that time impossibly difficult. Neither day nor night he had no rest: and because of the inconvenience of the room, which, until his very death, everything was only arranged and prepared, and from the multitude of affairs and the people around him. His heart ached for the Optins, left without their spiritual leader. When one of them came to him, the father did not force him to wait long, but he received and comforted with special affection.

After Easter 1891, the abbess of the monastery became seriously ill and blind. She wanted to resign, but the elder did not bless: "Do not give yourself, and if he orders to give the bosses, then give." To completion of all sorrows, the diocesan authorities resented him for his absenteeism from Optina. All kinds of slander against the old man were invented. Already at the beginning of 1891 the monk knew that he was to die soon.

  “On January 1,” say the sisters, “on the very first day of 1891, in the morning, after mass, the elder went out to the sisters, especially pensive and serious: sitting down on the sofa, he suddenly began to read a poem:“ The Swan sings the last song on the banks of Meander ”

  “And we,” the old man said jokingly, “could have altered it like this:“ The swan on the shores of Shamandra sings the last song. ” And he explained that the swan sings only one song - this is before his death.

Then no one understood what he said about himself, about his death that year. Anticipating her, the monk especially hastily tried to arrange a monastery. So, many new cells were built in Shamordin, a farm in Rudnevo was landscaped, in which the elder predicted that there would be a church, which was done after his death. In late September, he fell ill with a disease of the ears, coupled with a cold, the disease intensified so that he lost both his hearing and his voice. His deathbed sufferings began - so grave that he, like he admitted, did not experience all his life. On September 8, Hieromonk Joseph assisted him (along with Father Fyodor and Anatoly), and the next day he took communion. On the same day, the senior priest of Optina Monastery, Archimandrite Isaac, came to the elder in Shamordino. The next day, October 10, 1891, at half past eleven, the old man, having sighed three times and having crossed himself with difficulty, died.

... meanwhile, the bishop, dissatisfied with the slowness of the elder, was going to appear in person in Shamordino and in his carriage to take him out. The sisters addressed the Rev. with questions:

  - Father! How do we meet the lord?

He replied:

  - Not we him, but he will meet us!

  - What is for the lord to sing?

The elder said:

  “We give him the hallelujah.”

And indeed, the bishop found him already in his coffin and entered the church while singing “Hallelujah”.

The requiem liturgy with the rite of burial was performed at the Vvedensky Cathedral of the Optina Pustyn. The funeral procession with the old man’s coffin was accompanied by more than a thousand mobs. It was raining, but the candles did not go out. On the road from Shamordin to Optina Pustyn, they stopped at each village and served as litas. The next day, the burial service was performed by the episcopal ministry and a number of significant words were pronounced. The death of the elder was a nationwide grief, but for Optina and Shamordin and for all spiritual children it was immense.

On October 15, the body of the elder was interred from the southeast side of Vvedensky Cathedral, next to his teacher, Ierohimonah Macarius. The words of the Apostle Paul are engraved on the marble tombstone: “The poor are weak, they are weak, and the weak will be acquired. I will save everyone all, but I will save every one of them ”(1 Cor. 9, 22). These words accurately express the meaning of the elder's life feat.

It is noteworthy that on this day, October 15, and just a year before his death, in 1890, Elder Ambrose established a feast in honor of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God, “The Week of the Breads,” before which he himself offered his hot prayers many times.

Immediately after his death, miracles began in which the elder healed, instructed, and called for repentance, as in his lifetime.

Years went by. But the trail to the tomb of the elder did not grow. There have come times of severe shocks. Optina Pustyn was closed, ravaged. The chapel at the tomb of the old man was wiped out. But the memory of the great saint of God was impossible to destroy. People randomly designated the place of the chapel and continued to flow to their mentor.

In November 1987, Optina Pustyn was returned to the Church. And in June 1988, the Elder Ambrose of Optina was elected as a saint by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.

October 23 (new station) on the day of his death (the fixed day of his memory) in the Optina Pustyn with a large gathering of pilgrims a solemn bishop service. By this time, the relics of the Monk Ambrose had already been gained. All those participating in the celebration experienced on that day that pure and ineffable joy, which they loved so much to bestow upon the holy elder who came to him during his lifetime. A month later, on the anniversary of the revival of the monastery, a miracle occurred: at night after serving in the Cathedral of Vvedensky, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and the might and the icon of the Monk Ambrosius peacefully streamed. Other miracles were performed by the relics of the old man, with which he certifies that he does not leave us, sinners, by our intercession before our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to him forever! Amen.

Missionary Leaf # A15
Publishing Church of the Intercession of the Holy Virgin
  Copyright (c) 1996 and Published by Holy Protection Russian Orthodox Church
2049 Archaela Avs, Los Angeles, Califoria, 90068, USA
  Editor: Archimandrite Alexander (Mileant)

About Ptinsky elder Ieroskhimonakh Ambrosy was born on November 23, 1812 in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa, Tambov Province, in the family of the sexton Mikhail Fedorovich and his wife Marfa Nikolaevna. Before the birth of the baby to his grandfather, the priest of this village, many guests came together. Parent, Maria Nikolaevna, was transferred to the bath. November 23 in the house of. Theodora was a great commotion, and there was a people in the house, and people crowded in front of the house. On this day, November 23, Alexander was born - the future elder of Optina Monastery - Rev. Ambrose of Optina. The elder jokedly said: "As in people I was born, I live everything in people."

Mikhail Fedorovich had eight children: four sons and four daughters; Alexander Mikhailovich was the sixth of them.

As a child, Alexander was a very lively, cheerful and intelligent boy. According to the custom of the time, he learned to read the Slavic primer, chaslope and psalter. Every holiday he, along with his father, sang and read on the choir. He had never seen or heard anything bad, because brought up in a strictly religious and religious environment.

When the boy was 12 years old, he was sent to the first class of the Tambov Theological School. He studied well and after graduating from college, in 1830, he entered the Tambov Theological Seminary. And here the study was given to him easily. As his colleague in seminary later recalled: “Here, it happened, you would buy a candle for the last money, repeat it, repeat the assigned lessons; he (Sasha Grenkov) did little, but he would come to class, he would answer the mentor, “just as in written, better than anyone.” In July 1836, Alexander Grenkov successfully graduated from the seminary, but did not go to the Theological Academy or to the priests. He seemed to have a special vocation in his soul and was in no hurry to attach himself to a certain position, as if waiting for the call of God. For some time he was a home teacher in one landlord family, and then a teacher at the Lipetsk religious school. Possessing a lively and cheerful character, kindness and wit, Alexander Mikhailovich was very loved by his comrades and colleagues. In the last class of the seminary, he had to endure a dangerous illness, and he vowed to become a monk if he recovered. Upon recovery, he did not forget his vow, but for several years postponed his execution, “huddled”, in his words. However, the conscience did not give him peace. And the more time passed, the more painful the reproaches of conscience became. The periods of carefree youthful fun and carelessness were followed by periods of acute melancholy and sadness, heightened prayer and tears.

Once, being already in Lipetsk and walking in a nearby forest, he, standing on the bank of a stream, clearly heard in his murmur the words: "Praise God, love God ..". At home, secluded from prying eyes, he ardently prayed to the Mother of God to enlighten his mind and direct his will. In general, he did not have an insistent will, and already in old age he spoke to his spiritual children: “You must obey me from the first word. I am a compliant person. If you argue with me, I can yield, but it will not be to your advantage. ” In the same Tambov diocese, in the village of Troekurovo, the ascetic Hilarion, known at that time, lived. Alexander Mikhailovich came to him for advice, and the old man said to him: “Go to Optina Pustyn, and you will be experienced. One could go to Sarov, but now there are no longer any experienced elders, as before. ” (The elder, Rev. Seraphim, died shortly before this). When the summer holidays of 1839 came, Alexander Mikhailovich, together with his fellow seminary and colleague from the Lipetsk school of Pokrovsky, equipped the tent, went on a pilgrimage to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra to bow to the abbot of the Russian land - Rev. Sergius.

Back in Lipetsk, Alexander Mikhailovich continued to doubt and could not immediately decide to break with the world. This happened, however, after one evening at a party, when he made all those present laugh. Everyone was gay and contented and went home in great spirits. As for Alexander Mikhailovich, if in such cases he had felt remorse before, now his vow, presented to God, was vividly presented to his imagination, he remembered the burning spirit in the Trinity Lavra and the old long prayers, tears and tears, the definition of God transmitted through God. . Hilarion.

In the morning the resolve was firmly ripe this time. Fearing that the entreaties of his relatives and friends would shake his determination, Alexander Mikhailovich secretly went from all to Optina, without even asking for permission from the diocesan authorities.

Here, Alexander Mikhailovich found during his lifetime the very color of her monasticism: such pillars as Hegumen Moses, the Elders Leo (Leonid) and Makariy. The head of the monastery was equal to them in spiritual height ierosimonakh Anthony, brother of. Moses, the devotee and the seer.

In general, all monasticism under the guidance of the elders bore the imprint of spiritual virtues. Simplicity (non-cunning), meekness and humility were the hallmarks of Optina monasticism. The younger brethren tried to humble themselves not only in front of their elders, but also in front of equals, fearing to insult the other with their eyes, and in case of the slightest misunderstanding they hurried to ask each other for forgiveness.

So, Alexander Grenkov arrived at the monastery on October 8, 1839. Leaving the cab driver to the Gostiny Dvor, he immediately hurried to the church, and after the liturgy - to old man Lev, to ask for blessings to remain in the monastery. The elder blessed him to live the first time in a hotel and rewrite the book Sinful Salvation (translated from modern Greek) on the struggle with passions.

In January 1840 he moved to live in a monastery, while not wearing a cassock. At this time, there was a clerical correspondence with the diocesan authorities about his disappearance and he had not yet received from Kaluga bishop a decree to the abbot of Optina about admitting Grenkov to the monastery.

In April 1840, A. M. Grenkov finally received the blessing of wearing monastic attire. For some time he was the attendant of the elder Lev and his reader (rule and services). At first he worked at the monastery bakery, cooked hops (yeast), baked rolls. Then in November 1840 he was transferred to the monastery. From there, the young novice did not stop going to the old man Leo for edification. In the skete, he was an assistant cook for a whole year. He often had to go to the service of the elder Macarius, then receive a blessing regarding the meal, then strike the bell at the meal, then for other reasons. At the same time, he had the opportunity to tell the old man about his state of mind and get answers. The goal was not temptation to defeat man, but man to defeat temptation.

The elder Leo especially loved the young novice, affectionately calling him Sasha. But for educational reasons, he experienced humility in people. He pretended to be raging against him with anger. To this end, gave him the nickname "Chimera." By this word, he meant the barren flower, which happens on cucumbers. But others said about him: “A great man will be.” Waiting for the near death, the old man Leo called on the priest Fr. Macarius said to him about the novice Alexander: “Here is a man who painfully huddles with us, the elders. I am now very weak. So I give it to you from the floor to the floor, own it, as you know. ”

After the death of the elder Leo, brother Alexander became the attendant of the elder Macarius (1841–46). In 1842 he was tonsured in the mantle and named Ambrose (in honor of St. Ambrose of Milan, commemorated 7 December). This was followed by the hierodeacon (1843), and after 2 years - ordination as a hieromonk.

Health is about. Ambrose in these years greatly shaken. During a trip to the priestly ordination in Kaluga on December 7, 1846, he caught a cold and was ill for a long time, having a complication of internal organs. Since then, he has never been able to truly recover. However, he was not discouraged and admitted that bodily weakness has a beneficial effect on his soul. “It is useful for a monk to be ill,” stared Elder Ambrose loved to repeat, “and in the illness there is no need to be treated, but only to heal.” And to others, in consolation, he said: "God does not require bodily feats from the patient, but only patience with humility and thanksgiving."

From September 1846 to the summer of 1848, Ambrose's father was in such a threatening state of health that he was shorn in a cell in the schema with the same name preserved. However, quite unexpectedly for many, the patient began to recover and even go outside for walks. This change in the course of the disease was the apparent effect of the power of God, and the elder Ambrose himself later said: “God, mercy! In the monastery, those who are sick do not die soon, but stretch and stretch until the disease brings them real benefits. In the monastery it is useful to be a little sick, so that the flesh rebelled less, especially among the young, and less trifles came to mind. ”

Not only with bodily infirmities did the Lord bring up the spirit of the future great elder during these years, but also had a beneficial effect on Father Ambrose's fellowship with the older brotherhood, among whom were many true devotees. Let us cite as an example one case, which was later told by the old man himself.

Soon after about. Ambrose was ordained to the deacon and was to serve the liturgy in the Vvedensky church, he approaches the service to Hegumen Anthony, who stood in the altar, to receive a blessing from him, and Fr. Anthony asks him: “Well, do you get used to it?” O. Ambrose answers him cheekily: “With your prayers, father!” Then Fr. Anthony continues: "To the fear of God? ..". O. Ambrose understood the irrelevance of his tone in the altar and was embarrassed. “So,” concluded Fr. Ambrose, - the old elders were able to accustom us to the awe ”.

Particularly important for his spiritual growth in these years was communication with the elder Macarius. Despite the disease, oh. Ambrose was still in complete obedience to the old man, even in the slightest thing gave an account to him. With the blessing of Fr. Macarius, he was engaged in the translation of the patristic books, in particular, he was prepared for printing "The Ladder" of St. John, Hegumen of Sinai.

Thanks to the guidance of the elder Macarius, Fr. Ambrose was able to learn art from the arts, a clever prayer, without much ado. This monastic doing is fraught with many dangers, since the devil tries to bring man into a state of fascination and considerable sorrow, since an inexperienced ascetic under plausible excuses tries to fulfill his will. A monk who does not have a spiritual leader can in this way greatly damage his soul, as it happened in his time with Elder Macarius himself, who was learning this art on his own. Father Ambrose, however, was able to avoid the troubles and sorrows during the passage of intelligent prayer precisely because he had an experienced mentor in the person of Elder Macarius. The latter was very fond of his pupil, which, however, did not prevent him from exposing Fr. Ambrose some humiliation to break his vanity. Elder Macarius raised in him a strict ascetic, adorned with poverty, humility, patience, and other monastic virtues. When for oh. Ambrose will intercede: "Father, he is a sick man!" - "But I really know you worse," the elder will say. “But after all, the monk's reprimands and remarks are the brushes that erase the sinful dust from his soul; and without it the monk rusts. "

During the life of the elder Macarius, with his blessings, some of the brethren came to Fr. Ambrose for opening thoughts.

This is how hegumen Mark (who ended life at rest in Optina) tells about this. “How much could I have noticed,” he says, “oh. Ambrose lived at this time in complete silence. I went to him daily for the revelation of thoughts and almost always found him reading patristic books. If he didn’t find him in his cell, it meant that he was with the elder Macarius, whom he helped in correspondence with spiritual children, or worked in translating patristic books. Sometimes I found him on the bed and with restrained and barely perceptible tears. It seemed to me that the elder always walked before God or, as it were, always felt the presence of God, according to the word of the psalmist: "... I took the Lord's eternal vision before me" (Psalm 15: 8), and therefore he tried to create everything that he did Lord and to Him in favor. Therefore, he always complained, fearing how not to offend the Lord, which was reflected on his face. Seeing such concentration of my elder, I was always in his presence in reverent awe. Yes, otherwise I could not be. When, as usual, I knelt before him to get a blessing, he very quietly asked me: “What do you say, brother, pretty one?” Puzzled by his concentration and emotion, I replied: “Forgive, for God's sake, father. Maybe I didn’t come at the right time? ”-“ No, ”the elder will say,“ say what is necessary, but in brief. ” And, having listened to me with attention, he will reverently give useful instruction and let go with love.

He did not teach instructions from his own wisdom and reasoning, although he was rich in spiritual intelligence. If he taught spiritual children related to him, then, as it were, among the student, he offered not his own advice, but certainly the active teaching of the holy Fathers. ” If about. Mark complained about. Ambrose on someone who offended him, the elder, it happened, would say in a pitiful tone: “Brother, brother! I'm a dying man. ” Or: “I will die today or tomorrow. What will I do with this brother? After all, I'm not the abbot. It is necessary to reproach yourself, humble yourself before your brother - and you will calm down. ” Such a response caused in the soul of Fr. Mark was self-deprecation, and he, humbly bowing to the old man and asking for forgiveness, left reassured and comforted, "flew away like on wings."

In addition to the monks, oh. Macarius pulls together Fr. Ambrose and with her worldly spiritual children. Seeing him talking with them, the elder Macarius jokingly says: “Look, look! Ambrose takes away my bread! ”So the elder Macarius gradually prepared himself a worthy successor. When the elder Makarii reposed (September 7, 1860), then gradually the circumstances were such that Fr. Ambrose was put in his place. 40 days after the death of the elder Macarius, Fr. Ambrose moved to live in another building, near the skete fencing, on the right side of the bell tower. On the western side of this building, an extension, called a “hut”, was made to receive women (they were not allowed into the skete). For thirty years (before his departure for Shamordino), Father Ambrose lived here, independently serving his neighbors.

Under him were two cell attendants: o. Michael and about. Joseph (the future elder). The chief clerk was Fr. Clement (Zederholm), the son of a Protestant pastor who converted to Orthodoxy, the most learned man, Master of Greek Literature.

To listen to the rule, at first he got up at 4 am, rang the bell, which the attendants came to him and read the morning prayers, 12 selected psalms and the first hour, after which he was alone in intelligent prayer. Then, after a brief rest, the old man listened to the clock: the third, the sixth with graphic, and, looking at the day, the canon with the akathist to the Savior or the Mother of God. He listened to these akathists standing. After the prayer and light breakfast, the working day began with a short break in the lunchtime. Food was eaten by an old man in such an amount that is given to a three-year-old child. During the meal, cell attendants continue to ask him questions on behalf of visitors. After some rest, intense work was resumed - and so on until deep evening. Despite the extreme exhaustion and soreness of the elder, the day always ended with an evening prayer rule consisting of a small compline, a canon to the Guardian Angel and evening prayers. From the continuous reports of cell attendants, now and then led to the old man and leading visitors, barely kept on his feet. The elder himself at times lay almost without feelings. After the rule, the elder asked for forgiveness, "the greatness of those who sinned by deed, in a word, by reason." The caretakers took the blessing and headed for the exit. The clock will ring. "How much it? - the old man will ask in a weak voice, - they will answer: "The Twelve." - “Late” - will say.

Two years later, an old man suffered a new disease. His health, already weak, had completely weakened. Since then, he could no longer go to the temple of God and had to take communion in the cell. In 1869, his state of health was so bad that they began to lose hope of getting better. The Kaluga miraculous icon of the Mother of God was brought. After the moleben and the cell vigil, and then the unction, the old man's health yielded to treatment, but extreme weakness did not leave him throughout his life.

Such severe deterioration was repeated more than once. It is hard to imagine how he could, being nailed to such a painful ailment, in utter exhaustion, receive daily crowds of people and respond to dozens of letters. On him the words came true: "The power of God in weakness is accomplished." If he were not the chosen vessel of God, through which God Himself spoke and acted, such a feat, such a gigantic work could not be accomplished by any human forces. The life-giving Divine grace here clearly was present and promoted.

The grace of God, which rested in abundance on the old man, was the source of those spiritual talents with which he served his neighbor, comforting the bereaved, affirming the faith of those who doubt and setting everyone on the path to salvation.

Among the spiritual grace-giving talents of the elder Ambrose, who attracted thousands of people to him, it is necessary first of all to mention perspicacity. He deeply penetrated the soul of his interlocutor and read in it, as in an open book, without needing his explanations. With a light, imperceptible hint to no one, he pointed out to the people their weaknesses and made them think seriously about them. One lady, who often visited Elder Ambrose, was very addicted to playing cards and was embarrassed to admit to him. Once, at a general reception, she began to ask the elder for a card. The elder attentively, with his peculiar, gaze, looked at her and said: “What are you, mother? Are we playing cards in the monastery? ”She took the hint and repented to the old man of her weakness. With his foresight, the starets strongly surprised many and had them at once fully devote themselves to his leadership, in the belief that the priest knows better what they need and what is good for them and what is harmful.

One young girl who graduated from higher courses in Moscow, whose mother had long been the spiritual daughter of Fr. Ambrose, never seeing the elder, did not love him and called him a "hypocrite." Mother persuaded her to visit about. Ambrose. Having come to the elder at a general reception, the girl became behind everyone, right at the door. The old man came in and, opening the door, closed the young girl with it. Having prayed and looked at everyone, he suddenly looked out the door and said: “And what is this giant worth? Is it Faith who came to see the hypocrite? ”After that, he spoke to her in private, and the young girl’s attitude towards him changed completely: she loved him dearly, and her fate was decided - she entered the Shamordin monastery. He who with complete confidence surrendered to the leadership of the elder, never repented of it, although they sometimes heard from him such advice, which from the first time seemed strange and completely impracticable.

Usually the Elder gathered many people. And here is one young woman who was persuaded to visit the Father, is in an irritated state, that she is forced to wait. Suddenly the door opens wide. The old man with a clear face appears on the threshold and says loudly: "Who is impatient, go to me." Approaching a young woman and leading her to her. After talking with him, she becomes a frequent guest of Optina and a visitor of the priest Fr. Ambrose.

A group of women gathered near the fence, and one elderly woman with a painful face, sitting on a stump, told that she was walking with sick legs from Voronezh, hoping that the old man would heal her. At seven versts from the monastery, she got lost, exhausted from hitting snow-covered paths, and in tears fell on a pile of logs. At this time, an old man approached her in a cassock and a cup of tea and asked about the reason for her tears, he indicated the direction of the path with his stick. She went to the indicated direction and, turning over the bushes, immediately saw the monastery. All decided that it was a monastic forester or one of the cell-attendants; when suddenly a servant familiar to her came out on the porch and asked loudly: “Where is Avdotya from Voronezh?” Everyone was silent, looking at each other. The servant repeated his question louder, adding that her father was calling for her. - “My darlings! Why, Avdotya from Voronezh, I myself am! ”Exclaimed the newly arrived story teller with bad legs. They all parted, and the wanderer, limping up to the porch, hid in his door. Fifteen minutes later, she left the house all in tears and, sobbing, answered the questions that the old man who had shown her the way in the forest was none other than Father Ambrose himself or someone very similar to him. But in the monastery there was no one like Fr. Ambrose, and in the winter time he couldn’t leave his cell because of the pain, and then suddenly the guide came to the road in the forest and then after half an hour, almost per minute of her arrival, he already knew about it in detail!

Here is one of the cases of the visionary old man Ambrose, told by one of the old man’s visitors - some artisans: “Shortly before the old man died, that’s two years old, I had to go to Optina for money. We made an iconostasis there, and I had to get a rather large sum of money for this work from the abbot. I received my money and, before I left, went to the old man Ambrose to take the blessing on the way back. I was in a hurry to go home: I waited the next day to receive a large order - ten thousand, and the customers would certainly have the next day at my place in K. The old man, as usual, had to die. He knew about me that I was waiting, and he told me to tell him through his cell mate, so that in the evening I would come to him for tea. Though I had to hurry to the court, the honor and the joy of being with the old man and drinking tea with him were so great that I decided to postpone my trip until the evening in full confidence that I would pass all night and have time to get there.

Evening comes, I went to the elder. The elder accepted me so merry, so joyful, that I do not feel the land beneath me either. My father held me, our angel, for quite a long time, it was almost getting dark, and he said to me: “Well, go with God. Spend the night here, and tomorrow I bless you to go to the church, and from church tea to come drink tea to me. ” How is this so? - I think. Yes, I did not dare to contradict. I spent the night, was at the mass, went to drink tea to the old man, and I myself grieve for my customers and think about everything: Perhaps, I’ll have time to get to K by the evening. No way! Drink tea. I want to say to the elder: “Bless you go home,” and he didn’t say a word to me: “Come,” he says, “today to spend the night with me.” My legs even buckled, but I don’t dare to object. The day passed, the night passed! The next morning I already grew bolder and think: “I wasn’t, and today I’ll leave; maybe the day my customers waited for me. ” Where are you going! And the old man did not give me a mouth open. “Go,” he says, “to the vigil service today, and tomorrow to the Mass.” I have to stay the night again! ”What a parable is this! Here I was already completely saddened and, I confess, I sinned against the old man: here is the seer! Accurately and knows that, by his grace, I have now gotten off the good work. And this is how I am restless at the old man, which I cannot convey. I don’t have time for prayer at that time at the Vigil - and pushes into my head: “There you have your old man! So much for the seer ...! Now your earnings are whistling. ” Oh, how annoying I was at that time! And my elder, as if it were a sin, well, surely, forgive, Lord, mock me, he meets me like this after all-night vigil! ... It became bitter, insulting to me: and what, I think, he rejoices ... But I dare not express my grief all the same. I spent the night on the third night. During the night, my grief gradually calmed down: you could not undo the fact that it was swimming and floated through your fingers ... The next morning I came to the old man, and he told me: “Well, now it's time for you and the court! Go with God! God bless! Do not forget to thank God by the time! ”

And here I have any sorrow. I left myself from the Optina Hermitage, but in my heart it was so easy and joyful that it was impossible to convey ... Why did my father just tell me: “Then do not forget to thank God!?” ... I must think, that the Lord in the temple honored for three days to go. I go to my home slowly and I don’t think about my customers at all, I was very pleased that my father had treated me so much. I came home, and what do you think? I am at the gate, and my customers are after me; late, then, against the persuasion of three days to come. Well, I think, oh, you are my blessed elder! Oh truly miraculous your works, Lord! ... However, not so much it all ended. You listen to what happened next!

Much has passed since that time. He died our father Ambrose. About two years after his righteous death, my senior master fell ill. He was the person trusted by me, and not the worker was, and directly gold. He lived with me hopelessly for more than twenty years. Sick to death. We sent for the priest to confess and to communion, while in memory. Just when I look, the priest goes to me from the dying and says: “He calls you to himself, wants to see you. Hurry up, no matter how dead you are. ” I came to the patient, and he, as he saw me, raised himself somehow on the elbows, looked at me and howled: “Forgive my sin, master! I wanted to kill you, after all. ” “What are you, God is with you! You are crazy .. ” “No, master, I really wanted to kill you. Remember, you are late from Optina for three days to come. After all, the three of us, in my agreement, three nights in a row were guarding you on the road under the bridge: they were jealous of you for the money that you were for the iconostasis from Optina. You would not be alive that night, but the Lord for someone’s prayers led you from death without repentance ... Forgive me, cursed, let go, for God's sake, in peace with my darling! "" God will forgive you, as I forgive you " . Then my patient wheezed and began to end. The kingdom of heaven is his soul. Great was sin, yes great repentance! ”

The perspicacity of the elder Ambrose was combined with another valuable gift, especially for the shepherd - prudence. His teachings and advice were a clear and practical theology for people thoughtful about religion. The elder often gave instructions in a humorous form, which encouraged the despondent, but the deep meaning of his speeches did not diminish at all. People could not help thinking about the figurative expressions of Fr. Ambrose and for a long time memorized the lesson given to them. Sometimes at the general methods one could hear the invariable question: “How to live?” In such cases, the elder complacently answered: “We must live on the ground as the wheel turns, just one point touches the ground, and the rest goes upwards; and we, as we lay down, cannot stand up either. ”

For example, here are some other statements by the elder:

"Where it is simple, there are angels with a hundred, and where it is surprising - there is not one." "Do not boast peas that you are better than beans, soak them - you will burst yourself."

“Why is a person bad? “Because he forgets that God is above him.”

"He who thinks about himself that he has something will lose."

Prudence of the elder extended to practical questions, far from the problems of spiritual life. Here is an example.

A wealthy Orlov landlord comes to the priesthood and, by the way, announces that he wants to arrange a water supply system in his extensive apple orchards. Batyushka already covered by this water supply. “People say,” he begins with his usual words in such cases, “people say that this is the best way,” and describes in detail the construction of the aqueduct. The landowner, returning, begins to read literature on this topic and learns that the father has described the latest inventions in this technique. The landowner is back at Optina. “Well, what is the water supply system?” Asks the priest. Everywhere apples spoil, and the landowner has a rich harvest of apples.

Prudence and foresight were combined in the old man Ambrose with amazing, purely maternal tenderness of the heart, thanks to which he was able to relieve the most difficult sorrow and console the most sorrowful soul.

One resident of Kozelsk, 3 years after the death of the old man, in 1894, told the following about herself: “I had a son, served in the telegraph office, carried telegrams. Batyushka knew him and me. My son often carried telegrams to him, and I went for a blessing. But now my son fell ill with consumption and died. I came to him - we all went to him with our grief. He patted me on the head and said: “Your telegram broke!” “I broke off,” I say, “Father!”, And burst into tears. And so it became easy for me to feel at his caress, as if the stone had fallen. We lived with him, as with his father. Now there are no such elders. Or maybe God will send more! ”

Love and wisdom - these qualities attracted people to the elder. From morning to evening they came to him with the most pressing questions, which he deeply penetrated, with which he lived in a minute of conversation. He always at once embraced the essence of the case, inexplicably wisely explained it and gave an answer. But in the course of 10–15 minutes of such a conversation, not one issue was resolved, but at that time Fr. Ambrose contained in his heart the whole man - with all his affections, desires - with all his world, internal and external. From his words and his instructions it was obvious that he loves not only the one with whom he speaks, but all those loved by this person, his life, all that is dear to him. Offering your solution, oh. Ambrose had in mind not just one thing in itself, regardless of the consequences that might arise from it, both for this person and for others, but referring to all aspects of life with which this matter was in any way in contact. What must be mental strain to solve such problems? And such questions were offered to him by dozens of lay people, not counting monks and fifty letters that came and sent daily. The word of the old man was with authority based on closeness to God, which gave him omniscience. It was a prophetic ministry.

Little things for the elder did not exist. He knew that everything in life has a price and its consequences: and therefore there was no question to which he would not answer with the participation and desire for good. Once the old man was stopped by a woman who was hired by a landowner to go after the turkeys, but for some reason the turkeys died, and the hostess wanted to calculate her. “Father! - she turned to him with tears, - I don’t have my strength: I don’t eat up on them myself, - the coast is sweeter than my eyes, but they are rushing. To drive me mistress wants. Have pity on me, dear. " Those present were laughing at her. The elder, with the participation, asked her how she feeds them, and gave her advice on how to keep them differently, blessed her and let her go. To those who laughed at her, he noticed that in these turkeys her whole life. After it became known that the turkeys of the woman are no longer kolleli.

As for healings, they didn’t have a number, and it’s impossible to list them in this short essay. The elder covered these healings in every possible way. He sent the sick to the desert to prep. Tikhon Kaluzhsky, where was the source. Until the Elder Ambrose, in this Desert, no healings were heard. You might think that prep. Tikhon began to heal by prayer. Sometimes about. Ambrose sent the sick to the holy. Mitrofan Voronezh. It happened that they healed on the way there and came back to thank the old man. Sometimes he, like a joke, bangs his hand on the head, and the disease passes. Once the reader, who read the prayers, suffered a strong toothache. Suddenly the elder hit him. The participants smiled, thinking that the reader had correctly made a mistake in reading. In fact, he stopped a toothache. Knowing the elder, some women addressed him: “Batyushka Abrosim! Beat me, my head hurts. ”

The spiritual power of the elder was sometimes manifested in quite exceptional cases.

Once the old man Ambrose, bent, leaning on a wand, from somewhere was walking along the road to the hermitage. Suddenly a picture appeared to him: there was a loaded cart, a dead horse was lying next to it, and the peasant was crying over it. The loss of the horse-breadwinner in peasant life is a real disaster! Approaching the dead horse, the old man began to slowly walk around it. Then he took a twig, he whipped the horse, shouting at her: “Get up, lazy!” - and the horse obediently rose to its feet.

Elder Ambrose appeared to many people at a distance, like Saint Nicholas the Wonderworker, either for the purpose of healing or for deliverance from calamities. To some, very few, it was revealed in visible forms, however strongly the prayerful intercession of the elder before God. Let us cite the memories of a nun, the spiritual daughter of Fr. Ambrose.

“In his cell, lamps and a small wax candle burned on the table. I read the note was dark and there is no time. I said that I remembered, and that in a hurry, and then added: “Father, what else can I say to you? What repent? - I forgot. The elder reproached me for this. But suddenly he got out of bed, on which he lay. Having taken two steps, he found himself in the middle of his cell. I involuntarily on my knees turned behind him. The old man straightened to his full height, raised his head and raised his hands up, as if in a prayer position. It seemed to me at this time that his feet were separated from the floor. I looked at his head and face lit. I remember that there seemed to be no ceiling in the cell, it was sold, and the head of the old man seemed to go up. It seemed clear to me. A minute later, the priest leaned over me, amazed at what he had seen, and, crossing me, said the following words: “Remember, this is what repentance can bring. Go. " I left him, staggering, and cried all night about my foolishness and negligence. In the morning we were given horses, and we left. During the life of the elder, I could not tell anyone this. He once and for all forbade me to talk about such cases, saying threateningly: "Or you will lose my help and grace."

From all over Russia, the poor and the rich, the intelligentsia and the commoners flocked to the old man’s hovel. He was visited by famous public figures and writers: F. M. Dostoevsky, V. S. Solov'ev, K. N. Leontyev, L. N. Tolstoy, M. N. Pogodin, N. M. Strakhov, and others. And he received everyone with the same love and goodwill. Charity was always his need, he distributed alms and through his cell-mate, and he himself cared for widows, orphans, the sick and the afflicted. In the last years of the life of an old man, 12 versts from Optina, in the village of Shamordino, the Kazan Deserts was built with his blessing, in which, unlike other convents of the time, more poor and sick women received. By the 90s of the 19th century, the number of nuns in it reached 500 people.

It was in Shamordino that the elder Ambrose was destined to meet the hour of his death. June 2, 1890, he, as usual, went there for the summer. At the end of the summer, the elder tried three times to return to Optina, but could not because of his illness. A year later, on September 21, 1891, the disease intensified so that he lost both his hearing and his voice. His deathbed sufferings began - so grave that he, like he admitted, did not experience all his life. On September 8, Hieromonk Joseph assisted him (along with Fr. Theodore and Anatoly), and the next day he communed. On the same day, the senior priest of Optina Monastery, Archimandrite Isaac, came to the elder in Shamordino. The next day, October 10, 1891, at half past eleven, the old man, having sighed three times and having crossed himself with difficulty, died.

The requiem liturgy with the rite of burial was performed at the Vvedensky Cathedral of the Optina Pustyn. About 8 thousand people gathered for the funeral. On October 15, the body of the elder was interred from the southeast side of Vvedensky Cathedral, next to his teacher, Ierohimonah Macarius. It is noteworthy that on this day, October 15, and just a year before his death, in 1890, Elder Ambrose set a feast in honor of the miraculous icon of the Mother of God “The Weeper of the Breads”, before which he himself many times offered his hot prayers.

Immediately after his death, miracles began in which the elder healed, instructed, and called for repentance, as in his lifetime.

Years went by. But the trail to the tomb of the elder did not grow. There have come times of severe shocks. Optina Pustyn was closed, ravaged. The chapel at the tomb of the old man was wiped out. But the memory of the great saint of God was impossible to destroy. People randomly designated the place of the chapel and continued to flow to their mentor.

In November 1987, Optina Pustyn was returned to the Church. And in June 1988, the Elder Ambrose of Optina was elected as a saint by the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church. On October 23 (new station), on the day of his death (the fixed day of his memory), a solemn bishop service was performed at the Optina Pustyn with a large gathering of pilgrims. By this time, the relics of the Monk Ambrose had already been gained. All those participating in the celebration experienced on that day that pure and ineffable joy, which they loved so much to bestow upon the holy elder who came to him during his lifetime. A month later, on the anniversary of the revival of the monastery, a miracle occurred: at night after serving in the Cathedral of Vvedensky, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and the might and the icon of the Monk Ambrosius peacefully streamed. Other miracles were performed by the relics of the old man, with which he certifies that he does not leave us, sinners, by our intercession before our Lord Jesus Christ. Glory to him forever! Amen