In the Vvedenskaya Optina Hermitage, a shrine with the relics of a saint, who became the great confessor of Russia in the 19th century, rests. He did not have the dignity of a bishop or archimandrite, and was not even an igumen. Saint Ambrose of Optina is an ordinary hieromonk. Being mortally ill, he rose to the highest level of sacred monasticism. The confessor became a hieroschemamonk. So in this rank he went to the Lord. Today, like many years ago, people ask him for intercession and prayer help. Near his holy relics, the sick are healed of incurable ailments.
St. Ambrose of Optina: life of
St. Ambrose in the world was called Alexander Grenkov. He was born on November 23, 1812 in the Tambov province, in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa. His grandfather was a priest, his father, Grenkov Mikhail Fedorovich, served as a sexton at the church. Mother's name was Martha Nikolaevna. She took care of her eight children. By the way, her son Alexander was her sixth. The boy's father died very early. The children lived in a familygrandfather.
At the age of twelve, Alexander, named after Alexander Nevsky, was sent to the Tambov Theological School. Upon graduation in 1830, as the best graduate, he was sent to the Tambov Theological Seminary. There he became very ill and made a vow: if the Lord sends him healing, he will be tonsured a monk. But, having received what he wanted and graduating from the seminary in 1836, he was in no hurry to become a monk. At first, Alexander became a home teacher for the children of a we althy merchant. Then he started teaching Greek at the Lipetsk Theological School.
Craving for monasticism
But the insidious disease for the second time made itself felt. With his good friend Pavel Pokrovsky, he visited the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the hermit Elder Hilarion from the village of Troyekurovo. He advised him to go to Optina Hermitage, because he was needed there. In the autumn of 1839, Alexander secretly went to the monastery indicated by the holy elder. With the blessing of the Reverend Optina Elder, Father Leo, he began to live in a hotel and translate the works of the Greek monk Agapit Land's The Salvation of Sinners. In the winter of 1840, he moved to live in a monastery. And in the spring, after the settlement of the conflict about the secret disappearance from the Lipetsk School, he is accepted as a novice. At first he served as a cell-attendant, and then as a reader for Elder Leo. Then he worked at the bakery. Then he was transferred to the kitchen as an assistant.
Even when Elder Leo was alive, in 1841 he was also obedient to Elder Father Macarius. It was by his will that in the summer they first tonsured him in a cassock, and in the autumn of 1842 he put on a mantle with the name in honor of St. AmbroseMediolansky. A year later he received the rank of hierodeacon, and at the beginning of the winter of 1845 he was ordained a hieromonk in Kaluga. During this trip, he caught a bad cold, which gave a complication to the internal organs. Therefore, he could no longer serve.
Elder's Helper
At the end of the summer of 1846, the hieromonk was appointed as an assistant in the clergy of Elder Macarius. But poor he alth at one moment became a threatening factor for the life of St. Ambrose. It was at this time that he accepted the great schema without changing his name. He is taken out of state. And he lives at the expense of the monastery. Gradually, he alth improved slightly. After Macarius had gone to the Lord, Father Ambrose took upon himself the work of eldership. The monk constantly suffered from some kind of illness: either his gastritis became aggravated, then vomiting began, then a nervous illness, then a cold with chills or fever. In 1862, he suffered a dislocation of his arm. The treatment further undermined his he alth. He stopped going to the temple for services, and then he could not leave his cell at all.
Diseases
In 1868 hemorrhoidal bleeding was added to all the sores. Then the abbot of the monastery Isaac asks to bring the miraculous icon of the Kaluga Mother of God from the village. In the cell of the elder, a moleben was served with an akathist to the Theotokos, after which Father Ambrose felt much better. However, the disease did not completely disappear. She periodically relapsed until her death.
Starets Ambrose's reward was a golden pectoral cross - very rare onthat time is an encouragement. The Monk Ambrose in 1884 became the founder of a convent located not far from Optina, in the village of Shamordino. He blessed schema nun Sophia to lead the women's community. Later, it received the status of a monastery (October 1, 1884), when the first church was consecrated, which was created in the works on the prayers of Father Ambrose. In 1912, one of the inhabitants of this monastery was Maria Nikolaevna Tolstaya, the sister of Leo Tolstoy, who was anathematized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901. There she died a year later, taking monastic vows three days before her death.
Literary plot
Saint Ambrose died in the Shamorda monastery. It happened on October 10, 1891. He was buried in Optina Hermitage, next to the grave of Father Macarius. A huge number of people came to the funeral from all over. And here it is - the story of the elder Zosima from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. True, by this time the writer had long died. Several days of the summer of 1878 F. M. Dostoevsky, together with his friend and colleague Vladimir Solovyov, spent in Optina Pustyn. Meetings with monks prompted the writer to create the image of the elder Zosima. Dostoevsky, like Leo Tolstoy, had close spiritual communion with the holy elder Ambrose, which, of course, left a bright mark on the hearts of the great Russian classics.
But back to the burial of the elder. At the beginning of the whole funeral procession, a heavy unpleasant smell suddenly began to spread from the body. Elder Ambrose himself warned about this during his lifetime that it was for himdestined for the fact that he received an unusually large amount of undeserved honor. The heat was unbearable. Gradually, however, the smell of smoldering disappeared. And an unusual fragrance began to spread, as from flowers and fresh honey.
Serving people
Reverend Ambrose of Optina dedicated his whole life to serving his neighbors. The people felt his love and care, so they responded with deep reverence and respect. In 1988, at the Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, he was canonized as a saint. The Reverend Elder Ambrose of Optina spoke to everyone simply and clearly, aptly and with good humor. And at the same time he could give answers to the questions of the most educated and famous people of that time. He could also calm an agitated illiterate peasant woman who complained that her turkeys were dying, and that the mistress could even kick her out of the yard for this.
St. Ambrose of Optina: teachings
St. Father Amrosy taught that people should live like a wheel turns, which touches the surface of the earth with one point, and everything else tends upward. He constantly spoke these truths:
- We basically get stuck and can't get up.
- Where it is simple, there are a hundred angels, and where it is tricky, there is not one.
- A person is bad because he forgets that God is above him.
- If someone strongly thinks about himself that he has something, he will lose.
According to St. Ambrose, life should be simpler, as this is the best. No need to rack your brains, the main thing is to pray to God, He will arrange everything, thereforeno need to torture yourself thinking about what and how to do everything. Everything should go as it should happen - this means living easier. If you want to feel love, do deeds of love, even if you don't feel it at first. One day Father Ambrose was told that he spoke too simply. To this he replied that he himself had been asking God for simplicity for twenty whole years. Saint Ambrose of Optina became the third elder after Saints Leo and Macarius. He is their student, who became the most famous and famous among all the elders of Optina Pustyn.
Service
St. Basil the Great gave his definition of man. He called him an invisible being. This applies to the highest degree to such spiritual people as Elder Ambrose. Only the so-called canvas of his external life is visible to those around him, and one can only guess about the inner world. It is based on a self-sacrificing feat of prayer and constant standing before the Lord, invisible to the human eye.
On the days of the memory of the saint, a service is often held. It is dedicated to the Monk Ambrose of Optina. A lot of people are gathering. The akathist to St. Ambrose of Optina is always read. The death of the holy elder did not interrupt his connection with people who still receive miraculous healing help through their prayer. The magnification of the Monk Ambrose of Optina begins with the words: "We bless you, reverend Father Ambrose …". The Church remembers the name of the monk on October 10 - the day he presented himself before the Lord, June 27 - the day of finding his relics, and October 11 at the Cathedral of the Optina Elders. Prayer to St. Ambrose of Optina begins withwords: “O great elder and servant of God, our reverend Father Ambrose…”.
Believing people who seek to venerate the holy relics and pray to St. Ambrose, with deep faith, will definitely receive healing. The elder will beg him from the Lord. Knowing this, people always rush to Optina Pustyn for help and patronage.
Prayer rules of the Reverend Elder
There is a prayer rule of St. Ambrose of Optina. It follows from one of his letters to his spiritual child. He writes that one must always believe and hope for the mercy of the Lord, who will deliver from any intrigues of human and enemy. And then he points to the psalms of David, which he prayed at the hour of persecution from his persecutors. This is the 3rd, 53rd, 58th, 142nd. Then he writes that he should choose for himself the words corresponding to his mood and often read them, constantly turning to God with humility and faith. And when despondency will attack and unaccountable grief fills the soul, he advised reading the 101st psalm.
Mode
The monk received a huge number of people in his cell. People came to him from all over Russia. He got up very early - at four o'clock in the morning. By five I already called the cell attendants. And then the morning routine began. Then he prayed all alone. From nine o'clock the reception began - first the monastics, and after them - the laity. He ended his day at 11 o'clock, when the long evening rule was read. By midnight, the elder was finally alone. He had this routine.about thirty years old. And so every day he accomplished his great feat. Before St. Ambrose, the elders did not accept women in their cells. He also met with them, being for them a spirit player. Therefore, a little later, he became a mentor and founder of the convent in Shamordino.
Miracles
The elder, thanks to his clever prayer, had a gift from God - miracles and insight. There are a lot of cases recorded from the words of people. Once a woman from Voronezh got lost in the forest, which was seven miles from the monastery. And suddenly she saw an old man, whose stick showed her the way. She followed it to the monastery house of Elder Ambrose. When she came closer, the attendant suddenly came out and asked her: where is Avdotya from the city of Voronezh? Fifteen minutes later, she left the old man's place, all in tears and sobs. And she said that Ambrose is the same person who led her to the right path in the forest.
There was another amazing case when one artisan came to Optina Hermitage for an order and money for making an iconostasis. Before leaving, he decided to ask the elder for blessings. But he said that it was necessary to wait three days. The master thought that he would “whistle” his earnings like that, but nevertheless listened to the old monk. Later, he learned that by not giving his blessing for so long, the elder literally saved him from death. After all, all these three days his apprentices guarded him under the bridge in order to rob and kill him. Only when they left did the confessor receive the master and let him go.
And one day the ReverendAmbrose of Optina revived the dead horse of a poor peasant who wept over it. A saint at a distance could, like Nicholas the Wonderworker, help people in various disasters. A lot of wonderful stories are associated with the name of St. Ambrose. Truly, it was not in vain that Saint Macarius predicted to him that he would become a great man.
Conclusion
When times of severe shocks came to the country, Optina Pustyn was devastated and closed. The chapel on the grave of the elder was destroyed. But the path to the grave of the saint did not grow. In the autumn of 1987, Optina Hermitage was again returned to the Church. On the anniversary of the revival of the monastery, the icon of the Kazan Mother of God began to stream myrrh. The uncovering of the relics of St. Ambrose of Optina took place in 1998. Now his imperishable bodies rest in Optina Hermitage, in the Vvedensky Church.
