In the Kaluga region, not far from the ancient city of Kozelsk, there is Optina Pustyn - a monastery that is rightly called the brightest lamp of Orthodox Russia of the 19th and 20th centuries. He owes his fame to the god-wise elders, who, replacing each other, became spiritual mentors of several generations of Russians. Rev. Macarius of Optina was one of them.
Abode among the dense forests
The time of the creation of Optina Desert is not known exactly. According to one version, this honor belongs to the god-loving prince Vladimir Khrabrom, who died at the beginning of the 15th century, and according to another, and more popular among the people, the founder of the monastery was a certain robber repented of his atrocities by the name of Opta, who lived a century later.
However, in all likelihood, this is only a beautiful legend, since in ancient times the word “wholesale” referred to monasteries common to men and women (there was such a thing in Orthodox Russia). The founders of the monastery, probably, were hermits who wanted to retire to the wilderness, for the achievement of a monastic feat.
And this holy monastery would have been lost in history among thousands of such monasteries, if not for the glory that the wise elders brought to it. To make it clearer what is at stake, we should focus on the phenomenon of religious life, which is usually denoted by the word "old age."
Old age as a form of spiritual service
It arose in Egypt at the dawn of Christianity and from there spread throughout the world, having found fertile ground for itself in Russia. The elder is primarily a mentor of his spiritual children, of whom he can have a great many. By the power of the Grace of God, which was generously poured upon him by the Creator, the old man gains the gifts of godly wisdom and insight.
These unique qualities allow him to help people who turn to him in difficult life situations, or who are eager to hear the word of God's Truth. An old man is not always an elderly person, since the term itself does not mean an age profile, but a form of spiritual service.
Throughout its history, the Lord sent fourteen such elders to the Optical Desert , the first of which was the Rev. Leo, who had labored in it since 1797. Rev. Macarius of Optina, which will be discussed in our article, became his student and successor.
The childhood and youth of the servant of God Michael
Elder Makari Optinsky in the world was called Mikhail Nikolaevich. He was born on December 3, 1788 in a pious and pious family of nobles from the Oryol province. His parents - father, college assessor Nikolai Mikhailovich Ivanov and mother Elizaveta Alekseevna, were wealthy people and owned several estates. In addition to him, the family had four more children.
As he later told, many of his childhood memories are connected with the Odrinsky Monastery, not far from them, where his parents often made pilgrimages. A great influence on the formation of his character in those years was made by the abbot of the monastery, Archimandrite Theophanes, who instilled in the boy a love of church services.
At the age of nine, Misha Ivanov experienced the first misfortune in his life - the death of a mother who died of tuberculosis. This happened in Moscow, where the whole family moved on purpose to provide Elizaveta Alekseevna with proper medical care. Returning to his homeland after such a tragic event, he, along with two brothers, settled on the estate of his aunt, his father’s sister - Daria Mikhailovna Peredelskaya.
Young and budding official
In the person of this woman, adolescents found not only a caring relative, who was trying in everything in her power to replace the orphans mother, but also a mentor who took over the work, as well as the costs associated with their education. She taught a number of disciplines herself, and where her knowledge was insufficient, she hired teachers.
It seems unbelievable, but the future elder Makari Optinsky was so gifted with reason from childhood that at the age of fourteen he was hired by the county treasury as an accountant. His brothers were also enlisted as assistants. However, this fact has documented evidence, therefore there is no doubt in its reliability.
In 1805, the work of a young official was appreciated by the provincial authorities, and he was promoted and promoted. Following the traditions established in the noble society of that time, Mikhail Nikolaevich led a normal social life in such cases. He often visited the houses of the local aristocracy, among which he was warmly received, and also participated in all entertainment events.
According to the memoirs of contemporaries, his main hobbies of those years were music and literature. Few people know, but the Monk Makarii of Optina, in his youth, played the violin perfectly and sang romances with a weak but very pleasant baritone.
Awakening of religious feelings
A year later, Mikhail Nikolayevich suffered a new blow - his father died suddenly. At the family council, it was decided that the estates belonging to the family should be transferred to him as the eldest of the children, but the income from them would be their total capital. This imposed a certain responsibility, and was the reason that in 1805 Mikhail left the service and, settling in the village of Shchepyatino, took up farming. He, as before, devoted all his free time to reading and music.
In this period of life, spent in the bosom of rural silence and solitude, the seeds of religiosity that were once sown in his soul gave abundant seedlings. Mikhail Nikolaevich, in his own recollections, increasingly began to plunge into thoughts about saving the soul and reading the Bible. Once, having visited a fair, he brought back from there many books containing the works of the Holy Fathers, which completely captured his thoughts.
In vain, caring relatives tried to marry a young landowner, finding him a good bride. Using a plausible pretext, he avoided the marriage imposed on him, as he became more and more firmly entrenched in the desire to devote his life to God.
The decision to leave the world was not spontaneous and matured gradually. This is evidenced by his letters, preserved from those ancient years, as well as the memoirs of contemporaries who knew Mikhail Nikolaevich well in those years. The decisive step, which determined the whole future life, was made by the future Elder Makari Optinsky on October 6, 1806, going on a pilgrimage to the Ploschanskaya desert, very remote from his village.
Novice Michael
He never returned home, but after some time the brothers received a letter. In it, Mikhail Nikolaevich informed that he remained a novice in the monastery, and transferred the estate and all other property to them in full ownership. So, unexpectedly for everyone, at the age of twenty-two years, he forever left the world.
The Bogoroditsky Ploshchansky Monastery, in which St. Macarius of Optina began the path of serving God, corresponded perfectly with his intentions. Remote at a considerable distance from settlements and surrounded on all sides by forests, it was ideally suited for monastic solitude. Not receiving any serious financial assistance from the Holy Synod and the diocesan administration, the brethren, who totaled fifty souls at that time, did not need anything, getting a piece of bread with their own labor.
According to the Church Charter, each newcomer is obliged to pass a certain test before taking monastic tonsure , during which he is called a novice and, if desired, can leave the monastery at any time. The term of this period is not set in advance and depends only on the will of the rector. Such an establishment serves to verify the seriousness of the intentions of the future monk.
Like every novice, St. Makari Optinsky began his monastic life with the most difficult and unpleasant work. He - a nobleman - had to deal with the preparation of firewood and cooking in the monastery kitchen in the winter, and in the summer with hay, gardening and other peasant affairs. As a result, this practice became for him a great school of humility, without which monastic life is unthinkable.
Over time, the abbot of the monastery, hieromonk Father Ioanniky noticed the extraordinary musical abilities of the new novice, and also appreciated his education and diligence. He gave the opportunity to Mikhail Nikolaevich to study church singing, made him the clerk of the monastery, and over time also entrusted the leadership of one of the departments of the monastery choir. After four years, the abbot blessed the hardworking novice to take a tonsure with the name Melchizedek.
Four steps of monastic ascent
In Orthodoxy there are four degrees of monasticism. The first of them, in which the future monk has the status of a novice, was discussed above. What follows is the so-called ryasophore. When a haircut is made into him, a worldly person becomes a monk. He receives a new name, makes special vows that he does not have the right to break, completely breaks all family ties, and, under pain of anathema, does not have the opportunity to return to his former way of life. Behind the ryasophore are a small schema, also called mantle monasticism and a great schema - steps that further separate the monk from the bustling world.
Continuation of monastic service
In 1814, the young monk Melchizedek made a pilgrimage to the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, visiting a number of other monasteries on the road and carefully studying the experience of monastic life accumulated in them. On his return to his monastery, he was tonsured to the next monastic degree - the mantle - and received the name Makarii in honor of the founder of the Eastern monasticism, the Monk Makarios the Great.
After spending ten years in the walls of the Ploshchansky monastery, monk went to Rostov to bow to the relics of St. Demetrius of Rostov, and on his way he first visited Optina Deserts, with which he was subsequently associated until the end of his days. But, this was preceded by another important period that served his formation as a spiritual mentor.
In 1827, Macarius of Optina was appointed confessor to the Sevsky Trinity Convent and at the age of forty began to nurture his sisters. The hieromonk Leo, a wise and life-rich old man who arrived from the Alexander-Svir monastery, provided invaluable help in this. With his guidance, he completed the spiritual development of Father Macarius.
In the abode indicated by God
Fulfilling the duties entrusted to him subsequently by the dean Ploshchansky monastery, Father Macarius was seconded to St. Petersburg in 1832 and, returning, again visited Optina deserts, but this time did not stop at only worshiping her shrines, but filed a petition to transfer him to this old monastery. The answer had to be expected for a rather long time, but finally, in January 1834, the diocesan leadership granted his request, and Father Macarius moved to the Forerunner's Skete of Optina Desert, where he tied himself up in endless spiritual feats for the rest of his life.
From the first days of his stay in a new place, Makarii Optinsky had close relations with his former acquaintance of the monastery, Rev. Leo, who was twenty years older than him. Despite the friendship that linked them, Father Macarius always treated him like a student to a teacher and implicitly presented himself in complete obedience to his will.
These two great ascetics and ascetics, who rightfully earned the glory of the god-wise old men, daily received many people who came to their cells in their cells and seven years before the death of the Monk Leo managed to nourish not only the brethren of the monastery, but also thousands of laity.
By their joint efforts, the next elder of the desert, who later became its main shrine, the Monk Ambrose of Optina, also ascended to the height of spiritual greatness . Macarius and Leo, in the words of contemporaries, “overgrew him and, having wise the word of God, made him their worthy successor.”
The gift of insight sent from above
After the Lord called the Rev. Leo to the Heavenly Hall in 1841, all the care of feeding the large congregation fell entirely on Father Macarius, and he carried the cross laid upon him with honor. The teachings of Makari Optinsky, addressed in those years to many who were qualified to visit the monastery, were not only passed on by word of mouth, but were mostly recorded, which subsequently allowed them to be released as a separate book, repeatedly reprinted, and which has not lost its relevance today .
The Lord generously poured the gift of vision on Father Macarius. Many visitors were completely confused when he, addressing them, accurately called their names, which he could not know in advance. More surprising cases are also known. For example, feeding his children, not only through personal contact, but also by correspondence, he repeatedly sent answers to questions not yet received. As a result, the person who wrote to him received them at the same time as sending his message.
Letters of the Elder and Miracles of Healing
In general, correspondence was one of the most important areas of activity conducted by Makari Optinsky. The soulful teachings with which the pages of his letters were full were the result of a deep understanding of the works of the holy fathers of the past, multiplied by personal life experience. They entered the treasury of Russian patristic literature.
The letters of the Monk Makarius of Optina, which he sent in great numbers to his acquaintances, and often to unfamiliar spiritual children, carried great benefit in themselves. In them, he touched on the most diverse aspects of life. For example, in one of them, sent to a man complaining about the many sorrows that befell him, he taught that everlasting happiness and prosperity harm a person’s soul, making it vulnerable to sins and temptations. Those to whom the Lord permits suffering in life, experiencing them, draw near to Him and the more easily find the Kingdom of Heaven.
And here is another very interesting thought expressed by Makari Optinsky. The letters addressed to him by one of the laity were full of complaints that he, making every effort to combat vices and passions, did not see a positive result, and this led him to confusion and deprived him of peace. The wise old man answered him that such a reaction to the absence of an early retribution for labor, being the result of pride and pride, only exacerbates the situation, and he should be thankful to the Lord who does not allow him to see himself sinless, without attaining true righteousness.
Numerous cases of healing of patients, especially those possessed by demons, occurring after the old man anointed them with oil from an unquenchable lamp, always glowing in his cell, are also widely known. That is why in our days the prayer to Makari Optinsky for deliverance from ailments has such a blessed power. Such facts are not only known, but also documented in a multitude.
Completion of a life journey that has become a feat
Rev. Makari Optinsky spent twenty years in his modest cell, which was both a bedroom and a reception room. The icon of the Mother of God of Vladimir, a lectern, a desk and a narrow bunk - that’s all the decoration of his dwelling, the only decoration of which were portraits of ascetics hanging on the walls and views of monasteries.
Before completing his earthly journey and appearing before the Lord, Elder Makarios accepted the great schema, which, as was said earlier, is the highest step in the monastic feat. In just a few weeks, he predicted with astonishing accuracy the day and time of his death, after which the spiritual torch from his hands was accepted by another ascetic of faith and a wise mentor - Ambrose Optinsky. Macarius quietly and painlessly departed to the Lord in the early morning of September 20, 1860.
From the day of the funeral, the place of his burial began to enjoy universal veneration, but he was canonized in the face of the venerable elders only in 2000. Then all fourteen elders who once tied up in the Forerunner's monastery were glorified, and along with them Makari Optinsky, whose life was compiled on the basis of the records of many contemporaries who communicated with him personally. Today he is one of the most famous and beloved saints of the Orthodox Church among the people. The day of St. Macarius of Optina is celebrated annually on September 20.