Reverend Ambrose Optina: biography, prayer and interesting facts

In the Vvedensky Optina Desert, cancer with the relics of a saint rests, which became the great confessor of Russia in the 19th century. He did not have the rank of bishop or archimandrite and was not even hegumen. The Monk Ambrose of Optina is an ordinary hieromonk. Being mortally ill, he ascended to the highest level of sacred monasticism. The confessor became a Hieroschemonch. So in this rank he went to the Lord. Today, like many years ago, people ask him for intercession and prayerful help. Near his holy relics, the sick are healed of incurable diseases.

The Monk Ambrose of Optina: Life

Saint Ambrose in the world was called Alexander Grenkov. He was born on November 23, 1812 in Tambov province, in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa. His grandfather was a priest, his father - Mikhail F. Frenkovitch - served as a sacristan at the church. My mother's name was Martha Nikolaevna. She was engaged in the upbringing of her eight children. By the way, Alexander's son was her sixth. The boy's father died very early. The children lived in the grandfather's family.

In the twelve years of Alexander, named in honor of Alexander Nevsky, was given to the Tambov spiritual school. After graduating in 1830, he, as the best graduate, was sent to the Tambov seminary. There he became very ill and vowed: if the Lord sends him healing, he will be taken as a monk. But, having received the desired and graduating from the seminary in 1836, he did not hurry with monasticism. At first Alexander became a home teacher of the children of a prosperous merchant. Then he started teaching Greek at Lipetsk Theological School.

Thirst for monasticism

But the insidious disease again manifested itself. With his good comrade Pavel Pokrovsky he visited the Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra and the recluse of the old man Hilarion from the village of Troekurovo. He advised him to go to Optina deserts, because he was needed there. In the fall of 1839, Alexander secretly departs to the monastery indicated by the holy elder. With the blessing of the Reverend Optina Elder, Lev's father, he began to live in a hotel and translate the works of the "Sinful Salvation" of the Greek monk Agapit Land. 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 at the old man Leo. Then he worked on the grain. Then he was transferred to the kitchen as an assistant.

Even when Starets Leo was alive, in 1841 he passed obedience and the eldest father Makarii. It was at his will that he was first tonsured in the Rassophore in the summer, and in the autumn of 1842 he dressed in a mantle with the name in honor of St. Ambrose of Milan. A year later he was ordained a hierodeacon, and in the beginning of the winter of 1845 he was ordained a priest in the Kaluga. During this trip, he caught a bad cold, which caused complications in the internal organs. Therefore, he could no longer serve.

The elder's assistant

At the end of the summer of 1846, the hieromonk was appointed as an assistant in the spiritual life of the elder Macarius. But poor health at one point 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 promoted for the staff. And he lives at the expense of the monastery. Gradually, health improved slightly. After the departure of Makarii to the Lord, Father Ambrose takes over the work of the eldership. The Reverend constantly suffered from some ailment: then his gastritis worsened, then vomiting began, then a nervous illness, then a cold with chills or fever. In 1862, he got a dislocation of his hands. The treatment further undermined his health. He stopped going to church for worship, and then he could not leave his cell at all.

Diseases

In 1868, hemorrhoidal hemorrhage was added to all the sores. Then hegumen of the monastery Isaac asked to bring from the village a miraculous icon of the Kaluga Mother of God. In the cell of the elder, a moleben was served with the Akathist the Theotokos, after which Father Ambrose was much better. However, the disease did not disappear for good. She periodically retsedivirovala until his death.

The reward of the elder Ambrose was the golden pectoral cross - a very rare encouragement at the time. The Monk Ambrose in 1884 became the founder of the women's monastery, located near Optina, in the village of Shamordino. He blessed the Sikhimahina Sophia to lead the women's community. Already later it received the status of a monastery (October 1, 1884), when the first church was consecrated, created in the works of the prayers of Father Ambrose. In 1912, one of the inhabitants of this monastery was Maria Tolstaya, the sister of Leo Tolstoy, anathematized by the Russian Orthodox Church in 1901. There she died one year later, taking monastic tonsure three days before death .

Literary plot

Saint Ambrose died in the Chamordin cloister. This happened on October 10, 1891. He was buried in Optina desert, near the grave of Father Makarii. A huge number of people came to the burial service from all sides. And here it is - a story about the elder Zosima from the "Brothers Karamazov" Dostoevsky. True, by this time the writer had long since died. A few days in the summer of 1878, FM Dostoevsky, together with his friend and colleague Vladimir Solovyov, spent in Optina in the desert. Encounters with the monks pushed the writer to create the image of the elder Zosima. Dostoevsky, like Leo Tolstoy, had close spiritual fellowship with the holy elder Ambrose, who, of course, left a bright trace in the hearts of the great Russian classics.

But let us return to the burial of the old man. At the beginning of the whole funeral procession, suddenly a heavy unpleasant smell began to spread from the body. The elder Ambrose himself warned about this during his lifetime, that he was destined for that he received an unusually many undeserved honor. There was an unbearable heat. However, gradually the smell of decay disappeared. And began to spread an unusual fragrance, both from flowers and fresh honey.

Service to people

The Monk Ambrose of Optina devoted his whole life to serving his neighbor. The people felt his love and care, so he answered with deep esteem and respect. In 1988, he was counted among the saints at the Local Council of the ROC. The Monk Elder Ambrose Optina spoke with everyone simply and clearly, accurately and with good humor. And at the same time he could give answers to the questions to the most educated and famous people of that time. He could also calm down the agitated illiterate peasant woman, who complained that her turkeys were dying, and that the lady could even kick her out of the yard for that.

The Monk Ambrose of Optina: teachings

Father Amrosy taught that people should live like a wheel that touches the surface of the earth with one point, and everything else tends to go up. He constantly said such truths:

1. We basically can not get up just like a hole.
2. Where it's simple, there's a hundred angels, and where it's hard, there's not one.
3. A person is bad because he forgets that there is a God over him.
4. If someone strongly thinks about himself that he has something, he will lose.

According to St. Ambrose, it is necessary to live more simply, since this is the best. No need to rack your brains, the main thing is to pray to God, He will arrange everything, so do not torment yourself with 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, create works of love, even though at first without feeling it. One day, Father Ambrose was told that he was talking too simply. To this he replied that he himself asked God for twenty years. The Monk Ambrose of Optina became the third elder after the Monks Leo and Macarius. He is their disciple, who became the most famous and famous among all the elders of Optina desert.

Service

Saint Basil the Great gave his definition to man. He called it invisible. This applies to the highest degree to such spiritual people as the elder Ambrose. Only the so-called canvas of his outer life is visible to the outside, and one can only guess about the inner world. It is based on a self-sacrificing prayer feat and a constant, invisible to the human eye, the foreknowledge of the Lord.

In the days of the memory of the saint, a service is often performed. It is dedicated to St. Ambrose of Optina. There are many people going. 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 help in healing through his prayer. The exaltation of St. Ambrose of Optina begins with the words: "We praise thee, the Reverend Father Ambrose ...". The church remembers the name of the monk on October 10 - the day he introduced himself to the Lord, June 27 - the day of his relics and October 11 in the Cathedral of the Optina Elders. Prayer to the Monk Ambrose Optina begins with the words: "O great elders and servant of God, our Father John Ambrose ...".

Believers who are eager to join the holy relics and pray to the Monk Ambrose, with a deep faith, will necessarily receive healing. The elder will beg him from the Lord. Knowing this, people always rush to Optina deserts for help and protection.

Prayer rules of the Reverend Elder

There is a prayer rule of the Monk 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, which will save you from any human and enemy machinations. And then he points to the psalms of David, which he prayed in the hour of persecution from his pursuers. This is the 3rd, 53rd, 58th, 142nd. Further, he writes about the fact that he chooses for himself the words appropriate to his mood and often read them, constantly referring to God with humility and faith. And when there will be despondency and fill the soul with an unaccountable grief, he advised reading the 101st Psalm.

Mode

The Monk received a large number of people in his cell. People came to him from all parts of Russia. He got up very early - at four in the morning. By the age of five he had already called the cell-attendants. And then the morning rule began. Then he prayed all alone. At nine o'clock the reception began-first the monks, and behind them the laity. He finished his day at 11 o'clock, when the long evening rule was read. By midnight the Elder, at last, remained alone. He had such a routine for about thirty years. And so every day he performed his great feat. Before the Monk Ambrose the elders did not accept women in their cells. He also met with them, being for them a spirit-man. Therefore, he became later a mentor and founder of the women's monastery in Shamordino.

Miracles

The Elder, thanks to his clever prayer, had a gift from God - miraculous and perspicacious. There are a lot of cases recorded from people's words. Once a woman from Voronezh lost her way in the forest, which was seven versts from the monastery. And suddenly she saw an old man whose crutch pointed her way. On it, she went to the monastery's house of the elder Ambrose. When she came closer, suddenly the outgoing cell-attendant asked her: where is Avdotya from the city of Voronezh? Fifteen minutes later she left the old man all in tears and sobbing. And she said that Ambrose is the same person who brought her to the right path in the forest.

There was another amazing case when one master came to Optina deserts for orders and money for the manufacture of the iconostasis. Before leaving, he decided to ask the elder for blessing. But he said that it is necessary to wait three days. The master thought that he would "wheedle" his salary so much, but he still listened to the old monk. Later he learned that, without giving a blessing so much time, the old man literally saved him from death. After all, all these three days of his apprentice guarded him under the bridge, to rob and kill. Only when they left, the confessor accepted the master and released him.

And one day the Monk Ambrose of Optina revived the dead horse of a poor peasant who was crying over her. Saint at a distance could, like Nicholas the Wonderworker, help people in different disasters. A lot of wonderful stories are associated with the name of St. Ambrose. Verily, it was not for nothing that Saint Macarius predicted to him that he would become a great man.

Conclusion

When the times of severe shocks hit the country, the Optina desert was devastated and closed. The chapel on the grave of the elder is destroyed. But the path to the grave of the saint did not overgrown. In the autumn of 1987, the Optina desert was again returned to the Church. On the anniversary of the revival of the monastery, the icon of the Kazan Mother of God was mocked. The discovery of the relics of St. Ambrose of Optina took place in 1998. Now his imperishable bodies are resting in the Optina Desert, in the Vvedensky Temple.