Synaxis of the Optina Elders
The startsy of Optina Monastery — from Leonid and Macarius through Ambrose and Nectarius — who renewed eldership in nineteenth-century Russia, commemorated together as a synaxis.
The Synaxis of the Optina Elders gathers the startsy — the spirit-bearing elders — of the Optina Hermitage (Optina Pustyn) near Kozelsk in the Kaluga region of Russia, who through the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries made the monastery the spiritual heart of the Russian Church. From Leonid and Macarius through Ambrose to Nectarius, an unbroken line of elders received all who came — peasants and nobles, bishops and doubters — offering the counsel, discernment, and consoling love for which Optina became famous.
The eldership at Optina renewed in Russia the ancient tradition of spiritual fatherhood carried west from Mount Athos and the Philokalic revival of St Paisius Velichkovsky. Under the elders the monastery undertook the translation and printing of patristic texts, drawing to itself the leading minds of the age; Gogol, Dostoevsky, the Kireyevskys, and Tolstoy all made their way to Optina, and the elder Ambrose is widely recognized behind Dostoevsky's Elder Zosima.
The line was broken only by the Revolution. The monastery was suppressed by the Soviet authorities, and its last elders confessed the faith amid persecution, some ending their lives in prison or exile. The Optina Elders were numbered together among the saints in 2000, and Optina, reopened, again receives pilgrims at their relics.
Timeline5 momentsReadHide
- 1821The skete is foundedA hermitage of St John the Forerunner is built beside Optina under Abbot Moses, a home for the elders.
- 1829Eldership beginsSt Leonid settles at Optina, inaugurating the unbroken line of startsy.
- 1846–1891The age of St AmbroseUnder Elder Ambrose, Optina becomes the spiritual heart of Russia; pilgrims come by the thousand for a word of counsel.
- 1917–1923Persecution and closureThe monastery is suppressed by the Soviet state; the last elders confess the faith in prison and exile.
- 2000GlorificationThe Synaxis of the Optina Elders is numbered among the saints of the Russian Church.