Глава I. Происхождение Михаила Николаевича Иванова, впоследствии старца иеросхимонаха Макария, и его мирская жизнь

After the death of the first great Optina elder, Hieromonk Leonid, in the schema of Leo, who laid the foundation for eldership in Optina Hermitage, his successor and second great Optina elder was Hieroschemamonk Macarius. He came from the nobility of the Oryol province, by the name of Ivanov. Both his parents and their ancestors were distinguished by their special piety. The great-grandfather of Elder Macarius, John, was a monk of the Karachevsky St. Nicholas Odrina Monastery and in monasticism was renamed Joseph; was memorable for his strict fasting life. They said that every year during the entire Holy Pentecost he ate boiled food only on Saturdays and Sundays, and on Wednesdays and Fridays he ate one prosphora; The remaining days of fasting were spent without food at all. The grandfather and grandmother of Elder Macarius, whom he recalled from the stories of his relatives, also had their own good qualities. Grandma was primarily distinguished by her charitable deeds. Following the words of Holy Scripture: Give to him who asks you (Matthew 5:42), she did not refuse anyone alms within her power; and besides, on Saturdays she herself went secretly to serve pies and homemade crumpets to prisoners in the city prison. This act of kindness once saved her and her husband’s lives. According to the story of Elder Macarius himself, it was like this. His grandfather and grandmother were traveling somewhere in the winter and were stopped on the road by a gang of robbers. One of them, looking into the cart, recognized the woman sitting inside as the very one from whose hands he had received alms more than once while in prison, and therefore persuaded his comrades to spare their lives. The robbers took their horses and most of their luggage, but left them the clothes they needed in winter, a cart and one horse so that they had something to get to the nearest village. So alms, according to Scripture, redeeming the soul from many sins (Dan. 4:24), this time delivered those who loved it from bodily death. The parents of Elder Macarius, Nikolai Mikhailovich Ivanov, with the rank of collegiate assessor, and Elizaveta Alekseevna, nee Emelyanova, in addition to the family estate of the Ivanovs, the village of Shchepyatin, Oryol province, Dmitrov district, owned populated estates in other provinces, including Kaluga. In the vicinity of the city of Kaluga, near the Laurentian Monastery, they owned the small village of Zhelezniki 1, where they lived. In this village in 1788, on November 20, their first-born son was born and was named St. Baptism by Michael, in honor of St. Mikhail, Prince of Tver, whose memory is November 22. This was the future Elder Macarius. It is not superfluous to note that the village of Zhelezniki is located in an extremely picturesque area. It is separated from the Laurentian Monastery and the sub-monastery settlement Podzavalye by a deep meadow valley, along which the radiating river Yachenka flows on completely flat banks, flowing into the Oka; and Zhelezniki are spread along the slope of a forested hill, which, bordering a meadow valley, stretches along the right bank of the Yachenka. At the very tip of the village village, opposite the northern side of the Laurentian Monastery, there was a cozy rural house in which Mikhail’s parents lived. This house, as usual, was surrounded by the necessary services and a garden. Nearby, along the slope of the same mountain, a birch grove grew. From the windows of the house, from the yard, from the garden and grove, incredible views opened up. Below the mountain is the radiating river Yachenka, flowing on smooth banks and bordered by meadows. On the opposite hill is a men's monastery in the name of the righteous Lawrence, Christ for the Fool's sake, the Kaluga Wonderworker, where his holy relics rest under cover. The entire monastery is surrounded by a shady garden, causing the tops of its white buildings to emerge from a clump of trees, like a snow-white lily from a basket of greenery. Further, to the right, at the same height as the monastery, one could see the Krestovskaya Chapel on Borovskaya Road (now there is a church and an almshouse for the diocesan department), a city cemetery dotted with numerous monuments, and the southern tip of Kaluga with buildings and gardens. Finally, in the distance, at the very edge of the horizon, the mirror of the abounding Oka shines - where the Yachenka flows into it and where traces of an ancient settlement are shown. Behind the house with economic establishments, threshing floors and barns, the forest continued, and behind it the cultivated fields began. Among the impressions of these views of rural nature, pleasing to the eye and gratifyingly peaceful to the heart, having before his eyes a quiet monastic monastery, from which the inhabitants of Zhelezniki heard the ringing of bells every day, calling the monks to prayer, little Michael grew up, the future monk and prayer book, even then unknown to the world. The rector of the Laurentian Monastery at the time when Michael’s parents lived near it was Father Archimandrite Theophan, a reverent, affectionate and courteous husband. Being in close spiritual communication with Messrs. Ivanov, he received from them from St. children's fonts; but it’s impossible to say for sure whether it’s all of them. What about. Archimandrite Theophan was the adoptive father of Elder Macarius’ sister Varvara, the elder himself said this. With personal memories of the monastery of the righteous Lawrence, Father Macarius recounted such a wonderful incident from his childhood life. Once, having been there with his parents at mass, he, it seems, during the reading of the Apostle, saw Fr. sitting in the altar. Archimandrite Theophan, whom he loved very much, quickly ran into the altar through the open royal doors. Messrs. The Ivanovs, in addition to the first-born Mikhail, had three more sons: Alexey, Pavel, Peter and a daughter, the aforementioned Varvara 2. According to the testimony of a survivor of a certain contemporary of Mikhail, his mother Elizaveta Alekseevna, a humble and God-fearing woman, of all her children, especially unaccountably loved her first-born. In explanation of this, she told her loved ones this way: “My heart feels that something extraordinary will come out of this child.” At the same time, from early childhood, Mikhail involuntarily attracted the general attention of everyone who knew him with his good qualities: quietness, meekness and silence. He did not even participate in the games of his brothers and peers, but was constantly at home and almost never left the lap of his beloved mother, as if in a premonition that they all would not have long to enjoy her caresses. This is exactly what happened. Soon, Elizaveta Alekseevna’s poor health became so frustrating that Nikolai Mikhailovich had to leave his quiet rural shelter and move with the whole family to Moscow for the benefit of the patient. Their eldest son Mikhail was then five years old. Three years after that (in 1797, January 21), Elizaveta Alekseevna died of consumption and was buried in the Androniyev Monastery. And Nikolai Mikhailovich with his children - Mikhail, Alexei and Pavel - moved to Dmitrovsky district to his family estate - the village of Shchepyatino. His daughter Varvara Nikolaevna 3, who remained for several months after the death of her mother, was taken to be raised by her own aunt O.P. Goldobina, whose estate was located in the Kostroma province of Kineshma district, near Sudislavsky Posad. In the same 1797, Nikolai Mikhailovich moved from the village. Shchepyatin in the city of Karachev to live together with his sister Daria Mikhailovna, whose husband, Semyon Feodorovich Peredelsky, then served by choice of the nobility as a member of the Karachevsky district court. The children of Nikolai Mikhailovich, Mikhail, Alexei and Pavel, together with their cousin Alexei, the son of Peredelsky, were then placed in the city parish school. Mikhail was then 9 years old. It was here that the youth Mikhail, the future spiritual leader and mentor, began and completed his school education. When Nikolai Mikhailovich, at the request of the household, went to his village in the summer, the village of Shchepyatino, his children, in order not to interrupt their studies, remained in Karachev in the care of their closest relatives, Daria Mikhailovna Peredelskaya and Avdotya Ivanovna Sandulova 4 . Around 1801, when the Peredelskys moved to their village, they took in a home teacher to continue raising their son. According to the latter’s recollection, “the teacher’s name was Artemon Petrovich... (I don’t remember the last name, he writes) from the noble family, a pious man with knowledge of the sciences.” Then Mikhail and his two brothers moved to the house of his own aunt, where they continued to study penmanship, grammar and arithmetic together with her son. Mikhail lived in the Peredelsky village for no more than a year. In 1802, he became an accountant at the district treasury in the city of Lgov, Kursk province, where the position of treasurer was then occupied by S.Ya. Sandulov, a relative of Mikhail, and the places of accounting assistants were taken by Mikhail’s brother Alexey and cousin, also Alexey, Peredelsky. “Three of us youngsters,” said the latter, “managed the treasury office with particular efficiency.” Subsequently, Elder Macarius, in conversations with his loved ones, added to this: “It happened that because of one penny, due to a shortage, I had to sit up the whole night in order to balance the income with the expenses.” The position of an accountant was very difficult, but the fourteen-year-old boy performed this position with rare zeal and with such precision and service that he attracted the attention of the provincial authorities. On the occasion of the death of the head of the counting expedition desk in the Treasury Chamber, Mikhail Nikolaevich Tsitsurin was summoned to Kursk to take up this position in 1805 and in the same year received his first class rank. Advisor to the Treasury Chamber Nikolai Mikhailovich Lenivtsev fell in love with the gifted and at the same time modest young man so much that he offered him space in his house. This apparently providentially arranged rapprochement with the family of an enlightened boss, protecting the young man from any useless acquaintances and friendly companies, at the same time contributed to the maintenance of moral education - which is especially important during the period of youth, when, as is known, the environment into which the young man enters after completing his upbringing at home or at school has such a strong and almost irresistible influence. Thus, for the God-protected young man, his service time in the Kursk Chamber passed quietly and usefully. From official activities, loved by him out of a sense of duty, he moved on to activities loved by the inclination of his heart - music and reading. But in reading, despite his young years, he sought not only a pleasant pastime, but mainly the acquisition of new knowledge and resolution to the most important questions of the mind and heart. Three years of Mikhail Nikolaevich’s service passed unnoticed in these studies. In 1806, on March 17, Mikhail Nikolaevich lost his parent. Nikolai Mikhailovich Ivanov died after a long illness with a peaceful Christian death with the parting words of the Holy Sacraments and was buried in the village of Turishchevo near his parish church. Meanwhile, Mikhail Nikolaevich’s other brothers also grew up; and his sister Varvara Nikolaevna is already 13 years old. At a family council of brothers who were friendly with each other, it was decided to take her sister home from Aunt Goldobina, with whom she had previously been raised. For this purpose, one of the brothers, Alexei Nikolaevich, followed her to her aunt’s estate and brought her to the village of Shchepyatino, where she remained, living with her brothers and cousin, Pelageya Tikhonovna Makarova, until her marriage in 1814 to an Oryol landowner, collegiate assessor Nikolai V. Glebov. The Glebovs had several sons and daughters, of whom the eldest son, actual state councilor P.N. Glebov, at one time held the position of auditor general of the maritime ministry, and one of the daughters, Alexandra Nikolaevna, in the 23rd year from birth, devoted herself to monastic life in the Sevsky Convent, taking monastic vows as a ryasophore with the name of Athanasius. It is also known that Elder Macarius had another niece and cousin in the same Sevsky Monastery. But there is no exact information about this cousin. Maybe it was the same Makarova who was just mentioned above. Another dear niece was the daughter of Elder Macarius’s brother, Pavel Nikolaevich Ivanov, Varvara Pavlovna, who was called Melania in the ryassophore. We will see further what close participation Elder Macarius took in these nieces of his. And now let's continue the story about his early years. The unanimity of the Ivanov brothers was exemplary. Everything they did was done with common consent. According to the general fraternal advice, it was decided not to split up the estate they had inherited from their parents, but to accept it to one, the elder brother Mikhail, so that the other two brothers, Alexei and Pavel, could be satisfied with the money that was meant in the lawsuit with Mr. Senyavin, which amounted to over 20,000 rubles in banknotes. Without any hesitation, Mikhail Nikolaevich accepted this offer from his brothers and retired in 1808, receiving as a reward the rank of provincial secretary. It can be assumed that, having unquestioningly accepted the brothers’ request, Mikhail looked at this, completely unexpected for him, circumstance as the satisfaction of his secret desire, which he hardly dared to dream of, this is the desire for a solitary life, which temptingly pictured to his young imagination the opportunity to indulge in his favorite activities in freedom - music and reading. Mikhail Nikolaevich lived in the village as a master for only two years. According to the story of his cousin Pelageya Tikhonovna Makarova, who lived in their family at that time, the farm was going very poorly. For it required vigilant personal supervision, and sometimes punishment for omission of the case; and Mikhail Nikolaevich, out of his kindness, could not and did not want to follow the generally accepted order. One day the peasants, seeing that there was no proper supervision over them, stole a large amount of buckwheat. Mikhail Nikolaevich called them to him and for a long time persuaded and admonished them with the words of the Divine Scripture, and we, the family, said Pelageya Tikhonovna, secretly laughed at him. But, to our surprise and shame, the admonition ended with the perpetrators falling to their knees before Mikhail Nikolaevich, sincerely admitting their wrongdoing, asking for forgiveness, and, of course, they were forgiven. The neighbors soon learned about the kindness of the young landowner and often sent him to ask for various household items or some seeds. No one was refused. “We,” recalled Pelageya Tikhonovna, “used to say: what are you doing, Misha? We’ll have to do it ourselves.” There was only one answer: “God will send. How can I say that I don’t have it when I have it? Your will; but I can't do this. I’m telling you that, having tested myself, I see that I cannot be a master.” Taking an active part in Mikhail Nikolaevich, his brothers, having come to his village, began to persuade him to marry and offered him many brides; but upon closer examination of the properties of each, they had to admit that not a single one of the girls they knew possessed quite the properties that could have pleased their brother. When they finally pointed out one neighbor, who really was a modest and virtuous girl, Mikhail Nikolaevich said: “Should I marry this one?” The brothers were delighted at this and, without notifying Mikhail, hurried to go to her parents with an offer. But those, not being prepared for this either by prior acquaintance with the groom, or by the forms of matchmaking strictly observed at that time in the provinces, responded to the proposal: “We thank you for the honor, but it’s impossible so soon; we need to think about it, take a closer look,” and so on. Hearing about this failure of his brothers, Mikhail Nikolaevich joyfully ran to the sisters and said: “Thank God! They said: we need to think about it. Let them think. I could not excuse myself, I obeyed my brothers; but now no one will persuade me.” From these words it is obvious that the pious young man, accustomed to subordinating himself and everything that concerns him to the will of God, bowed to the conviction of his brothers solely in order to see what the Lord was saying about him (Ps. 84:9). He took the hesitant answer that followed as a clear indication of the Providence of God to enter a different, higher path of life, to which his pure soul strove from youth, like trees to springs of water (Ps. 42:2). In a hurry to satisfy this saving thirst, Mikhail Nikolaevich went to the Root Fair, bought himself books, mainly of spiritual content, and, returning home, delved into reading them, feeding his soul with food akin to it. Sometimes he went to the carpenter's shop and worked until he was tired at the workbench, thus wanting to accustom his young flesh to submit to the spirit. In conclusion of all that has been said, we present evidence of the properties of Mikhail Nikolaevich, his childhood friend, Alexei Semenovich Peredelsky. “Having spent my childhood and part of my service with Mikhail Nikolaevich,” he wrote, “I will explain about his qualities and morals that he always had: piety, piety, chastity, meekness and moral purity. For the most part, he shied away from our children's games and amusements, and instead loved to read and do handicrafts - I mean, children making houses out of cardboard, cutting out various shapes, or sawing something out. Having come of age, during his worldly life he did not shy away from secular decent pleasures, but did not show any particular inclination towards them. He loved music and played the violin quite well. He also loved singing. Although his voice was weak, this deficiency was made up for by his knowledge and understanding of music.” Mikhail Nikolaevich showed poor health from an early age. He was very thin and suffered from insomnia from a very young age. Many acquaintances of Mikhail Nikolaevich's modesty and bashfulness, even before he entered the monastery, jokingly called him a monk. This village later belonged to Mr. Delyanov. The parent of Elder Macarius, out of his kindness, at one time gave this estate as guarantee for the debt of his friend, who did not pay the debt, and Mr. Ivanov’s estate went on sale. In the calendar of 1840, which belonged to the elder Fr. Macarius, the following note was written by his hand: “On February 18, 1840, on Sunday, at 9 o’clock in the afternoon, my brother, Alexey Nikolaevich Ivanov, died in Orel. Born 1789, December 8th; the whole life was 50 years, 2 months and 10 days. He died a Christian death, in the faith and hope of resurrection and eternal life. Before his death it was reported on February 4 and 15; and in a few minutes he was given oil, and the waste document was read. Grant him, O Lord, the Kingdom of Heaven and create for him eternal memory! (He was not married.) Pavel died in 1831; one of his daughters, Varvara Pavlovna, since 1849 devoted herself to monastic life and is now in the Sevsky nunnery, called Melania in the cassock. Peter died as an infant in Karachev.” In previous editions of the biography of Elder Macarius, the year of birth of Varvara Nikolaevna is indicated as 1793. But this must be a mistake, since according to the same biography, her mother Elizaveta Alekseevna died in 1797, and her daughter, Varvara mentioned here, remained after her for several months. Avdotya Ivanovna Sandulova is the cousin of Elder Macarius, the daughter of Anna Mikhailovna Verevkina, his own aunt. Anna Mikhailovna owned part of the village of Shchepyatin and was very friendly with her brother Nikolai Mikhailovich Ivanov, the parent of Father Macarius.