Глава XIV. Отношение старца о. Макария к посторонним монастырям – мужским и женским

The good fame of the humble Optina ascetic, Father Fr., spread far, far away. Macarius, since his spiritual activity, or guidance to eternal life, as we saw above and will see further, was not limited to the monks of the Optina monastery. From time to time he personally visited other monasteries, the leaders of which had a special disposition towards him. Thus, from the monasteries of his Kaluga diocese, the elder sometimes visited cenobitic monasteries: the Meshchovsky St. George Monastery, while Fr. Hegumen Nikodim (Demoutier), who lived for six years in Optina Pustyn, from where he was appointed abbot to Meshchovsk, and then the Maloyaroslavets Nikolaevsky Monastery, which during the life of Elder Macarius was managed successively by abbots from the Optina brethren - Fr. Abbot Anthony (Putilov) and after him the aforementioned Fr., transferred from the Meshchovsky Monastery and elevated to the rank of archimandrite. Nicodemus 101. But the Elder of the Hermitage especially loved the desert in the name of St. Tikhon, the Kaluga miracle worker, who owes the beginning of her improvement to the fatherly care of her predecessor, Elder Macarius, Elder Fr. Leonidas (in the schema of Leo). In the last years of the life of Elder Macarius, one of his devoted students, the hieromonk of the Optina Hermitage, Fr. Moses 102. Elder Macarius was heartily consoled by the external and internal improvement of this monastery, the simple and fatherly treatment of the abbot with the brethren, the hard work of the brethren, encouraged by the example of the abbot himself and his attentiveness to their general and private needs. Living in this quiet desert for several days, the elder used to say this: “I rest my soul here.” Contemporary to Elder Macarius, monks from remote, more communal monasteries and deserts of other dioceses, as well as some of the white clergy, knowing about his spiritual gifts, came to him for their own benefit and spiritual advice; others, not having the time and opportunity for this, turned to him for advice in writing. Of the women's monastic monasteries, the closest to Elder Macarius was the Sevsky monastery, Oryol diocese, where, as stated above, he was a confessor for a considerable time and where at that time there were some of his most devoted students, including his cousin and two nieces. Elder Macarius took every possible care for these nieces of his. From 1848 until 1860, the last year of his life, he wrote letters to them almost every post, 103 most often with answers to their questions, always inclining them to patience, self-reproach and humility, without which it is impossible to lead a life in peace and tranquility of soul and to please the Lord, and always called them with a tender fatherly name: “Beloved children in the Lord.” One of them, Mother Melania, was sickly, and the elder was very sympathetic to her poor health, always regretting her, but at the same time inclining her to uncomplaining patience, which alone can replace all arbitrary monastic feats. He often informed them about his personal circumstances, and sometimes about the Optina monastery ones. In a word, he treated them like the closest compassionate and benevolent father. However, the elder always took a very close part in the destinies of the entire Sevsk monastery and, although occasionally, visited it for spiritual reinforcement and consolation of both his relatives and other sisters of the monastery related to him. Subsequently, the Belevskaya Convent, adjacent to Optina Pustyn, enjoyed the same favor with Elder Macarius, especially since one of the most devoted students of the Optina Elders, Fr. Leonida and Fr. Macaria, nun of Pavlina; and at the same time, the treasurer was appointed as an old woman, experienced in spiritual life, Mother Magdalene (the former ryassophore nun Anthia), who at one time, due to the slander of the primordial invisible enemy, endured many great sorrows for her spiritual attitude towards the mentioned elders. M. Abbess Pavlina not only constantly used the advice of Elder Macarius in everything related to the external and internal improvement of her monastery, but also encouraged all the sisters entrusted to her care to do so, having the permission and blessing of her Tula rulers - the Right Reverend Demetrius (later Archbishop of Odessa) and his successor, the Right Reverend Alexy. The fruit of this spiritual relationship between the Belev nuns and Elder Macarius was: 1) the rapid prosperity of the monastery through the improvement of those involved in spiritual life and through the multiplication of its nuns, attracted by the motherly love of the abbess and the opportunity to have in the very first steps of monastic life the guidance of an elder experienced in spiritual life; and 2) with the help of donations from the wealthy nuns themselves, the construction of new buildings in the monastery to accommodate those in need of help. Therefore, this monastery, predominantly at that time, could rightly be called, both in terms of external and internal amenities, the best of the monastic women’s monasteries, exposing its well-being - what others lack, that is, the guidance of elders or elders experienced in spiritual life; since this latter has always been one of the surest means of improving monasteries. For a more visual representation of the mutual relations between the elder Fr. Macarius and his disciples, the Belevsky nuns, here offer to pious readers the oral stories of some of them who personally knew the elder. The story of the nun Pavlina Ovsyannikova. Around 1849–1850, Father Fr. Macarius was traveling to Voronezh and along the way he stopped in the city of Mtsensk, Oryol province, with the merchant Thomas Nikitich Kuleshov, whom he loved and even blessed the Mtsensk residents to turn to him for advice as to an elder. I, M. Pavlina said, was then about 14 years old. Even earlier they took me to the priest, and therefore, when I found out about his arrival, I came to the Kuleshovs. When the priest saw me, he asked: “What, Polyusha (worldly name), has not the Lord taken away your desire to go to a monastery?” I had never thought about going to a monastery before, but in response to Father’s question I answered that I wanted to go. Then the priest crossed himself and said: “Glory to God!” Indeed, after a little time I entered the monastery in Belev. Father went to Belev mostly three times a year: in January, May and August. While we didn’t have our own hotel in the monastery, he stayed in the city with Fr. Archpriest Glagolev; and when a hotel was built at the monastery, he began to stay at the monastery hotel. Sometimes he liked to come unexpectedly and quietly go into the building to see Mother Abbess from the back porch. If the cell notices, the priest will threaten to keep silent. He lived in Belev for three or four days and always made sure to go around the cells of all the sisters and not miss a single one. There were also nuns who did not like him. He always went to these people first. Sometimes someone will say: “Father! Why did you go to them? After all, they don’t love you.” And the priest will answer: “That’s why we need to go forward to them.” And those, like the priest, will visit them and reconcile. The sisters rejoiced at the arrival of the priest, as if it were a bright day. Everyone who could, would give up their work, dress in festive clothes and follow him throughout the monastery. In the church, during services, the priest stood next to Mother Abbess. You used to go to the choir, bow to your mother, and she would point to the priest. You will receive his blessing and stand throughout the entire morning with ease and joy. From church, the priest would go to mother’s building next to her; and we are all behind them. Once, I remember, he stopped on the porch, leaned on a crutch and said: “Abbess, abbess! Lead them to the Kingdom of Heaven." “Will I be there, father?” - she said. “You will, you will,” answered the elder. “And lead them all with you.” Another time, a lot of us gathered in my mother’s tea room. Father came to us, looked at us all and said: “Oh, girls, girls! I feel sorry for you; We will also envy the dead.” As if he was warning that life would become more difficult as time went on. When Mother Superior and I came to Optina, and if it happened that we arrived late and didn’t see the priest in the evening; then in the morning, when the bell in the monastery rings for Matins, we will go to the monastery. We’ll ring the bell at the gate (there wasn’t a single hut at that time), the cell attendant will come out, find out that it’s mother, and tell the priest about it, although she used to not tell us to tell him about it. He will come out to the gate, bless us, and in due course in the morning he will come to our hotel for tea. Sometimes he will come to dinner, send food from the monastery and bless mother to eat everything, and she ate without harm; and at home, due to pain, I couldn’t eat anything except fish soup. As a medicine, the priest blessed her to drink water from the Pafnutevsky well 104. Father behaved very simply. At dinner he did not allow him to change his plates. I once bought myself a portrait of a priest and asked the elder to bless me with it, and he said: “Why do you need such a fool?” - but still blessed. Recently, when we were preparing for communion of the Holy Mysteries in Optina, the priest sent us to confess to Fr. Paphnutius 105. I really didn't want to go to him. I ask the priest: should I tell him some of the sins that I had previously revealed to him myself? And he replied: “No need - they don’t talk about rain alone every day.” The last time the priest was in Belev was shortly before his death, in August. Previously, he thought about going to Vyaz after Belev. When he began to leave Belev, the cell attendant said to him: “Father! Tarantas is bad. We need to fix it before we go to Vyazma.” And the priest replied: “Now we have come not only to Vyazma, but also to Belev for the last time.” When we learned about my father’s illness, my mother and I went to Optina; but the day before his death I had to go back. They were waiting for the bishop in Belev, and the priest himself blessed mother to go, saying: “Only you won’t see me again.” “Who are you leaving us to, father?” - asked mother. "ABOUT. Ambrose and Fr. Hilarion,” answered the elder. “Won’t we go our separate ways with different elders?” - "No. I believe in God that you will not separate.” Shortly before my father’s death, permission was given to tonsure our mantle in excess of the staff. Mother presented some nuns who had already been tonsured secretly for tonsure. The priest ordered them to be warned that this second tonsure in the church would be counted towards them as schema tonsure. After the death of the priest, on the night of the fortieth day, I saw him in a dream, as if he ordered my mother to tonsure me into a mantle. Then for the second time, in a dream, he ordered me to be called Peacock. Soon after these two dreams I was given some paper to sign; Since I sometimes had to sign on different papers, I did not pay attention to this paper. Following this, I again saw the priest in a dream, who said to me: “Do you know what you signed? It was you who were presented to the robe.” Afterwards I found out that I had actually signed a petition for tonsure. My cell knows one case in which the priest’s gift of foresight was revealed. Peasant s. Naryshkin of the Tula province, Andrei Kutepov, went with his daughter to the priest during his lifetime to get his blessing to marry her off. “God, deliver me! - said the priest, “she will be unhappy.” When they returned home, the mother did not want to follow father’s advice and gave her daughter in marriage, but not even a year had passed before the young woman and her husband went crazy. From among the lay people who often visited Father Fr. Makariy, I remember the Oryol merchant Ivan Mikhailovich Nemytov and the Bolkhov merchant Vasily Kurkin 106. The story of nun Nikandra Zaitseva. My relatives lived not far from Optina and had great faith in the Optina elders. Therefore, as a girl, I often visited Father Fr. Macaria and at the age of fifteen, with his blessing, entered the monastery. When I entered the monastery, there was a Sevsk nun in Optina who very much asked the priest to bless me to live with her. At first he seemed to agree, but suddenly he resolutely refused, although she was very offended by this refusal, and blessed me to go to Belev. Afterwards I found out that something wrong soon happened to the mentioned Sevsk nun. She seemed to fall into delusion and somehow sadly ended her life. First, the priest placed me in the building with Mother Abbess. Then I had to live in a cell where there were a lot of people. He came one day and said: “Do you see how many people are here? And you will have as many in your cell as there are herrings in a barrel.” Then the priest blessed me to build my own cell and bought a place for me. Indeed, sometimes I had to be so crowded in this cell of mine that I remembered his words: we will be like herrings in a barrel. The elder especially loved peace between the sisters. I remember once he came to us - and many of us lived together - he stopped on the threshold and asked: “Are you at peace? If there is peace, then I will go; and if not, I won’t go.” And only then did he enter our cell when we assured him that things were peaceful with us. I cannot forget Father’s love and attention with which he treated us. It was not a father, but the most tender mother. He resolutely paid attention to everything. It happened to me, after visiting my relatives, to stop by Optina. So he will see everything himself - what my family gave me and whether I have everything I need. Sometimes you come to him and you grieve and complain that your family has forgotten. And he will say: “God loves you and therefore sends sorrows. Relatives have nothing to do with it. Everything is God. He doesn’t tell them, so they don’t send them. Do you need money? Take from me how much you need?” And he himself will take the wallet out of his pocket and give it to me. I’ll refuse, but he’ll start insisting: “Take it, take it! After all, they give it to me!” So the priest consoled me that sometimes you would think: “Well, why are there sorrows? But thanks to them, the priest is so comforting.” The elder was lenient towards our weaknesses regarding fasting. When we had to be in Optina during Great Lent, he himself would send a cell attendant to our hotel and allow us to drink tea until o’clock; demanded only more humility and peace between the sisters. However, at first he did not bless me to drink tea with bread, and, moreover, to drink no more than three cups; and for an extra cup, if you have to drink, give five bows. And he sternly reprimanded me when I once, while in the world, drank seven cups. “This is how you’ll agree to everything when you’re out in the world,” he said. Father was very responsive to all sorrows and needs; tried in every possible way to help those in need; For the poor nuns, he paid for the hotel room himself. Father kept reproaching himself. He used to come to my cell and say: “Here I have desecrated your cell.” He didn't like to eat sweets. He would say, it happened: “Don’t prepare any food for me, I’m a peasant, I need cabbage soup and porridge.” Of the books, my father gave me more to read: the Teachings of St. Abba Dorotheus and St. John Climacus. I wanted to read the Bible, but he did not bless me. The priest said that he loved Belevsky monasteries more than all the monasteries, but he did not bless his nieces to enter here; because jealousy could be aroused in the other sisters because he loved his relatives more than them. Once I had to tell the priest that some stranger told me something special, and he said: “I forbid you to accept strangers. If you accept a stranger into your cell, it is the same as an enemy, that is, a demon, you will accept.” One day I really didn’t want to leave Optina, since the feast of the Entry into the Church of the Most Holy Theotokos 107 was close; and the priest says: “We have to go. Otherwise they will sing: virgins will be brought to the King after Her, and you are here with the men.” One day my brother was getting ready to go to Kyiv and found himself a fellow wanderer, but the priest decidedly did not give his blessing to go with him. “God, deliver me! - he said. “Refuse and go on alone.” The brother obeyed. And when I went later, in one place I saw that a crowd of people had gathered around something. He came up to look and saw that the wanderer with whom he was going to travel was lying dead. Whether he was killed, or perhaps he himself died, is unknown. But, in any case, if the priest had not restrained his brother, then the brother could also have suffered. When my father died, I thought that everything was lost for me, and I cried for forty days, almost without ceasing. Finally I saw the priest in a dream. He says to me: “Why are you crying? I feel good. I'm wearing clothes like St. John the Baptist." And he showed it to me. He was wearing something made of hair, similar to how St. John the Baptist of the Lord. A year after my father’s death, on the evening of September 7 (the day of the death of Elder Macarius), my relatives drove past Optina Pustyn and saw two pillars of fire that, as it seemed to them, were rising - one above the monastery, and the other above the monastery. Once I had to invoke the prayers of Father Fr. on a demon that appeared in a dream. Macaria. "A! He knows who to call,” he said and disappeared. I also remember this incident: a nun was dying, the natural mother of nun Magdalena Sotnikova, she was already completely gone. At this time they showed her a portrait of the priest. His portraits had just come out then. She screamed terribly: “I didn’t repent!” And she screamed for forty days, and then died. Nuns of Capitolina. I entered the monastery with the blessing of Father Fr. Macaria. Another relative of mine was admitted with me. And the priest blessed her to dress in monastic clothes as soon as possible. She was sick. After getting dressed, she lived very little and died. My father gave me the following instruction to guide me throughout my life: “Live like this: you have not seen, you have not heard. Love God and your boss; “Don’t bother your boss with sneaky things.” Yes, he taught everyone patience: “Be patient. God will not forsake you for patience.” Sometimes he will call his cell attendant and jokingly say: “Father Sergius! Buy Vera (worldly name) patience.” “Father! “Yes, I’ll buy it myself,” I’ll say. “No, you will pay dearly,” the elder will answer. At first, after I entered the monastery, I did little menial work in my cell - I always took care of my hands so that they would not become rough and so that I could weave lace, and the aunt with whom I lived was angry with me for this. So we came with her one day to the priest. She tells him that she intends to send me home because I don’t work. Father took me by the hand and led me to the kitchen. He stained his hands with soot and then smeared me all over - both my face and my hands; and so he walked around the hotel. Everyone looks at me and laughs. From then on, I did not spare my hands - I began to do everything myself. Father didn’t like me, if you say anything about others. He will say: “It’s none of your business.” I once had to go with my aunt to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. And when we returned from there, the priest told me everything about what we did there. The Mtsensk residents loved Father very much. I remember when, on his way to Voronezh, he stopped in Mtsensk with Foma Nikitich Kuleshov, such a crowd of people gathered at the door of his house that they led the priest through the back porch, put him in a carriage and took him on his way; and we chased after him for about 15 versts. In Belev the priest lived for three or four days; and the last time I stayed for a whole week and repeated several times: “Girls, we must go to rest.” He used to walk around the monastery, and we followed him in a whole crowd. He will see Mother Abbess and joke: “Abbess, Abbess! I'm with the convoy." When the elder visited us for the last time, I told him that I was angry with my brother, who stopped helping me, and that I would not write to him or pray for him. Father immediately ordered me to write a letter to my brother and attributed something to him. Soon I received a letter from my brother in which he was written: “What kind of old man did you find there? He put his scripture directly into my heart.” A year before his death, Father Fr. Macarius handed me over to Father Fr. Ambrose: he covered me with a blanket, handed it to him and said: “Here’s a fool for you, a fool!” And Father Fr. Ambrose immediately began to work with me and, for the first time, told me my whole life since I was seven. When our mother abbess asked the dying priest Fr. Macaria, what will she do now? he answered her: “God will help. And I will help." When the priest died, Mother Abbess first went to Optina alone, and then sent a blessing to everyone who wanted to go. I was a little late and arrived when the priest had already been transferred from the monastery to the monastery church. His face was completely covered and sewn up, and we ripped up the blanket and looked. Father lay like an Angel of God. When they carried his coffin to lower him into the grave, the sisters and people crowded around him and tried to tear something from the coffin for blessing. Hieromonk Fr. walked beside us behind the coffin. Barsanuphius. He took a pair of scissors out of his pocket, tore off some of the fringed braid and cut us a piece each. Nuns Tatiana Ivanova. Since childhood, I lived with the landowner Maria Mikhailovna Kavelina. Her estate was not far from Optina Pustyn, and she constantly went to visit Father Fr. Macarius, and the priest went to our village every year. When he would arrive, all the peasants would gather to receive his blessing. Father will come out to them and sit down; and while he blesses them, he says something to them for edification, as if not referring his words to anyone, and by the way, at this time he denounces many. Our landowner had a beekeeper - a nice quiet corner. And the priest loved to be there. My aunt looked after this beekeeper. And the priest always told her: “It’s wonderful here! Sit down and read spiritual books. And teach Tanya to this.” My lady was very devoted to her father. But there were people to whom this devotion seemed strange. The son of our village priest, a young man, often mocked the affection of my masters for the elder; but suddenly fell ill with a fever. Sick, he began to recognize his guilt and repent. “Isn’t that why,” he said, “God is punishing me because I laughed at the elder?” And he soon recovered. After that, he came to us and asked my lady: “Marya Mikhailovna! You will go to the elder, ask him for forgiveness for me; but I myself am afraid to go to him.” But the lady persuaded him to go himself; and he immediately went. Returning, he stopped by again and said: “Well, Marya Mikhailovna, I cannot tell you how I felt when I saw the priest. As soon as he said two words to me, everything in me went cold, and then caught fire. I felt that this was not an earthly, but a heavenly man; and could only say: “Father! Forgive me for everything." And he says: “God will forgive you! You yourself didn’t understand what you were doing.” I myself was healed three times by the priest. Since childhood, I lived with my aunt at the lady’s very quietly. They didn't let me go anywhere. But one time, when I was almost an adult, they let me go to a party with my godfather. It suddenly became very difficult for me there. I felt that my face and hands began to twitch. After a little, I began to twitch all over; and so they soon took me home, where I was met by the lady and my aunt. I was in a miserable position. I could hardly speak. The mouth was twisted, the whole face was disfigured, the body was twitching. My aunt went to my father, who, having learned about what had happened to me, was unhappy that I was allowed to go to the party. According to him, I had Witt's disease. He didn’t tell me to contact the doctor, saying: “No need; you don't understand; This is not a doctor's disease; and if you treat her, you will completely mutilate her.” He gave the aunt oil from the lamp in front of the icon of the Sign of the Mother of God, which is in their skete church, and ordered it to be poured into the lamp in front of the miraculous Kaluga icon of the Mother of God, which was in our home, and lit for six weeks. Every evening he ordered to give me a spoonful of oil from this lamp; and in the morning I should make three bows and drink Epiphany water; and if I can’t make bows, then let my aunt do them for me. I started doing this. I felt better; and then I completely recovered. Four years later, my illness returned again. They brought me to the priest; and he says: “You must have become proud and condemned people; So you were allowed to get sick again.” I said that I did not judge, but laughed at others. “It’s all the same,” he said, “it’s still the same; That’s why I got sick again.” And this time the priest treated me the same way. The illness passed and never returned. And for the first time, after recovery, the priest blessed me to take me to the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, and the second time - to Voronezh and Zadonsk. And when my aunt began to thank the priest that I had recovered through his holy prayers, he said: “Don’t attribute this to me; This is God's, not mine. So promise to go to St. the Lord will help the saints.” And Father was always very dissatisfied when I attributed the healing to him, and was even offended. “This,” he will say, “is your enemy, that you are giving me something that is not mine. The Lord will punish for this; the disease will return again.” The third time I caught a cold was when I was traveling to Optina. I developed a fever, then a feverish state. Father did not let me go home from the hotel until the next day. Everyone left me to follow the priest to another hotel, and I sat alone by the window. It was daytime. But I suddenly felt scared. I looked around and saw that the entire room where I was sitting was filled with demons. They rode horses and fought. All the walls and everything were covered with them. Only on the icon standing in the room, on the face of the Savior, there was nothing. I was horrified and started screaming. They called my aunt, but even in her presence I continued to see the same thing. Then the priest came, read the psalm: Alive in the help of the Most High..., sprinkled me and everything around with Epiphany water and ordered my aunt to read this psalm over me until everything disappeared. Thus, what I saw began to become paler and finally disappeared completely. But after that I was sick for six weeks with a fever. Father himself was surprised at this vision of mine and said that this happens to a person only in the dying minutes; but, apparently, the Lord was especially pleased to visit this girl with such a temptation. Father often rebuked me. He would come, take me aside and directly tell me what I did and thought. And sometimes he wants to try it - he waits until I say it myself. It was impossible to hide. Now he will say that I am lying. And if I lock myself up, he’ll say: “Why don’t you say so? You will pay for this with illness.” All my thoughts - he knew everything. My father once advised me to abstain a little from food. I came home, ate more moderately for two days, and then I thought: “Father said that to himself, after all, I need to tell him something,” and I began to eat to my heart’s content again. Then I came to Optina, and the priest denounced me - he said: “He has nothing to do, he will say so to himself.” In general, the priest was very affectionate, but there were times when he was very strict. I remember once sending me home alone, he strictly ordered me to immediately sit on the cart and not dare to walk. And I started talking to a monk I knew. He walked me through the ferry. At first I calmly walked and talked with him, but then his intrusiveness scared me very much, and I barely got rid of him and left. When we came to the priest the next time, he came to our hotel, but did not even look at me and never blessed me. When he began to leave, I ran after him and began to ask for his forgiveness. At first, the priest pretended that he didn’t know my guilt. And when I sincerely repented of the crime of his commandment, he told me: “Remember! I forgive you for the last time; There will be no more forgiveness for you. If you want to treat me, listen! If you don’t want to obey, it’s better not to bother me, don’t come to me and don’t take up my time.” Once my lady did not listen to her father. Her Angel Day, July 22, fell on a fast day. Father sent her son, a wanderer, Fr. Leonida, tell him not to have anything savory at dinner. At that time, some relative was visiting her - a very important person, who had never eaten meatless food, so she ordered to serve him a modest one. Father was so offended by this that she could hardly beg his forgiveness later. And she had never seen him as angry as this time. As a result of Father’s admonitions, people changed greatly for the better. My lady had a very hot character, and then she became very meek. She had a military son. In the regiment he led a wild, stormy life; then he came to the village, began to visit his father, and in a short time he changed: he left his bad habits and began to live properly. He retired from the regiment; because he began to have seizures, which were so strong that sometimes in the upper floor of the house you could hear him wheezing below. One of these attacks happened to him in Optina under the priest. The priest ordered a shroud sent to him from Jerusalem to be brought from his cell and covered the sick man with it, who immediately began to calm down. The attack finally passed completely and, thanks to the priest’s prayers, never recurred. Having recovered, Kavelin married and lived a long time. Once a rabid wolf in our area bit several peasants, including two of my lady’s men. Just at this time the priest came to us. The bitten peasants were sent to the hospital; but the elder did not give his blessing to take my lady’s peasants there. They were called to the priest. He blessed them, sprinkled their wounds with holy water and consoled them with the hope of God’s mercy, since they were very bored and were afraid of going crazy. Then he ordered them to make three bows, to pray to the Queen of Heaven and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker and drink Epiphany water in the morning. They did this and remained alive and well; and all the others sent to the hospital died. Dissenters, non-believers, came to the priest, and from conversations with him they became true believers. I remember only one Old Believer, it seems, sent to the priest for admonition by the court, who did not listen to the voice of truth and did not change his errors. Father said about him that nothing could be done with him. Of the saints of God, the priest most often advised resorting to St. John the Baptist and St. Nicholas the Wonderworker, and most of all to the Queen of Heaven Herself. The priest himself ate raw food, but he loved to treat others. Nuns of Alevtina. I remember one time I was with my mother, waiting for Father Fr. Macaria started talking about the fact that, as rumor had it, they wanted to tonsure me into a ryassophore. We’ve just talked about this, and we see the priest coming and, turning directly to me, he says: “You’re going to get tonsured, but you won’t humble yourself.” Father did not impose any fasts or any special rules on me, but still demanded humility from me. Another story: my sister, Maria Pavlovna Polunina, suffered from fits of demonic possession. Our mother came with her to the monastery, and my mother and I took her to Optina Pustyn. Even before that, in our church, she was very worried, and on the way she kept scolding me that I had a cursed hand, but I was wearing my father’s rosary on my hand. When we arrived in Optina, we sat down to wait for the priest on the path near the monastery. Suddenly the sister shouted: “Here comes the gray-haired man!” - and began to struggle. Indeed, the priest came out of the monastery, came up to us and wrapped some kind of belt around the sick woman. She bent over backwards, as if she had broken, and seemed to be numb. Then, as soon as I recovered, the priest sent us to the grave of Father Fr. Leonida. He always covered up his healings with something. There we prayed and took sand from his grave. The sister calmed down. The next day I was at mass. Father gave her antidor; and she accepted it calmly. After that, she never had any previous seizures. Nuns Iustina Burtseva. I used to be a serf. Zagryazhskikh. With my young lady, who lived in the Zosima Monastery and wanted to move from there to the Belevsky Monastery, we came to Optina to visit Father Fr. Macarius, whom I saw before; since he was passing through the Maloyaroslavets Monastery to visit Fr. Abbot Anthony stayed at the estate of my masters. Father came to our hotel, blessed my young lady and paid attention to me: “Who is this with you?” - he asked the young lady. And then he asked me: “Do you want to go to a monastery, girl?” When he was busy with my mistress, he called me to him and said so affectionately: “Well, tell me your sins, because there are two of us here,” and he strokes me on the head. I told them what was in my soul, that I wanted to enter a monastery, but I was afraid that they would not accept me for the reason that they had previously offered me to enter a monastery, but I refused. “God is merciful,” said the priest, “you will be in the monastery.” Soon he forbade me to wear a colored dress. He didn’t pay attention to the other girl who was with us at the priest’s and didn’t say anything to her. After that, both this girl and I entered a monastery; but she lived for a year and left the monastery, and I stayed. For six years they didn’t dress me in monastic dress, because I was the serf of my nun’s nephew, and he didn’t let me go at all. I was very sad for this reason, and the priest always told me: “You will be dressed when you have the will.” And so it happened. Soon the serfs were given freedom, and I got dressed. Sometimes the priest was strict with my nun-mistress, especially for some of the lord’s whims. She would come to our room and seem to be very angry with her, even stamp her feet on her. She will cry, and he will leave. He will visit all the hotels and come to us again. He will feel sorry for her and say: “Where is the teardrop? Everyone is probably crying." And he will console her. My young lady was disgusted. Once, in front of the priest, he called me to wipe off the lard that had dripped onto the table from the candle: “Ustyusha! Erase this disgusting thing." And the priest says: “Where? What disgusting? There is no nastiness." He collected this fat on his finger and anointed her face. Flavian nuns. My nun, for whom I was a cell attendant, was transferred by the priest from the Velikolutsky monastery to the Belevsky monastery; found it prohibitive for her to live there, because her relatives were close to her. She brought me with her there too; but I began to get very bored in the new place. She felt sorry for looking at me. So she says to the elder: “Father! I want to send Annushka back - she keeps crying.” And the priest answered: “Who will you go with?” She was surprised by this, since she had no plans to go anywhere. But a few years later she was appointed abbess to another monastery. She had to go with me. And before that, the priest once again directly told her: “You will be the abbess.” “Well, father, where should we put such fools as abbess?” – she answered his words. “Even if she’s a fool, she’s an abbess,” he confirmed. One day she said to the elder: “Father! How happy Makaria Somova is to be the birthday girl with you!” “And you will be together,” he replied. After the death of the priest, she was tonsured into a mantle and named Macaria. Father loved simplicity in everything. One day he came into our cell and saw that we had frilly tires on our pillows. He took them and threw them on the floor. He never allowed us to make a woolen cassock or anything colored. The priest really did not like the sisters to walk around their cells. Sometimes he would say with a sigh: “Oh, girls, girls! If only you knew what a sin it is to walk around your cells! You'll go have a cup of tea; and there is idle talk and condemnation. And in one cup you can accumulate so much sin!” One day a priest came to our monastery. At this time, two nuns quarreled over the construction of a cell and asked the priest to come and judge between them. When he arrived, they began to compete and accuse each other. For a long time the priest stood between them silently, leaning on his crutch. Then he suddenly began to quickly turn to this one, then to the other and quickly say: “What are you like? What are you like? What are you like? Everyone present laughed; and thus the trial ended. The priest worked more with the monastics than with the laity; but, out of humility, he tried very hard to hide his spiritual gifts. If you asked him something very directly, he would say: “I don’t know, I don’t know.” One day, the priest, letting me leave Optina before evening, very tired, on foot, said: “Go! There will be opportunity for you; You’ll be home today.” And it's true. I had only walked a little way, some kind people caught up with me, sat me down and took me to the monastery. I remember one demoniac woman hit the priest on the cheek, and he gave her the other. She fell down dead. The old man was loving. He was already quite ill before his death, and he kept worrying about how to console his sisters. “Send,” he will tell the cell attendants, “something to the hotel: the sisters have arrived there.” They will bring us either apples or something else. About his cell attendant, Fr. Hilarion, who later was the monastery leader and an elder, the priest used to say, as if jokingly: “This elder will get through you better than me.” Skete hieromonk Fr. He told Isaac that he should be rector at Optina Pustyn, and Fr. Flavian - treasurer. All this came true in due time. Nun Anna Leontieva. I was a girl of about 12 years old with the elder Father Fr. Leonid, and he sent me to confess to Father Fr. Macarius. I came to the church where he was confessing to people; and my mother, who came with me, remained on the church porch. Father asked me: “Did you say goodbye to your mother?” I answered that no, and I don’t know how to say goodbye. “Come on,” said the priest, “I’ll show you how.” He took me to the porch and made me bow at my mother’s feet three times. I really didn’t want to bow, because there were a lot of people there. And the priest laughs and says: “Our nose is looking up; but we’ll bend him over.” He reprimanded my mother for not teaching me to ask for forgiveness before confession, and only then did he begin to confess me. I also remember how I came to see Father Fr. Macarius, when she was already married. My married life was so difficult that I was ready to take my own life if my father had not supported me. My mother tried to persuade me to leave my husband and go live with her, but my father didn’t want to hear about it. “What are you thinking, old man?” - he told her. Turning to me, he said: “In anything else, obey your mother, Anna; but don’t obey in this. What God has joined together, let no man separate. Be patient and remember - you are not the first, you are not the last. There are many unhappy people in the world. Time will tell the outcome. And if you leave your husband, you will lose the Kingdom of Heaven.” These words encouraged me, and I became more patient. Father touchingly persuaded my husband. He placed us both in front of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God and said to him: “Remember, you will give an answer to God for it. When you were a child, you destroyed birds' nests. So you treated her the same way you treated the same defenseless chick. Get better! Otherwise, you will face a big punishment.” The husband did not reform and, as the priest said, received punishment here: he was exiled to Siberia. (The remaining wife eventually entered a monastery). Nuns Anna Gorbyleva. When my grandfather decided to marry my father, he first went to Father Fr. Macarius to ask his blessing which bride to take, since there were many brides. Father suddenly says to him: “Yes, you take your godfather for him.” Grandfather thought. At first he could not remember which godfather the elder told him about, but then he remembered that three years ago he traveled from Mtsensk to the city of Novosil; on the way he stopped in a house where there was a newborn child, at whose baptism he had to be an adoptive father; and the foster mother was a little girl there. He went to that house. The girl at that time was just a bride. Wooed. He married his son to her; and they lived happily. Nuns Matrona Kostornova. I lived as a cell attendant with Mother Makaria Somova. One day the priest came to Belev and came to us for dinner. Having eaten, he prayed to God and said: “And now we must bow to the abbess,” and he bowed to M. Macaria’s feet. Embarrassed by this act of the elder, she only said: “Father! What are you doing?" And he again says: “No, no; the abbess must be bowed.” In the evening of the same day, the priest called her to go with him to Mother Superior, the abbess of the monastery; He put his kamilavka on her, and put his crutch in her hands, and led her like that. He brought it and said: “Abbess! I brought Abbess Macaria to you.” Two years after this, M. Macaria was made abbess at the Kashira Monastery. Nun Maria Dobrovolskaya. Before entering the monastery, I came to Optina Pustyn to visit Father Fr. Macarius. A Sevsk nun saw me here and began calling me to her cell. Father came to her at the hotel. She asks him for his blessing to take me in and tells me what and how she will do for me, and the priest just says: “Pretty much!” Then, turning to me, he said: “Go, live until spring.” I went with this nun to the Sevsky Monastery, but they did not accept me as one of the sisters there, because she brought me without the blessing of the abbess. And so in the spring I actually had to return to my father, and he placed me in the Belevsky Monastery. Once I was in Optina Pustyn, and another nun and I stopped to talk with a hieromonk. At this time, the priest drove past us to the hotel. We bowed to him and followed him. I tell my companion that it’s true that the priest didn’t like the fact that we were standing and talking. “He probably didn’t see anything,” she replied. We approach the hotel, and the priest gets out of the carriage. We began to help him climb the stairs; and he says: “Yes, yes, girls, lead me; Otherwise I’m blind, I don’t see anything.” Before the death of Father Fr. Macarius, when, upon arrival in Optina, my friend and I found out that he was dangerously ill, we went to say goodbye to him; but we were a little late. We approach the monastery, and our mother abbess, who has already visited the elder, meets us on the road and says that the priest is exhausted and does not accept anymore. We grieved, but there was nothing to do, we turned around and went to the hotel. Suddenly we hear someone calling us back; because the perspicacious father, although we were not reported to him, himself ordered us to be called to him. We came and said goodbye to him. After the death of the priest, on the day of his Angel, I dreamed of the following: I saw a building of extraordinary beauty; when I went inside, I saw many windows on which there were flowers, and many tables covered with white tablecloths. Sitting behind them were elders of such a magnificent appearance that I was embarrassed to come up here, and thought: at least I could see someone I knew here. And then I see the priest sitting fifth from me and looking at me. I was very happy about him. Then the elders got up from the table. And the priest came up to me and asked: “Are we doing well?” “It’s so good that I can’t even express it,” I replied. “Well, let’s go,” he said, “I’ll show you more.” And he led me into beautiful gardens where streams flowed. Again the priest asked: “Is it good here?” When I praised him, he said: “Be patient! And God will not leave you.” I was grieving at that time, and while we were walking with him, I was going to tell him everything. And he said: “I know all your spiritual sorrow,” and he gave me water to drink from one stream. I felt so good that in my sleep I shouted with joy: “Father!” – and woke up. I had a sister who, with the blessing of the elders, tried to live like a monk in the world. Her place of residence was not far from the Optina Hermitage, and the Optina monks, who had to pass through this area on business, always stopped to rest and spend the night in her house. Often they brought her, in gratitude, either a holy prosphora, or something else for a blessing; and one monk once brought his sister a portrait of Father Fr. Macarius, but forgot to give it to her, and so he left. The next night, my sister saw in a dream that the priest was driving through their city; but I didn’t go see her. She was very upset by this, and the priest said: “I’m just passing through here now, but on the way back I’ll stop by to see you.” After some time, the monk, who forgot to give the portrait to his sister, returned to Optina, and brought it to his sister. And she revered him as miraculous; because in her sorrows she received consolation from him. Nuns Justina Poposhina. We walked to Optina and talked on the way that it seemed we would have carried the priest away in our arms if the monks had given him to us. We come to the priest, and he says: “He’s still willing to carry me in his arms.” In the last year of his life, the priest came to us at the Belevsky Monastery with Father Ambrose and walked around the monastery. Father Fr. followed him. Ambrose. At this time he runs up to Father Fr. One sister says to Macarius with tears: that her father wants to take her by force from the monastery and marry her off, that he has already found her the groom of the day. First, Father Fr. Macarius remained silent, and then said: “Contact Ambrose.” Father o. Ambrose sees that she is still crying, and Father Fr. Macarius doesn’t say anything to her, he said affirmatively: “He won’t take it!” And so it happened. Her father tried to take her from the monastery, but failed. Nuns of Cleopatra. I entered the monastery without any means, so it seemed impossible to me to ever have my own cell. When my sister began to ask to join the monastery, I began to tell Father Fr. Macarius, whether he would bless her to enter some kind of cenobitic monastery; and what will we, both of us so poor, do in our own monastery? But the priest did not bless, saying that we would have our own cell, that the Mother Superior would need a sister. He began to try her voice himself, she began to sing in a treble, and he praised that she had a good bass. In our monastery at that time there were singers with such good voices that I thought about my father’s words: it is unlikely that they will need my sister. However, she was accepted into our monastery and assigned choir obedience. A few years later, her voice turned into a bass, and they began to really need her in the choir; because some of the singers with good voices moved to another monastery. For the prayers of the priest, the Lord sent us his cell. When the priest came to our monastery for the last time, my sister and I began to ask him to go to our homeland. He let me go, but he never wanted to let her go, although she really begged for it. I left, and my father died without me. The sister was needed here at that time, because our singers went to Optina for the priest’s funeral. Nuns Raphaila. When Father Fr. Macarius began to weaken in strength, he blessed us to confess to our confessor, Fr. Paisia; but after a while, for some reason, he forbade me from going to him and confessing to him. Meanwhile, during our stay in Optina Pustyn, Fr. Paisiy himself came to our room, and we were embarrassed not to accept him. Suddenly a priest arrived at the Gostiny Dvor; we ran out to meet him, and he said that he would come to our room. Although we did not call Fr. Paisius, however, was restless that, contrary to the elder’s commandment not to have communication with him, Fr. Paisiy was in our room, and therefore we invited the priest to work with us somewhere downstairs, especially since our room was on the third floor, and it was difficult for the priest to go up there. But the priest said that he would still go there, and in one minute he was already upstairs. I opened the door to our room and looked at Fr. Paisiya silently closed it and left us. And this was punishment for violating the elder’s commandment. After several oral stories given here by the Belev nuns about the elder Fr. Macarius intends to say a few words about the Borisov Tikhvin women's hermitage in the Kursk diocese. This monastery has long had many disciples of the first ever-memorable Optina elder, Fr. Leonida, who at the same time were also disciples of the elder Fr. Macaria. According to the Optina old-timer, Abbot Mark, Elder Macarius placed this monastery above other women’s monasteries in terms of spiritual life; since in his time, wonderful old women lived and labored there. Of these, two schema-nice were especially famous - Alimpia Sukacheva and Lavrentia Uskova, both of the noble landowners. Among the other sisters of this hermitage, the schema-nice Anatoly was also known, also from the landowners, in the world of Paraskeva Feodotovna Trunova, who often came to Optina Pustyn to visit Elder Macarius and reported the following remarkable incidents about him. “I once arrived in Optina,” she said, “and, as was customary, I stayed at the monastery hotel. From the window of my room I saw that Father Fr. appeared in the Gostiny Dvor. Macarius, and hastily rushed to accept his blessing, forgetting to lock my room, where some of my money was lying for travel expenses. Seeing me, the perspicacious old man immediately made a remark to me: “Why did you leave the number open? Go, go, lock it up. Things don’t always go well for us here.” Having moved away from the elder, I stopped for a few minutes to look at him from afar; but he shook his finger at me so that I would go to my place; which, of course, I did. Another time, having arrived in Optina, I, together with my nun companions and one lay girl, came to the monastery to visit Father Fr. Macarius. He received us kindly and treated us to tea. Having thanked the elder for the treat, we went to the hotel. The dear laywoman, who did not understand the elder and monastic life, said with complacency: “Ah! How happy the father was for us! How we consoled him!” And she gasped like that all the way. But as soon as we managed to enter our room, an old man immediately came in and made an accusatory speech: “I came to thank you. How you consoled me! How glad I was to see you!” Confused by these words, we began to justify ourselves by pointing to the worldly that it was she who said so. But the priest continued his denunciation: “So that’s why I came to thank you, because you really consoled me, and I was very glad to see you.” Another case. One day I was walking along the path past the garden in my monastery. There was an apple lying on the road. The thought embarrassed me to pick up the apple and eat it. But, having come to my senses, I considered this a temptation; So she picked up the apple and threw it into the garden. Some time later, having arrived in Optina, I came to the priest, who greeted me with these words: “And I threw an apple into the garden.” I already forgot about it. “What kind of apple, father?” – I asked. “And I walked past the garden, remember? There was an apple lying on the road, and you took it and threw it into the garden.” Now this incident came to mind for me. My married sister died. When they reported this to Father Fr. Macarius, he ordered my other elder sister, who lived with me in the monastery, to return to her widowed son-in-law to manage the household affairs, saying that she would still end her life in the monastery. The elder blessed me to take one little orphan, my niece Dasha, with me to the monastery - which I did. And my sister, the nun, having lived in the world with her son-in-law for seventeen years, according to the prophecy of Elder Macarius, again returned to the Borisov hermitage, where, having lived another twelve years, she died. Several years after the death of the above-mentioned sister of my laywoman, her husband also fell seriously ill. On this occasion I was called home. At this very time, Father Fr. Makariy, passing through on the return journey from Kyiv to Optina, happened in Kursk. And since Kursk was only 50 miles from our place of residence; then I, with the consent of our sick son-in-law, decided to go to the elder in Kursk in order to ask him whether my son-in-law should undergo treatment or rely on the will of God. The elder replied: “What is there to be treated for? Hurry home quickly, otherwise you won’t find him alive.” At the same time, the priest ordered me to take another orphan to my monastery, Dasha’s sister, who was a little older than her. When I began to refuse with sorrow: “What do I need them for, father? What will I do with them? - the elder said: “You didn’t want to follow the children, but the Lord wants you to look after them.” With this, I returned home to my son-in-law, who died on the third day after my return with Christian parting words. By the will of the elder, I took another orphan to the monastery. And soon after this, their other two, also small, sisters fell into one herd. The mentioned five-year-old Dasha suffered from a high fever and an upset stomach in the monastery. She often vomited, especially after she sometimes ate fried fish. One day Father Fr. came to our monastery. Macarius visited our cell. He was informed about Dasha's fever. “But we’ll take her away,” he said and took the sick girl to dinner with him. The owners noticed to him: “Why, father, are you putting a girl with you?” But he insisted on his own and ordered the girl to eat fish soup from the same plate as him. Then they served fried crucian carp. The elder cut it in half lengthwise and kept one half for himself, and ordered the girl to eat the other. She eats and cries, being sure that after this pleasure she will begin to vomit violently. The elder, despite her tears, forced her to eat the entire half of the crucian carp set aside for her. The girl obeyed. Then the priest, having said goodbye to us, went home, and Dasha turned out to be completely healthy. Neither fever nor vomiting recurred with her. It would also be worth mentioning how the elder Fr. Macarius valued holy obedience. M. Anatolia for a long time carried out the obedience of the sacristans in the monastery. When her strength began to weaken, she, being in Optina, explained to the priest about. Macarius that she intends to renounce her obedience. “Don’t you know,” the elder objected, “how high the price of holy obedience is? Here is a step (at the same time he took a step for greater emphasis), and there (pointing at him) a ruble. Here’s another step, and there’s another ruble.” The last words were spoken by the elder with the same signs of expressiveness. After this, M. Anatolia abandoned her intention and until her death she bore the good yoke of her obedience. In addition to the mentioned women’s monasteries, some attentive sisters of the monasteries also benefited from the spiritual guidance and instructions of Elder Macarius: 1) Velikolutsky, whose abbess was Mother P., one of the most devoted students of Elder Macarius; 2) Vyazemsky Arkadievsky, in which the abbess was also one of the elder’s students, A-iya’s mother; 3) Kazan Monastery, Abbess M. D-ey, a former student of the elder Fr. Leonida; 4) Kursk Monastery, Mother Superior A-na, and some of the sisters of that monastery; 5) Serpukhovsky; 6) Kaluga; 7) Yeletsky; 8) Bryansky; 9) Ostashkovsky; 10) Zolotonoshsky; 11) Smolensky; 12) Tula; 13) Kashirsky; 14) Zosimova Hermitage; 15) Belevsky Monastery; 16) Orlovsky; 17) Borodino and some Moscow monasteries. These nuns from time to time deliberately came to Optina Pustyn to meet with the elder Fr. Macarius, so that, having been spiritually strengthened by his oral advice and instructions, then continue to use his edifying letters. Fr. Abbot Anthony died in retirement in Optina Pustyn in 1865 on the evening of August 7, and Fr. Archimandrite Nikodim - in his Maloyaroslavets monastery, also retired, 1864, February 7. Hieromonk Moses, in the rank of archimandrite, died in his Tikhonova hermitage on November 4, 1895 A whole volume of such letters to some of the elder’s nieces was subsequently compiled, the 3rd to the nuns, which can be looked at as his diary. Not far, maybe a mile from the monastery, there is the well of St. Paphnutius, for which there is a religious procession from the monastery twice a year, on May 1st, in memory of St. Paphnutius Borovsky, and September 14th. Head of the hermitage and fraternal confessor in Optina Pustyn, later abbot of the Maloyaroslavets Monastery and archimandrite. Nemytov, under the guidance of the Optina elders, hieroschemamonks Leo and Macarius, underwent high mental prayer. Kurkin was also remarkable for his piety; and besides, through the prayers of the elders, God blessed him with temporary wealth. From a poor man he became a millionaire. The main church holiday in Optina Pustyn.