Глава II. Вступление Михаила Николаевича в Площанскую Богородицкую пустынь. Современные его поступлению старцы-подвижники и значение старчества. Местоположение Площанской пустыни

Subsequently, when Mikhail Nikolaevich Ivanov was an elder-mentor, he used to express himself, on occasion, about secular and monastic life like this: “Until then a person resists - he does not part with the world and does not go to the monastery, until the world crushes his leg.” In the world this is called disappointment. And Mikhail Nikolaevich, it seems, first of all experienced this truth himself. In fact, poor housekeeping, a perceived inability to be a master, dissatisfaction with his family for all this, and also a failed matchmaking - all this, naturally, should have weakened his attachment to worldly life, if it had been quite strong in him. At the same time, other, higher, spiritual needs became more and more stronger in the soul of the pious young man, which forced him to constantly delve into reading spiritual books, so that he probably forgot about music. So what could he do now? Even for simple human reasons, there was only one thing left to do: go to the monastery. Mikhail Nikolaevich did just that. In 1810, on October 6, when he was almost 22 years old, he went on pilgrimage to the Ploshchanskaya Bogoroditsk Hermitage, which was 40 versts from his estate, the village of Shchepyatin; but he never returned. “Whether this visit to the desert was intentional or accidental,” wrote Alexey Semenovich Peredelsky, his peer and cousin, “remained unknown to us. But only Mikhail Nikolaevich wrote home that he was staying in the desert, and was providing the estate to his brothers, not wanting anything for himself, except that he obliged them, when a stone church was built in the village of Turishchevo (where their parent was buried), to give 1000 rubles in banknotes for its construction, which was done in a timely manner by his brother Alexei Nikolaevich, when he became the owner of the village Shchepyatina." We do not undertake to positively resolve the question of whether Mikhail Nikolaevich’s visit to the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage was intentional or not. One can rather believe, however, that it was intentional, as a consequence of a secret attraction to monastic life, formed imperceptibly under the influence of a grace-filled calling, the action of which the pious young man not only did not resist, but also contributed in every possible way, reverently preserving in his heart the fire of jealousy, cast into him by the grace of God, according to what was said: “Even God’s gifts come from themselves, we do not perceive, but if the place (heart) is pure, and not bad" 5 . On the other hand, it can be assumed with reasonable probability that the idea of ​​staying forever in this particular place and not in another place finally matured only under the influence of grace-filled impressions on the piously-minded soul of the young man at the sight of the monastic order and the deserted and silent monastery itself. For both of them were fully consistent with the way of life that was formed in the thoughts of Mikhail Nikolaevich from reading legends about the exploits of the venerable fathers who shone in monastic life. This assumption is partly justified by his own words. Having been an elder-mentor at the Optina monastery, he, remembering the circumstances of his entry into the monastery, said that when he arrived for the first time in the Ploshchanskaya hermitage, he had the feeling that he did not know where he was, “on earth or in heaven; and all the monastics seemed to him like Angels of God.” And such a pure look was, of course, a special action of God’s grace, clearly showing the way to those who with faith ask about it in the words of the Psalmist: Tell me, O Lord, that I will go the way, for I have taken my soul to You (Ps. 142:8). In response to this, the path of salvation was announced to Michael, a place conducive to it was indicated, and useful means and methods were taught. But in order to show which spiritual family Elder Macarius belonged to and who exactly had influence on his spiritual upbringing, it is necessary, at least briefly, to point out the elders of spiritual life contemporary with his entry into the monastery. Around this time, several remarkable elders and ascetics settled in some Russian monasteries, who established in them the statutes and traditions of the holy fathers. It happened this way. After the abolition of many small monasteries and hermitages in our fatherland, as a result of the institutions on spiritual states of 1764, many of the monks and laity who renounced for the sake of the spiritual salvation of the world and even in the world went to wander to Palestine, to Mount Athos and to the Moldo-Vlachian principalities. Collecting, like bees, from flowers the honey of saving teachings from the ascetics who lived in those places, they found, especially in the monastery of the great elder Paisius, abbot of the Moldo-Vlachian Nyamets monastery (our compatriot by origin), the greatest spiritual benefit, learning from the example of his lofty life and his honey-bearing instructions in monastic deeds and internal spiritual work. Elder Paisios died in 1794, on November 15, at the age of 72. His disciples and the Russian monks who were in spiritual communion with him, some during the life of the elder, due to political circumstances favorable for returning to their homeland, and others after the death of their mentor and spiritual father, having lost material and moral support with him, returned at different times to their fatherland and settled in Russian monastic monasteries, where they passed on to others seeking salvation the spiritual treasure they had unenviably acquired, some - commanding over the monasteries, and others being among the brotherhood. Most of these elders of blessed memory, upon returning to Russia, settled in the monasteries of the Kursk and Oryol dioceses. Thus, through them, the Sophronie Hermitage in the Kursk diocese flourished before others, receiving Fr. Theodosius, one of the disciples of Hieroschemamonk Vasily, the wise elder of the Polyanomerul monastery in Wallachia, whose student and tonsure was Elder Paisiy Velichkovsky. O. Theodosius was called to Russia with his students back in 1787, during the war with Turkey under the leadership of Prince Potemkin. Throughout his life he was a friend of Elder Paisius and was in spiritual correspondence with him. The Glinskaya Hermitage, located in the same diocese, subsequently took over from the Sophronii Hermitage, which flourished under the leadership of one of the Feodosievs’ disciples, Abbot Philaret (1817–1841). Of the disciples of this latter, we will mention Hieromonk Samuel, who, as we will see below, was in spiritual friendship with Fr. Makariy. In the Oryol diocese at the beginning of the 19th century, having also given shelter to the newcomer elders, the deserted Beloberezh monastery and the monasteries of Cholsky and Svensky became comfortable and flourished. And subsequently, along with the external order, the Ploshchanskaya hermitage also borrowed from them the spiritual light, in which the elder Macarius described here laid the foundation for monastic life. The elder of spiritual life Vasily, in the world Vasily Timofeevich Kishkin, from the nobles of the Kursk province, moved into the Beloberezh desert and around 1801 was the builder of it. Initially (from 1780) he lived with his students for several years on St. Mount Athos and Moldova. At the same time, Hieroschemamonk Cleopas and schemamonk Theodore left the Nyametsky monastery from Elder Paisius, tonsured into monasticism and thoroughly instructed by him in spiritual life. And oh. Cleopas directly settled in the Beloberezh desert; and o. Theodore first lived in the Cholna Trubchevsky Monastery. Then, when the place of rector and elder Vasily in White Beach (in 1804) was taken by his student and tonsured hieromonk Leonid, then Fr. Theodore moved to the Beloberezh hermitage. Reassured by the love and care of the abbot, elders Cleopas and Theodore lived at the monastery in a secluded and silent cell in the forest, at first together; and then, in 1808, the lover of silence, Fr. Leonid, who voluntarily laid down the burden of leadership for this purpose. All of them were collectively engaged in intelligent work, at the same time bringing benefit to their neighbors, who flocked to the doors of their cells, with spiritual advice and instructions, glorifying them to God. Subsequently, as we will see below, Fr. Leonid, having become an Optina elder, was a mentor and spiritual friend of Fr. Macaria. In 1806, the disciple of Elder Paisius, schemamonk Afanasy Zakharov, settled in the Beloberezh Hermitage, who in 1815 moved to live in the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage and was an elder of Father Macarius until his blessed death. But it will be discussed further, if necessary, in its proper place. The above-mentioned Elder Vasily, having left his abbotship in the Beloberezh Hermitage, moved to live in the Svensky Monastery, where around 1818 one of his favorite disciples, Hieromonk Seraphim, was the treasurer, who was later the abbot first of the Beloberezh Hermitage, and from 1818 of the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage, which owes a lot to him for its improvement both externally and internally, where Fr. Macarius lived. Another schemamonk, Athanasius, also a disciple of Elder Paisius, one of the Senate secretaries, also found shelter in the Svensky Monastery, who is known, among other things, for bringing from Moldova to St. Petersburg to Metropolitan Gabriel the manuscript of the Philokalia, a translation of Elder Paisius. He died in 1811 in the arms of the aforementioned elder schemamonk Afanasy Zakharov. All these numbered spiritual warriors of Christ worked and labored in this temporary life under the guidance of spiritually experienced elders in unquestioning obedience to them; and therefore, in their time, they achieved possible spiritual perfection and themselves became leaders and mentors in spiritual life for seekers of eternal salvation who sincerely treated them. There is no other reliable way to salvation. “If,” note the venerable monks Callistus and Ignatius, “some of the venerable fathers happened even without such a feat of obedience to achieve God-created silence and perfection according to God; then this happened and happens (if only it happens in our weak times) according to God’s special providence and, moreover, very rarely. But you,” the same monks further say, “believing that true obedience is, as it were, a kind of preparatory training for the kindest silence, leave behind what, according to a special dispensation, happened rarely, and conform to what was decreed common to all by the all-honorable fathers. Thus you will be worthy of the reward prescribed for those living legally.” About the importance of spiritual leadership, which in the monasteries is called eldership, the same Reverends Callistus and Ignatius say this: “If on a random road, unknown by deeds, hardly anyone dares to enter without a faithful guide; if no one goes to sea without a skilled helmsman; if no one takes up any science or art without a teacher who knows the matter: then who will dare to begin to study the art of arts and the science of sciences, to enter on the mysterious path leading to God, and to set off into the boundless mental sea, that is, into a monastic life, similar to the life of Angels, with self-confidence to reach the end without a guide, without a helmsman and teacher, experienced and true? Truly, such a one, whoever it is, deceives himself and, before entering the path, has already lost his way, as if he were struggling illegally: just as, on the contrary, without even taking a step, the one who subordinates himself to his father’s rules has reached the end. For how else can we know how to take up arms against the flesh or how to arm ourselves against passions and demons? How can you learn to distinguish good from bad without them (without mentors), when bad passions attach themselves to virtues and always stand somewhere at their door? Without them, how will we manage to curb our bodily feelings and, like strings on a harp, tune our spiritual forces in harmony? Especially how, without them, will it be possible for us to distinguish between voices, revelations, suggestions, visions of the Divine and the intrigues, charms and ghosts of demons? In a word, how can we be worthy to achieve unity with God and learn divine rites and sacraments without initiation into them by a true and enlightened master? This is in no way possible, no way...” 6 And further. Mikhail Nikolaevich, guided by the Providence of God, entered this safe and trustworthy path of monastic life from the very first time and adhered to it throughout the subsequent time, himself in every possible way, with fervent prayer to God, trying to find spiritual mentors for himself and voluntarily surrendering himself to them in complete obedience. The Ploshchanskaya Mother of God Hermitage, which the 22-year-old young man Mikhail entered, as noted above, generally corresponded to his spiritual aspirations, so he always treated it with love. Located almost at an equal distance from the cities of Dmitrovsk and Sevsk (45 versts), this monastery, according to its description, although it does not contain either huge buildings or great wealth, does not amaze visitors with wildness or the special grandeur of nature, but everything in it is simple, modest and attractive with its modest simplicity. Remote from any living place, surrounded on all sides by forests, this desert fully corresponds to the nature of the solitary monastic life that the pure soul of the young Christ-lover Mikhail Nikolaevich desired and sought. St. Isaac the Syrian. Word 2. Russian Philokalia. Monks Callista and Ignatius Ksanfopulov. Chapter 115.