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The love of serving monks through his own example and writings in Archimandrite Ignatius was a gift of grace, nurtured in him by the destinies of God. From early childhood, the providence of God furnished him in his parents' house in such a way that, regardless of the direction of upbringing and classical education that his parents tried to give him, this very care mainly influenced the development of a love for an attentive spiritual life and for silence. At the age of fifteen, that is, finishing the course of preparatory sciences in his parents’ house, he already felt the gracious advent of the spiritual world. “An unspeakable silence,” he says in his “Lamentation,” “has breathed in my mind and heart. But I didn’t understand it; I believed that this was the ordinary state of all people.” 106 Subsequently, as we have seen, sincere will, with the circumstances of life and illness that contributed to him, confirmed him in faith in his calling from above to this service, and with a strong, courageous will he took upon himself this feat as his cross, indicated to him by the finger of God. Through all-out efforts, with a self-sacrifice rare in this day and age, he entered the narrow path of the Gospel in order to strengthen the talent given to him in doing the commandments of Christ. Therefore, the love for his service in him overcame all obstacles and triumphed over all the vicissitudes of life. The spirit of living faith in the Providence of God hovered in him, which was palpable to all who knew him and is clearly evidenced by his creations. He recognized that the life of a person who completely surrenders himself to the guidance of Providence is located according to some Divine plan, the prototype of which is outlined in the sacred events of the chosen people of God. Looking at monastic life as a wandering through the earthly desert and preparation for entering the promised land of eternity, he taught that one must contemplate this eternity even during this earthly existence in order to ensure oneself a blissful entry into it outside the tomb. This was not a simple, superficial assimilation, but a consciousness acquired by spiritual activity, of which he saw striking evidence in himself. Often, when the natural source of his good desires dried up from the heat of passions and storms of life, new springs of blessed thoughts unexpectedly appeared in him, suddenly flowing out and renewing his exhausted strength; The bitterness of life was dissolved by the grace-filled power of patience and transformed into spiritually joyful sensations, pleasant to the spiritual taste. He had a special gift for looking at everything spiritually: the smallest cases, apparently insignificant circumstances, often received a deep spiritual meaning from him and always found an echo in the moral teaching by which he was guided; they supplied abundant food to his mind and heart, and often words poured out from his spiritual and poetic soul in wondrous harmony. These are his works “Blessed is the Man”, “The Chalice of Christ”, “Song under the Canopy of the Cross”, “The Lament of the Monk” and many others. From these features of spiritual calling and mood, it is clear that expressing himself in writing was the spiritual need of Archimandrite Ignatius. Trying to reveal the essence of monastic life, Archimandrite Ignatius strived to personify in himself and through the painting of words depicted to others the spiritual beauty of the customs of ancient Egyptian monasticism, which was the model and goal of his spiritual achievement. Monasticism, according to the teachings and examples of the holy fathers, mainly Egyptian, was his cherished thought from childhood. Guided by this teaching, he nurtured a love for cinematic monasticism that is unparalleled in our time, and this love was quite meaningful. He looked at the new monastic leadership as the basis of ascetic science, where monastic morals are born and developed, and in general at monasticism as a science of sciences. In this spirit, he instructed everyone who was disposed to enter monasticism, and by the force of his own desire for his own high examples, he exerted a powerful influence on young souls, not spoiled by life. He willingly accepted such people into spiritual kinship with himself and guided with his experienced word, which was so effective that it converted the hearts and changed the morals of many. Archimandrite Ignatius possessed the ability to accept confession of thoughts, which is a very rare phenomenon in our time; versatile experience, deep insight, constant and accurate self-observation made him skillful in healing spiritual scabs, which he always touched with the thinnest chisel of the spiritual word. Knowing how to control himself in all the incidents of life, without losing heart in the most embarrassing circumstances, he imparted the same firmness to those who confessed their thoughts to him: the oppressive sadness after his confession seemed to them an empty ghost. The correct view of the passionate nature of man, the fruit of many years of introspection, set out by him in the article “The Attitude of a Christian to His Passions” 107, served as a source of consolation for spiritual pupils; it forced them, when revealing their thoughts, to speak out with complete freedom, trust and fearlessness; they always heard an answer that completely reconciled them with themselves. Often an example from his own life given by the elder, or a reference to some event described in the books, came so close to the case being confessed that there was no doubt or bewilderment left in the soul of the confessor - the student always left with consolation from the elder. Confession of thoughts by a new monk to an elder has always been the basis of monastic life; it was included as an indispensable condition in the circle of spiritual education of Archimandrite Ignatius. The struggle with thoughts is painful, especially at the beginning of the feat, when the newcomer has not yet learned how to fight against them with the weapon of prayer. Setting yourself up for the edification of a book is useful and necessary, but not enough. It is difficult for a young person to guide himself along the spiritual path without having an example in mind, and the enemy especially strongly advocates for those who choose a monastery with the direct goal of salvation, rejecting all worldly advantages and benefits. For such, spiritual guidance through a living word, during confession of thoughts, is a true godsend; it serves as a bulwark against the slander of the enemy and makes one’s own will stable. All this is good in the case when the elder is so wise and experienced that he is able to understand the thoughts being revealed and comprehend their causes and consequences, otherwise his advice will act destructively, like an incorrectly administered medicine. The improvement of the spiritual life of the novice is also facilitated by the fact that his elder is at the head of the administration. Where there is multiple leadership or the dependence of an elder, there is lack of freedom in spiritual relationships. Archimandrite Ignatius combined in himself both, that is, spiritual wisdom and external power, and therefore living under his leadership and in his monastery was a precious acquisition for those who sought to become monastics wisely. Despite his illness, he took the trouble to listen to the confession of his thoughts every day; his disciples even had the habit of keeping a daily record of them, and they revealed their thoughts sincerely, with directness, because the elder was able to accept such a confession dispassionately. The benefits of confessing thoughts were obvious to everyone. At the same time, the elder did not subject his disciples to painful tests, but was in accordance with each person’s physical abilities and mental development, so that the state under his spiritual guidance was even favorable, both in physical and moral terms. Here is the opinion of Archimandrite Ignatius himself about the confession of thoughts, based on strict adherence to the teachings of the holy fathers: “All the fathers agree that the novice monk must reject sinful thoughts and dreams at the very beginning, without entering into debate, later in conversation with them. This should be done especially in relation to prodigal thoughts and dreams. To repel sinful thoughts and dreams, the fathers offer two tools: 1) immediate confession of thoughts and dreams to the elder, 2) immediate appeal to God with the warmest prayer for the driving away of invisible enemies. The Monk Cassian says: always observe the head of the serpent, that is, the beginning of thoughts, and immediately tell them to the elder. Then you will learn to trample on the evil undertakings of the serpent, when you are not ashamed to reveal them, without exception, to your elder. This image of the struggle against demonic thoughts and dreams was common to all new monks in the flourishing time of monasticism. The novices, who were constantly with their elders, confessed their thoughts at all times, as can be seen from the life of the Monk Dosifei, and the novices, who came to their elder at a certain time, confessed their thoughts once a day, in the evening, as can be seen from the Ladder and other paternal books. The ancient monks recognized the confession of their thoughts and the guidance of the advice of a spirit-bearing elder as a necessity, without which it is impossible to be saved. The instructions of the spirit-bearing elder constantly lead the new monk along the path of the Gospel commandments, and nothing separates him more from sin and the beginning of sin - the demon, than constant and strong confession of sin at its very beginning. Such a confession establishes irreconcilable enmity between man and demon, which is salutary for man. Such a confession, destroying double-mindedness or hesitation between love for God and love for sin, gives extraordinary strength to good will, and therefore extraordinary speed to the success of the monk, as can be seen again from the life of the Monk Dositheus. Those monks who could not act against sin with constant and frequent confession of sinful thoughts, due to the lack of an elder, acted against it with constant and frequent prayer.” 108 In addition to spiritual guidance, Archimandrite Ignatius worked with his students to develop their abilities in the arts and communicate scientific knowledge, in accordance with their position. Thus, noticing an inclination towards the arts in the novice Ivan Malyshev, he gave him the opportunity to study painting at the Academy of Arts, which developed his knowledge and taste to such an extent that this novice, now Archimandrite Ignatius, rector of the Sergius Monastery, is known as an expert in both painting and church architecture. Another novice, Ivan Tatarinov (now Archimandrite Justin 109, abbot of the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery), who came under his guidance from the age of sixteen, possessed a wonderful tenor voice, was given the opportunity to study singing and music under the guidance of the eminent Russian maestro Glinka, who developed from this gifted young man a wonderful singer and composer of spiritual chants in pure Orthodox spirit. In general, through the labors and comprehensive enlightened attention of this spiritual father and mentor, a taste and love for education and scientific pursuits developed in the monastery novices. Archimandrite Ignatius's treatment of strangers was imbued with a special spirituality: he treated everyone moderately, equally, as if nobility and gender had no influence on him. He always delved into the spiritual disposition of a person, paying the least attention to his appearance, and more than once repeated to his loved ones that he always remembers a person’s soul, but the outline of his face was not imprinted in his memory. His inner feat, which required strict self-observation regarding all passionate sensations, taught him this kind of guarding himself from unnecessary impressions, and therefore the ascetic suppressed in himself those blood movements that usually occur during the joys of meetings, the pleasures of conversation with different people and reveal passionate feelings. In general, by nature close to the sanguine temperament, he carefully monitored the protection of his spiritual world, suppressed all unnecessary impulses and strictly analyzed the properties of each mental attraction. Therefore, in his “Ascetic Experiments” there is often mention of blood movements that interfere with the spiritual state, of jealousy arising from blood fever, of the various actions of blood in different passions, and the like, which indicates the elder’s deep and comprehensive observation of the spiritual human nature and the influence of flesh and blood on it. T. 1. Ascetic. experiments. P. 553. “The Christian’s attitude to his passions” is an article that was not included in the first edition of the works of St. Ignatius (St. Petersburg, 1865–1867), but in all subsequent editions it is included in the 1st volume (St. Petersburg, 1886; 1905; M., 1993; 1996; 1998). T. 5. Offering to modern monasticism. pp. 338–339. Archimandrite Justin (I. G. Tatarinov, 1827–1890) - a devoted spiritual student and follower of St. Ignatius. At the age of 16, he entered the Trinity-Sergius Monastery, became the senior cell attendant of the archimandrite, went with him to the Caucasus, and then to the Nikolo-Babaevsky Monastery, where he was rector. In a letter to brother P. A. Brianchaninov, St. Ignatius wrote: “...Oh. Justin is the only person who has entered into unity with me in spirit, who has self-sacrifice and is able to bear the infirmities of his neighbors” (Collected Letters. 1995. P. 747).