Глава V

A year later, the need for Fr. Leonidas and all his disciples will move from the Svirsky monastery, due to the crowded nature of this monastery, to another place; he headed to the Ploshchanskaya hermitage 54 of the Oryol diocese. Dimitri Alexandrovich, among other students, followed the elder. On the way, he stopped in St. Petersburg, where he stayed with his friend Chikhachev. The meeting and frank conversation with him had a beneficial effect on Dimitri Alexandrovich, who was sick in body and sorrowful in spirit: he trusted him with his thoughts, his sorrows, and found in him complete and gratifying sympathy. Due to the novelty of the subject, Chikhachev did not know how to console or encourage his comrade, and he countered his complaints about the elder’s unsatisfactoriness with his deep devotion and love; he believed him, understood his grief, saw in him a living concern for himself and reciprocated. Friends in the Lord burned with a desire to unite and walk together inseparably along the path of asceticism. Having seen off his comrade on the journey, Chikhachev again submitted a petition for dismissal from service, which this time he received in the Bobruisk fortress, where he was sent. Without hesitating at all, he took the post horses and hurried to the Ploshchanskaya hermitage, where he arrived on January 11, 1829. He found Dimitri Alexandrovich even more exhausted in body from illness, in spirit from various sorrowful perplexities and disorders, which were increasingly multiplying in his spiritual relationship with the elder Fr. Leonid. In the Ploshchanskaya hermitage, the community of the elder’s disciples, who went to him to reveal their thoughts, increased. Their meetings in the elder's cell, with a large crowd, could not be done without some rumors and absent-mindedness. Sometimes unnecessary conversations involuntarily led to idle talk and condemnation and resonated painfully in the soul of Dimitri Alexandrovich, who especially strived and was devoted to solitary silence, internal and external. Father Leonid, noticing that he was grieving and languishing in soul, attributed his displeasure either to his painful state, or to internal exaltation against others, which he was completely alien to, for he saw and felt only his own weakness and feared only his own collapse, which, however, eluded the insightful old man and formed the fallacy of his view of the spiritual state of the student. Rejoiced at the arrival of his comrade, he became somewhat cheerful. The first time was spent by friends in the joy of meeting, in thanking God for delivering them from the snares of the world, in introducing Chikhachev to the order and rules of his new life. He also became one of Fr.’s students. Leonida and began to go to him for revelation of thoughts. The Ploshchanskaya hermitage at that time had up to two hundred brethren, was distinguished by the order and duration of church services, a favorable climate and a secluded position in the middle of the forest, which provided all the conveniences for lovers of silence. Its rector at that time was the builder Hieromonk Markellin, who managed the monastery behind the eyes, for together with the abbot he was the housekeeper at the Oryol bishop's house, where for the most part he lived. In the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage he was ruled by his governor, who was well-disposed toward Elder Leonid and his disciples. At the same time, Hieromonk Macarius (Ivanov) 55 lived in the Ploshchanskaya hermitage, a zealot of spiritual exploits, who studied the ascetic writings of the holy fathers and became close to Fr. Leonid and his students. Dimitri Alexandrovich found in Fr. Macarius, a man who sympathized with his aspirations, became closely acquainted with him and remained on friendly terms with him until the end of his life. In general, the brethren of the Ploshchansk Hermitage were very kind to the young novices Brianchaninov and Chikhachev: they had a separate secluded cell in the monastery garden and complete convenience to remain silent in freedom. According to their previous custom, they began to begin weekly Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ and be diligent in prayer. Dimitri Alexandrovich, as having already succeeded in spiritual exploits, and, moreover, imbued with the teachings of the holy fathers and guiding his life and that of his comrade according to them, became more and more convinced of the need for them to separate from the society of the other disciples of the elder Fr. Leonida, for he saw that his comrade Chikhachev, who was naturally prone to absent-mindedness, began to get carried away by the conversations that usually arose in the reception room of Fr. Leonidas, where the students waited for their turn to go to the elder for a rebuke and, taking advantage of their free time, sometimes chatted idlely among themselves. Having decided to separate from the elder, he wanted to settle down in solitude with his companion in the cell assigned to them, according to the rules of monastic life, i.e. live together with common council and bear each other's burdens for Christ's sake. This path of life, intermediate between silence and community, is praised by the holy fathers for its many advantages. Having expressed his desire to the elder Fr. Leonid, Dimitri Alexandrovich met with disagreement on his part to such a separation of them from him. This disagreement plunged the ascetic of God into great sorrow. He saw that they did not understand him, and did not want to understand, and they misjudged his intention, which was based on the true good for him and his comrade. The elder called his desire premature and dangerous, and in order to distract his thoughts from this desire, he gave him the obedience to compose a biography of the blessed elder monk Theodore 56, which he did. 57 Mental grief, dissatisfaction with his position, fear for his comrade, who trustingly surrendered to monastic deeds following his example, which made him, as it were, responsible for his soul, why he had to guard not only himself, but also him from eternal destruction - all this painfully responded to his bodily organism. He was constantly sick, his soul languished, and he never ceased to beg the Lord to arrange their lives with His destinies according to their common desire, so that they would know only their cell and the church and be content with each other. One morning, waking up his comrade Chikhachev, he sent him to church for matins; he himself remained in the cell, because due to illness he could not even go to church at that time. Returning from Matins, Chikhachev found him cheerful, cheerful, and not a trace of illness was noticeable in him. “What unusual happened to you?” – asked Chikhachev. “The mercy of God is great,” he said and related the vision that had happened to him, not in a dream, but in a subtle drowsiness: he saw a bright cross in its full height and the inscription on the cross was mysterious and incomprehensible to him. Above the cross he saw the branches and hands of Christ the Savior; he and his comrade Chikhachev stood reverently at the cross. And there was a Voice from the cross to him: “Do you know what the words written mean? on the cross? “No, Lord, I don’t know,” he answered. “They mean a sincere renunciation of the world and everything earthly,” continued the invisible Voice. “Do you know why the branches and hands of Christ the Savior are tilted towards the side where your comrade stands?” - “And I don’t know this, Lord!” - he answered. Then the Voice said clearly and significantly: “This means that he must participate in your suffering.” At this point the vision stopped, leaving in the soul of the one who saw it deep peace, gracious consolation and abundant spiritual tenderness, inexpressible in words. According to Chikhachev, from then on his comrade received a special spiritual power of mind, comfortably comprehended and resolved difficult questions and spiritual perplexities, and displayed many grace-filled properties in himself, which often led Chikhachev to reverent surprise. The vision was conveyed to the elder Fr. Leonid, who saw from him that it was not the will of God to keep Bryanchaninov with him. He blessed him to live separately from him, together with Chikhachev, and to choose another confessor for himself - a common monastic one. Having separated from Fr. Leonida, the young ascetics began to live together in very solitude, avoided crowded meetings, did not make acquaintances, and in every possible way protected themselves from idle talk. Their only exits were to church and meals; on Saturdays they confessed and partook of the Holy Mysteries of Christ. Rarely did any of the brethren disturb their solitude: they were left in complete peace, and they rejoiced at this peace and thanked God for giving them such a solitary, silent life. They thought that they would live like this forever in the Ploshchanskaya desert. Their cell, which stood separately in the garden, became indescribably dear to them because of its solitude, its convenience for contemplation of God and prayer 58 . This is how they spent the winter of 1829. According to his custom, Dimitri Alexandrovich loved to contemplate pictures of nature, study their spiritual meaning, and read with reverent meditation the great book of nature, which, like the Holy Scriptures, contains the teaching of the Spirit of God and is revealed only to pure minds and immaculate hearts, purified by prayer. So, one day he was sitting on the porch of his cell in winter and peering into the vast monastery garden, covered with a shroud of snow. Suddenly, as if some kind of curtain fell from the eyes of his mind: a wonderful book of nature opened before him, and in it he read a powerful teaching about the resurrection of the dead, depicted in action. “If we were not accustomed to seeing the revival of nature in spring, it would seem to us quite wonderful, incredible,” he writes in his “Ascetic Experiences,” recalling this event. – We are not surprised by habit; Seeing a miracle, it’s as if we no longer see it! I look at the naked branches of the trees, and they tell me with conviction in their mysterious language: we will come to life, we will be covered with leaves, we will smell sweet, we will be decorated with flowers and fruits, will the dry bones of men really not come to life during their spring? They will come to life, put on flesh, and in a new form will enter a new life and a new world. Just as trees that could not withstand the severity of the frost, that have lost their vital sap, are cut down at the onset of spring and taken out of the garden for fuel, so sinners who have lost their life - God, will be gathered on the last day of this age, in the beginning of the future eternal day, and thrown into unquenchable fire. If it were possible to find a person who would not know the transformations produced by the changes of the seasons; If you were to bring this wanderer into the garden, majestically resting in the sleep of death during winter, show him the naked trees and tell him about the luxury in which they will be clothed in the spring, then instead of answering he would look at you and smile - your words would seem like such an impossible fable to him! Likewise, the resurrection of the dead seems incredible to the wise, wandering in the darkness of earthly wisdom, who did not know that God is omnipotent, that His manifold wisdom can be contemplated, but not comprehended by the mind of creatures. Everything is possible for God: there are no miracles for Him. Man's thinking is weak: what we are not used to seeing seems to us an impossible thing, an incredible miracle. The works of God, which we constantly and now indifferently look at, are wondrous works, great miracles, incomprehensible. And every year nature repeats before the eyes of all mankind the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead, depicting it with an educational, mysterious action!” 59 Well, the young ascetics of Christ were at peace in the Ploshchanskaya hermitage: complete solitude, complete convenience for contemplation of God and prayer did not leave them wishing for a better place of residence; but they could not use it for long: a temptation was preparing for them, which forced them, unwillingly, to be wanderers, to seek shelter outside the walls of the Ploshchanskaya monastery. Between the builder Ploshchansky Markellin and the elder Fr. Displeasure arose with Leonid, forcing Fr. Leonida and his disciples in April 1829 left the Ploshchanskaya hermitage and moved to the monastery of the Optina Vvedenskaya hermitage in the Kaluga province. 60 Brianchaninov and Chikhachev, as living separately from Fr. Leonid and those who had not recently been under his eldership believed that they would be left alone - to live in their former solitude. But the builder ordered his governor and the older brethren to tell them to immediately leave the monastery and “go anywhere”! The elder brethren of the Ploshchansk Hermitage reacted not without regret to such a harsh decision of their builder in relation to the young novices, whose well-behaved behavior gained them the universal favor and love of the brotherhood. The monks complained about the injustice of the builder and saw off the exiles not without sorrow, providing them with all possible financial assistance in the form of five rubles collected by their voluntary contribution. With sorrowful souls, the monks parted with the desert monastery that had sheltered them, where they had so briefly found such joyful peace. Left by their parents without any material resources, they could only wander for a short time and not far with a meager wallet; Moreover, content with each other, they did not then look for a particularly experienced mentor, were not seduced by the desire to see this or that elder, they only sought to take refuge somewhere alone in a holy monastery in order to continue the way of life they had adopted in the Ploshchanskaya hermitage. They headed their way to the Beloberezh Desert of the same Oryol province, and on the way they stopped at the Svensky Monastery. There at that time, the disciple of Paisius (Velichkovsky), Hieroschemamonk Athanasius 61, was silent in the tower of the monastery fence, abounding in many grace-filled gifts, a doer of mental prayer, who had acquired the gift of spiritual tears, an elder of a high and holy life. After leaving Moldova, he lived as a desert for some time in the Smolensk Roslavl forests; then he retired to the Svensky Monastery, where he edified the zealots of asceticism by word and example of his ascetic life. Dimitri Alexandrovich came to his cell and received from him the most beneficial instruction, which was deeply imprinted on his soul. The elder spoke to the young man from his blessed experience about humility, about putting down proud thoughts, about the danger of the slightest conceit when engaging in mental prayer, about the beneficialness of crying, which protects against conceit, and said about himself: “On the day on which I do not cry for myself as lost, I consider myself to be in self-delusion.” This testimony of the blessed worker of weeping and prayer, this testimony of deep spiritual wisdom and high humility, the Right Reverend Ignatius subsequently cited in his writings as proof of the truly grace-filled wisdom of the true ascetics of God. 62 Having visited the Beloberezh Desert, Brianchaninov and Chikhachev could not find shelter there and went to Optina Pustyn, where the elder Fr. Leonid with his students. Here the abbot, Abbot Moses, hesitated for a long time to accept young people to live in his monastery, and only at the request of the older brothers, who took pity on their plight and asked him not to drive them away from their holy monastery, did he agree to accept them. In May 1829, they settled in Optina Pustyn and, as before, the two of them began to live alone in the cell assigned to them. However, their stay in the Optina Hermitage was much sorrowful, where they did not meet with much sympathy for themselves among the local brethren and the abbot himself did not look at them entirely favorably; In addition, the coarse food there, seasoned with vegetable oil of poor quality, began to have a harmful effect on the health of Dimitri Alexandrovich. Protecting himself and his comrade from it, he decided not to use it, and decided to make a soup from cereals without oil in his cell and eat it. With considerable difficulty, they begged for a few grains and potatoes in the monastery refectory, got a saucepan and began to cook their stew in it. An ax served as a knife, and Chikhachev took on the labor of making it, which, out of habit, caused him a lot of unpleasant trouble. Meager food, deprivations of all kinds and sorrow greatly weakened the bodily strength of both friends. Dimitri Alexandrovich was almost constantly ill, he could hardly stand on his feet from weakness; but Chikhachev, who was in better health, remained cheerful for some time, served his sick comrade, until he himself fell ill with a severe fever, which laid him on a bed from which he did not have the strength to rise. The situation of both was the most sad, the most hopeless. Far from their homeland and relatives, forgotten by everyone, without means and both sick, they found joy and consolation in God alone. The Optina monks rarely visited them, and if someone came into their cell, he would limit himself to only verbal consolation; No one thought to help or serve the sick. Dimitri Alexandrovich could barely walk, Chikhachev lay prone; the first had to look after the second, and it often happened that the one looking after him immediately fell down from weakness. But the Lord looked upon the great sorrow and illness of his slaves: in moments of complete hopelessness for them, they saw the action of God’s Providence on themselves and thereby strengthened their faith that God had not forgotten them and did not leave them in His care. Rumors about Dimitri Alexandrovich's painful situation reached his parents. At this time, his mother, Sofya Afanasyevna, was herself seriously ill and was close to death. She had always been especially fond of her firstborn; Her maternal love intensified for him on his deathbed. She began to beg her husband to forgive her son, not to interfere with his aspirations to serve God, and to write him a word of reconciliation with an offer to return to his parents’ house to improve his health and visit his mother, who was sick and longed to see him. God softened this time the hard heart of Alexander Semenovich, the words of his sick wife persuaded him to mercy. He agreed to fulfill her wish: he wrote to his son, urged him to come, promised not to interfere with him on his chosen path, expressed his intention to build him a separate cell near the church in their ancestral village of Pokrovskoye, and invited him to take his sick comrade Chikhachev with him. This letter was good news for both young novices; they did not know how to thank God for such timely care for them. Brianchaninov hastened to answer his parent, expressing his readiness to return home under the conditions that were favorably offered to him in the letter. Soon after that, the parent sent a covered chaise for them to Optina Pustyn. Having said goodbye to the elder Fr. Leonid and with the monks of Optina, Dimitri Alexandrovich put the sick Chikhachev into this chaise, placed himself next to him and thus set off on his way to his homeland. On the way, they stopped at the Trinity-Sergius Lavra and the Rostov Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery to venerate the holy relics of St. Sergius of Radonezh and St. Demetrius of Rostov. In Rostov, Chikhachev felt noticeable relief from his illness - and it was precisely after he listened to a prayer service in the Spaso-Yakovlevsky Monastery and with faith venerated the holy relics of St. Demetrius, to whose gracious help he attributed this relief. Then they arrived in the village. Pokrovskoye, under the roof of my parents' house. The parents' meeting with their son was rather restrained in terms of expressing feelings. Sofia Afanasyevna was already recovering then and was out of danger. Therefore, the previous reason for the outpouring of parental feelings no longer existed, and the parents retained a serious attitude towards their son, who was guilty before them of their worldly convictions. Dimitri Alexandrovich, in turn, retained the character of his independent, unyielding desire - to prefer the love of God to the love of his parents and, with all due respect for them and filial love, he steadily followed the path of the Gospel commandments, which did not agree with the views and desires of his parents. However, at first they, especially his mother, were very affectionate with him; they also surrounded his sick comrade Chikhachev with all kinds of care and participation in his situation. He was treated, surrounded with all the comforts, in which the young man quickly began to recover and retained forever his liveliest sense of gratitude towards Alexander Semenovich and his entire family. The young people were given a special separate wing of the house, where they enjoyed complete privacy. The parish church was near the house. The priest with full readiness, at the request of the young people, performed divine services for them, which gave them the opportunity to take up weekly confession and communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ again. The hermitage life of both friends began again for them, as in the Ploshchanskaya hermitage, but could not continue peacefully for long: the world and worldly concepts of the people around them more and more invaded the cherished circle of their spiritual silence, more and more disrupted the order of their solitary life in the village. Pokrovsky. There were also external reasons that forced young people to think about how they could go back to live in a monastery. For Dimitri Alexandrovich, the main motivating reason for this was that his parent, having freed himself from the impression made on him by his wife’s illness, again decided to return his first-born to serve the world, began to insist on his entering the service and, as before, caused his son many sorrowful trials with his demands to leave the path along which he decided to go irrevocably. His mother at that time was already listening to the words of her ascetic son about true Christianity and our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ, and was sympathetic to his spiritual aspirations; but since she did not have a particularly strong influence on her husband, she could not prevent the emergence of new unpleasant relations between father and son. The latter became convinced that the only way to preserve the remainder of peaceful relations was for him to move back to the monastery to live. This opinion was shared with him by Chikhachev, who saw that it was not entirely convenient for him to stay in the house of Alexander Semenovich, who had adult daughters and brides. Having lived in the village. During the Pokrovsky winter from 1829 to 1830, in February 1830, at the beginning of Lent, they both went to the Kirillo-Novoezersky Monastery. This trip took place with the consent of the parents, who even sent with them, as a servant, a young peasant from the peasantry, Theodosius, who clung to them with unfeigned devotion and love. The Kirillo-Novoezersky monastery of the Novgorod province, located on the island of a rather large lake Novy, 30 versts from the city of Belozersk, at that time had a fairly large brotherhood, it was then ruled by Abbot Arkady; but the eminent elder of the times of Empress Catherine II, Archimandrite Theophan 63, was still alive and living there in retirement, a disciple of the fast-taker and spiritual friend of Paisius (Velichkovsky) - the abbot of the Tisman monastery of Theodosius, who later moved to the Sophronian Monastery of the Kursk province, which flourished spiritually under his abbotship. Fr. himself Theophan, who for a long time was the cell attendant of Metropolitan Gabriel of St. Petersburg, a godly husband, a zealot and patron of monastic asceticism, in this position rendered considerable services to the prosperity of asceticism in Russia, and he himself, later appointed abbot of the Novozersky monastery, renewed it both externally and internally with the spirit of true asceticism, firmly rooted there through his efforts. Hegumen Arkady, a close disciple of Elder Theophan, who was chosen by him and appointed ruler of the monastery, followed the elder’s instructions in everything and was distinguished by his simplicity of character, gentleness and, at the same time, sufficient spiritual experience, for he walked the ascetic path under the correct guidance in obedience to the spiritually experienced elder. Brianchaninov and Chikhachev found his warm welcome at the monastery, and soon became acquainted with the Novoyezersky brotherhood, from among whom a young man from the nobles of the Yaroslavl province, Pavel Petrovich Yakovlev, 64, later a well-known clerk of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, became especially close to Dimitri Alexandrovich, later a well-known clerk of the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage, where he moved under the abbot of his Novoyezersky acquaintance Archimandrite Ignatius. But the stay in the Novozersky monastery could not be long for Brianchaninov. The damp climate of this monastery, standing among the waters, surrounded by swamp fumes from the surrounding lowlands, had a very harmful effect on his health. A severe fever tormented him for three months, there were no medical supplies to use, his bodily strength weakened more and more; His legs finally began to swell, so that he could no longer get out of bed. In June 1830, his parents sent a carriage for him and transported him to Vologda, where he stayed with one of his close relatives and began to use it. Medical treatments stopped the painful fever, but traces of it remained forever in the body. From then on he began to need galoshes. Chikhachev, who was also ill in the Novozersky monastery, did not dare to follow his comrade this time; he remained in Novoyezersk, and from there he soon went to his homeland, the Pskov province, for a meeting and reconciliation with his parents. Thus, the young friends parted, forced to this by circumstances in which the will of God was clearly seen: each in his own separate way in single combat with the world to test his spiritual strength. Ploshchanskaya Bogoroditskaya Kazan hermitage is an ancient monastery, restored in 1613. The spiritual life in it took shape under the influence of numerous hermit-dwellers who labored in the Bryansk forests. St. Until the end of his days, Ignatius did not lose touch with the Ploshcha monks, who more than once turned to him for help (their letters to Archimandrite Ignatius regarding increasing the staff of the monastery have been preserved; they are given in the dissertation of Abbot Mark (Lozinsky)). Repeatedly the saint characterized the Ploshchanskaya and Beloberezhskaya hermitages as the best monasteries in spiritual structure. Here, in the winter of 1829, he wrote the following essays: “The Garden in Winter” and “The Life of Schemamonk Theodore.” Now the monastery is being revived. Reverend Macarius of Optina (M. N. Ivanov, 1788–1860) - lived in the Ploshchanskaya hermitage for 23 years, in 1834 he moved to the Optina monastery, after the death of Fr. Leonidas became his successor in the spiritual care of the brethren, and was involved in the publication of St. fathers; corresponded with St. Ignatius until the end of his life, their correspondence was published in the book: Ignatius (Brianchaninov). Journey to the gates of eternity: Correspondence with the Optina elders and P. P. Yakovlev, clerk of St. Ignatius. M., 2001. P. 54–124. Publ. and note. O. Shafranova. In 1858 he accepted the schema. Canonized in 2000, commemorated September 7/20. “The Life of Schemamonk Theodore” is the first of all the biographies of the elder, which, however, was published only recently in the book: Theological Works. M., 1996. Sat. 32. pp. 270–297. Later famous biographies: Porfiry (Grigorov). The life and exploits of schemamonk Theodore. M., 1839; Leonid (Kavelin). The life and exploits of schemamonk Theodore. M., 1845; Kovalevsky A. F. Schemamonk Theodore // Schemamonk Theodore. St. Petersburg, 1997. pp. 47–77. (Valaam Patericon). This biography is distinguished by the correctness of the writer’s view of monasticism and its inherent practice of the Jesus Prayer, which is recognized as the basis of all godly work and living and is set out in some detail in the story of the life and exploits of the blessed elder Theodore as a doer and teacher of this holy work. In the notes of M. V. Chikhachev there is a wonderfully poetic and heartfelt “Appeal to my cell, and with it to the entire visible world,” written by D. A. Brianchaninov in the Ploshchanskaya Hermitage: “My cell, my cell! My refuge is silent and soulless! Witness to my sinful secrets! Be inspired and tell me what you saw or heard during my entire stay in you? You are silent now, but one day you will arise, as if revived, and show my secret deeds. You will expose the sinner before everyone. There will be no way to hide from your accusations. And then, instead of you, shame, fear, trembling, gnashing of teeth, despair, incredible sorrow, unbearable humiliation, fierce poverty will cover me, the most cruel of all - separation from all that is good and bright and imprisonment with all the evil in darkness, never penetrated by light. T. 1. Ascetic. experiments. pp. 177–178. The monastery at Optina Hermitage was established in 1821 by Bishop Filaret (Amphitheater) of Kaluga, the future Metropolitan of Kyiv. The first builder of the monastery was the ascetic of the Roslavl forests Timofey Putilov, who in 1822 was tonsured a monk with the name of Moses. On February 5, 1822, a church was consecrated in the monastery in the name of the Forerunner and Baptist of the Lord John. Subsequently St. Ignatius wrote: “Her monastery, located 100 fathoms from the desert itself, fenced on all sides by centuries-old pine trees, on sandy soil, inaccessible to women, can satisfy the pious desires of a hermit in our century” (Collected Letters. 1995. P. 692). Athanasius, hieroschemamonk, - from the Senate secretaries; lived on Mount Athos and in Moldavia with Elder Paisius. He brought to Russia a translation of the Philokalia made by St. Pai si eat. He died in the Svensky Monastery in 1811. T. 2. Ascetic. experiments. P. 162. Feofan (F. Sokolov, 1752–1832) – archimandrite and renovator of the Kirillo-Novoezersk monastery. From a letter dated 1833 to P.P. Yakovlev we learn about the direct participation of Abbot Ignatius in correcting and supplementing the life of Fr. Feofan, who died on December 3, 1832: ".As you know that I have quite carefully corrected the life of Father Theophan... Know that his moral teaching, placed in the life, with the addition I made, has taken on such a form that for people who have taste and knowledge, it seems a very coherent, simple, strong passage. This moral teaching, together with the description of his morality and death, constitute all the beauty of this biography. The fence, the sacristy, and so on are the least interesting objects in the life of a person famous for his sublime morality, humility and contempt for all vanity! (Collected letters. 1995. P. 817). However, there is another opinion of St. Ignatius, expressed by him 28 years later (in 1861) in a letter to Abbot Anthony (Bochkov): “In 1829, during the life of Elder Feofan, I came to Novoyezersk, having lived in Optina and Ploshchanskaya... I talked several times with the elder: he directly rejected mental activity as very convenient for the transition to delusion and expressed very little erudition. He led a fasted life, went to services without skipping a word, got up an hour before matins and read the rule in his cell; He was of athletic build and short in stature. In accordance with his own direction, he also led others: both the Novoyezersky brotherhood and the Goritsky brothers are alien to spiritual work, all their attention is focused on the appearance of outward behavior and physical feat. It is known that such living introduces conceit into the soul and develops spiritual passions, which the physical worker cannot even notice in himself and does not even suspect their presence. He cannot avoid conceit: he cannot help but see his plausible behavior and his exploits and outward deeds.” (Collected letters. 1995. pp. 109–110). Pavel Petrovich Yakovlev - from the Vologda nobles, lived in the Kirillo-Novoezersky monastery in 1830, when the future Archimandrite Ignatius arrived there. In 1834, P. P. Yakovlev came to him in the Trinity-Sergius Hermitage and became one of the main assistants in the construction of the monastery, serving as clerk and secretary of the Hermitage Construction Commission in 1846–1849, 1854–1861. He wrote a brochure on the history of the desert: Yakovlev P. P. Historical sketch of the first-class Trinity-Sergius seaside hermitage of St. Petersburg diocese. St. Petersburg, 1884. 24 p. 15 letters to St. published. Ignatius for 1830–1867 “To my friend P. P. Yakovlev” (Collected letters. 1995. pp. 810–821); The entire correspondence was published in the book: Ignatius (Brianchaninov). Journey to the gates of eternity: Correspondence with the Optina elders and P. P. Yakovlev, clerk of St. Ignatius. M., 2001. pp. 177–255. Publ. and note. O. Shafranova.