Lives of the Optina Elders. Reverend Leo

After the death of the Optina Elder Hieroschemamonk Ambrose (1891), a manuscript remained: “A copy of the handwritten notes of the Kiev-Pechersk confessor, Hieroschemamonk Anthony, who was the closest student and cohabitant of the Optina elder Hieroschemamonk Leonid, in the schema of Leo.” This manuscript ended up with Elder Ambrose on the following occasion. When the first edition of the life story of the elder Fr. Leonidas, Elder Ambrose sent several copies of this book to the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, where some of the surviving disciples of Elder Leonidas lived and labored, among whom was Fr. Anthony (Medvedev). In his letter, Elder Ambrose asked Fr. Anthony, after reading the book, make his comments on it and write together what only he could remember from the circumstances of the life of the elder Fr. Leonid, with the goal of making an addition during the second edition of the book. This request is about. Anthony was fulfilled in due time. And Elder Ambrose had consolation to receive from Fr. Anthony, a rather voluminous manuscript pointing out some errors in the printed biography of Elder Leonidas and adding new information about his life. This manuscript, with the blessing of Elder Ambrose, was immediately copied, and the original was sent back to Fr. Anthony to the Kyiv Lavra. But time passed, and circumstances were not favorable to the fulfillment of the good intentions of Elder Ambrose. Finally, the Lord was pleased, through the prayers of the deceased elders, to accomplish the work they had long desired. The now proposed biography of the elder Fr. Leonidas under the title: “The First Great Elder of Optina, Hieromonk Leonidas (in the schema of Leo)” was again redone, significantly supplemented, and errors in it, if possible, were corrected. In addition to what was stated in the notes of the Kiev-Pechersk Hieroschemamonk Anthony, it included several more oral stories of the Optina old-timer monks, who have now long been no longer in the world. Also taken into account was the article by Andrei Kovalevsky, published in “Soulful Reading” for April 1881, under the title: “Memories of the confessor of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, Hieroschemamonk Anthony.” In this article, the author has placed a lot of information about the Optina elder Fr. Leonida, which he heard from Hieroschemamonk Anthony. But there are inaccuracies in this article. For example, Kovalevsky calls Evlampius (Vvedensky) the predecessor of Kaluga Bishop Nikolai (Sokolov). In fact, Bishop Nikolai’s predecessor was Bishop Nikanor (Klementyevsky), later Metropolitan of St. Petersburg. And between Bishop Evlampius, who died in 1813, and Bishop Nikolai, who assumed the Kaluga See in 1834, there were a number of Kaluga bishops. (See Church Gazette for 1899, No. 33. “Kaluga Archpastors”). Also: Elder Hieroschim of Optina. Macarius Kovalevsky calls the Kiev-Pechersk hieroschemamonk Anthony a faster. – Father Macarius can be called the fast-monk of Anthony, only not of the Kiev-Pechersk, but of the Optina monastery, Hieromonk Anthony (Putilov). The Kiev-Pechersk hieroschemamonk Anthony was at that time one of the new skete novices and was soon transferred to the Tikhon Hermitage. Also: the journey of the Kiev-Pechersk hieroschemamonk Anthony to Valaam, to Svirsky and other monasteries, Kovalevsky dates back to the time after the death of Elder Leonid and says that the Optina hermitage leader Anthony gave him 5 rubles for the journey. But the elder Fr. Leonid died in 1841, and the Optina monastery leader Anthony in 1839 was transferred to the Maloyaroslavets Monastery as abbot, where he lived for more than ten years. For all these reasons, when distributing the facts in the life story of the elder Fr. Leonidas had to stick more to the handwritten notes of the Kiev-Pechersk Hieroschemamonk Anthony than to the information conveyed through him by Andrei Kovalevsky. Of these latter, only the slightest, beyond doubt, has been extracted. It is also worth noting the following. In one of the periodical spiritual publications it is printed: “During his life in the monastery, he (Elder Hieromonk Leonid) often met with wild animals - bears and wolves, but the animals did not harm him, and only one wolf grabbed his leg with its teeth, but immediately, as if frightened by something, he left the hermit and ran away.” From previous editions of the biography of Elder Leonidas, it is clear that he lived in two monasteries - in one monastery on Valaam and, after a considerable time, in another - Optina. About the Valaam residence of monks, the former Valaam abbot Fr. Varlaam († 1849), who lived out the last years of his life in retirement in the Optina monastery, used to say on occasion: “Okay, there’s nothing to say, it’s good with you too, but everything is not the same as on Valaam. There you might take a piece of bread in your bosom, and stay in the forest for at least three days: no wild beast, no evil man; God and you, you and God” (Historical description of the Optina monastery, 1862, p. 231). From these words about. Abbot Varlaam can conclude that there are no wild animals on Valaam, and, therefore, Fr. Leonid could not meet bears and wolves there. Living in the Optina monastery, Fr. Leonid, although he used to sometimes take walks through the forest in the summer, but always at midday and accompanied by several of his students, who, after the death of the Elder, when remembering him, said that there had never been any encounters with wolves and bears here. And the fact that one wolf actually injured Elder Leonid was even before he entered the monastery. This biography is discussed in detail.