Глава II. Общие черты духовного облика старца о. иеросхимонаха Амвросия

You do not fit into us too closely (2 Cor. 6:12) Not far from the district town of Kozelsk, three miles away, in the Optina Hermitage, there is a cherished grave, dear to the Orthodox Russian heart, of the elder Hieroschemamonk Ambrose, “Father Abrosim,” as the common people called and still call him. This grave is located on the right side of the main monastery church of the Entry into the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Above the grave there is a welcoming white chapel, inside of which, on the left side, there is a white marble tombstone with a touching inscription that precisely defines the meaning of the elder’s personality and life: “I was weak as I was weak, but I will gain the weak. I would be everything to everyone, that I might save everyone” (1 Cor. 9:22). On the walls of the chapel hang holy icons: the Resurrection of Christ, the Kazan Mother of God, especially revered by the elder, and St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, his heavenly patron. Inextinguishable lamps glow before the icons. Quiet peace and reverent prayer emanate both in the chapel itself and around it. The pilgrims love to visit this place, serve a memorial service for the elder at the grave and pour out to him, as if alive, their many sorrows and needs. Many years have passed since the death of Fr. Ambrose, and the people's path to his grave is not overgrown with grass, and the reverent memory of him and sincere faith in him as a heavenly patron and helper not only do not weaken in the monastery and among the people, but apparently are spreading and strengthening more and more. Why did Fr. so attract and attract the hearts of people? Ambrose? On Elder Ambrose, obviously for everyone, rested the great power of God’s grace, filling his heart with inexhaustible joy and love, and his mind with wisdom and insight, making him in the true sense a Christian sage who knew how to explain the most confusing and painful mysteries of life, leading him out of the most difficult and, apparently, hopeless moral and material entanglements. For more than thirty years, he was a caring, loving mother of suffering humanity: tens and hundreds of people of the most diverse ranks and status came to him every day, each with their own bewilderment, with their own request, with their own sorrow, and no one was rejected by him, no one left him unkindly, inconsolable, restless. In and around his small cell there were crowds of nuns, monks, peasants, merchants, landowners, priests, university and theological academies students, high school students, high school students, students, doctors, writers, dignitaries... Bishops and great princes sought his conversations! And he had a corresponding “good word” for everyone! He was equally courteous, simple, and intelligible with everyone! And everyone felt before him like children before an experienced, kind, wise father! He established all his relationships with people solely on the interests of the conscience of those who came to him; what was dear to him, first of all, was the eternal salvation of the soul that entrusted itself to his care! That is why all his relationships with people were so holy, simple, selfless and significant! That is why souls clung to him so much, and strived to open up to him to the very bottom! And if someone did not know how to do this, then the elder himself helped him, for he had an amazing gift to penetrate into the inner world of people, read in their hearts, as if in an open book, and explain to them what they did not understand about themselves and did not even notice! The versatility and richness of his spirit were extraordinary. He combined in himself a living faith, and an active life, and severity, and affection, and seriousness, and playfulness, and composure of spirit, and talkativeness, and solitude, and sociability, and greatness of spirit, and simplicity, and extensive theoretical knowledge, and worldly experience, and a whole life in God, and economic practicality! Elder Ambrose was a sage, but his wisdom was not simple knowledge or theological erudition: it was enormous experience of the mind and heart in the deepest experiences of Christian feelings and the ability to use this experience in relation to given people and given circumstances. In his advice, he was usually not verbose, but he knew how, with one well-aimed word, a joke, one movement, a saying, to get to the most painful place of the questioner, to encourage him, to console him and to show him a way out in life. And so great was the life wisdom of Fr. Ambrose, there was so much responsive warmth of feeling in him, he was so able to understand every person and approach his spiritual wounds, that not only the common people, who have always clung to monasteries and elders, but also our intelligentsia itself, so often weak in faith, tormented by doubts, cowardly, murmuring, self-loving, impatient, and sometimes hostile to the Church and everything churchly, noticed him, appreciated him and I reached out to him to warm myself to his tender, loving heart and to learn Christian wisdom from him! And I warmed up and learned! Thus, Fr. Ambrose appeared in the 2nd half of the nineteenth century as that connecting link between educated society, the people and the Church, the need for which has long been felt in our Russian social life and which, to a certain extent, Optina Pustyn itself was in the first half of the nineteenth century, when under its shadow the elders Leonid, Macarius, Moses and Anthony united on the one hand, and the brothers on the other hand. Kireevsky, Gogol, Shevyrev and other representatives of the Russian intelligentsia of that time. And in this circumstance lies Elder Ambrose’s new special merit before the Russian people, before Russian history, a merit in which he has never been surpassed by anyone else. Having outlined the moral character of the elder, Fr. Ambrose and having indicated his significance for the Russian people, let us now turn to a more detailed and consistent depiction of his life and personality. You might be interested in: