Does Elijah's father accept? Church of the Transfiguration - Patriarchal Metochion of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra in Peredelkino

Schema-abbot Ily Optinsky.

Mosaic. In addition to high-quality, dynamic and at the same time meaningful filming, the film contains unique footage: this is the journey of the elder to Constantinople, and filming from the grave of the last Optina elder Nektarios. In addition to the meaningful logic of the chapters, the film carries within itself a certain higher, Divine logic. Thanks to which, a three-dimensional holographic mosaic is created from different episodes of the film, which creates the effect of live communication with the elder.

The elder's direct speech. The film contains footage of the elder’s conversations with the nun and parishioners, as well as his first-person addresses. Listening to him, we can say that Schema-Hegumen Eli is a vessel filled with Christian virtues, the pinnacle of which is love.

Stories about the elder of priests and laity. Both clergy and laity of different ages talk about their experience of communicating with the elder. A multifaceted view of the fate and personality of schema-abbot Elijah appears. The story of a layman who managed in childhood to spy on the tonsure of an old man into the Great Schema aroused great interest.

Likeness to saints. Stories of people who saw the life of an old man from youth, show many of his similarities with famous ascetics. Like Alexy, the man of God and other saints, he early childhood I prayed a lot and earnestly. Like Ambrose of Optina, through the prayers of the Mother of God, he received the bread he asked for. Like Demetrius of Salunsky, he healed cancer patients.

Reprimand, or exorcism. The hieromonk of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra talks about why the reprimand is needed, about the mentoring of Schema-Abbot Elijah in this difficult matter, and about the elder’s constant participation in this process. The film contains footage of the process of reprimand and revelation of a direct participant, Hieromonk Vladimir. This is perhaps the most mystical part of the film.

A song about bees. There are several songs in the film. I liked the song “Who Respects Bees” performed by Hierodeacon Raphael the most. Despite the outward simplicity of the words, it contains the depth of ascetic experience. While many lay people gradually lose the habit of noticing the beauty of nature, ascetics manage, through thoughtful contemplation, to reveal that amazing thing created by God that is next to us and is not always noticed. The song reflects this experience. It is quite possible that the song about bees is a poetic retelling of the personal experience of Schema-Hegumen Elijah from his conversations with his spiritual children.

In general, I recommend watching it. Full title of the film: "Russia, which we love. Film first. Schema-Abbot Iliy." You can purchase the film here http://feodor-m.ru/product_info.php?products_id=440
http://vospriyatye.ru/index.php?topic=258.0

Alexander Administrator
11 July 2008, 12:05:04
Why do we sometimes so enthusiastically search for and glorify certain ascetics, we are all human, we are all human, but no one is Good except God?

In the understanding of this simple truth by Orthodox minds one can trace an evolution. About 10-15 years ago, the highest chic was to travel around the elders and take blessings from them. I remember one friend was constantly traveling to Fr. Nikolai on Zalita Island, working in the kitchen there... Then fatigue began to set in, and a slow realization of constant failures with blessings came. This is a very slow process, since the minds are frozen (roughly speaking, zombified by terrible force). Even everyday dramas and tragedies, which were in abundance after old age’s instructions (not always young age, often “old age” - from venerable priests) were not taught. Someone - and there are quite a few of them - remained in that bad time. By the way, they represent one of the types of obvious or potential supporters of Diomede.

It is not the process of searching for elders itself that is bad (and even such a super rarity as hesychast elders). It’s bad that such searches (and the game of blessings) often replace internal search. Not God's, but humanity's comes first. The image of the elder is composed, dogmatized and tabooed. And they are looking for an authoritative match to this image. Blind...

We must also understand that meeting a spirit-bearing person is like entering fire. Real fire, not a fictitious one! Now it has been developed huge collection techniques for replacing the real with the contrived. For some, it is enough for the person giving the blessing to wear priestly robes, for others it is necessary for them to wear monastic robes, while others are attracted by gray hair and authority. Someone falls for occult abilities. And meeting-blessings on all these external and occult levels open doors to huge invisible worlds, very far from God, but carrying a bunch of near-religious experiences.
http://trezvenie.org/forum/index.php?topic=2331.15

Once Archimandrite Kirill (Pavlov) was asked: “Father, how many elders do you know?” “Startsev?” he thought. “I know old people, but I don’t know elders.” Probably, this is the only wise and sober position that allows the “old people” not to fall into temptation and recognize their weakness, doing good in the name of Christ.

SPIRITUAL SERVICE

Eldership in Rus' at all times was addressed not only to monasticism, but also to the laity. Going into seclusion, into desert caves and forest hermitages, the Chernetsy continued to pray for the whole world. The ascetics who were especially mature in spirit then went out to people and, by the grace of God, healed ailments and gave advice.

In the 14th century, when Rus' was exhausted under the foreign yoke, a man was born who became the spiritual leader of his people - St. Sergius, abbot of Radonezh.

Characterizing his spiritual appearance, Boris Zaitsev writes: “...Extremity is not his element. Calmly, leisurely and without impulses, Sergius of Radonezh ascended to the saint.” “Coolness, restraint and meek calm, the harmony of quiet words and holy deeds created the only image of the saint.

Sergius is the deepest Russian, the deepest Orthodox. It has the resinousness of the north of Russia, its clean, strong and healthy type.”

For half a century, princes, warriors, merchants and peasants came to him and, along with the water from his source, drew consolation. In the monastery founded by St. Sergius, the beginning of the moral and then political revival of the Russian people was laid.

During the Time of Troubles, the recluse of the Boris and Gleb Monastery, Elder Irinarch, blessed Prince Dmitry Pozharsky to go liberate Moscow from the Poles and Lithuanians.

Another turning point was the reforms of Tsar Peter, whose goal was to rebuild Rus' in a Western manner. At this very difficult moment, Paisiy Velichkovsky, who came from Athos, did not allow the fire of eldership to be extinguished. His cell was not locked from morning to evening, and everyone had free access to him. The disciples of the Holy Mountain became abbots of many Russian monasteries and famous elders.

Venerable Seraphim of Sarov... Elders of the Pochaev Lavra, Pskov Pechersky Monastery and Glinsk Hermitage. And of course, Optina is a century of spiritual nourishment for all layers of Russian society.

Hieroschemamonk Ambrose is called the pillar of the Optina spirit. For him there were no small things, there was no question that he would not answer with participation and a desire for good. John of Kronstadt, Seraphim Vyritsky, Seraphim Zvezdinsky...

Our time has also produced a whole galaxy of “old men”: Kirill (Pavlov), Nikolai (Guryanov), Ioann (Krestyankin), Zosima (Sokur). Among them, schema-hegumen Iliy, who was the fraternal confessor of Optina Pustyn for twenty years, occupies a special place. Now he is in Peredelkino, being the confessor of His Holiness Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Kirill.

It is a mistake to believe that the activities of Father Elijah evoke universal admiration and tenderness. From history we know what kind of persecution Seraphim of Sarov was subjected to while in his monastery. John of Kronstadt was generally an object of hatred, provocation and slander.

“What kind of Elder Elijah is that anyway? — one archpastor asked journalists. “It’s people who, out of ignorance, call him that.” What is he doing?!”

STANOVY WELL

Father was born on Oryol land, in a village with the very beautiful name Stanovoy Kolodez, in a pious peasant family. Father - Afanasy Ivanovich Nozdrin, mother - Klavdiya Vasilievna.
The blessing, hidden until time, was the very name he received at baptism - in honor of Alexy, the Man of God, one of the most revered saints in Rus'.

Many years will pass, and in the early spring of 2005, on the day of his heavenly patron, Schema-Abbot Ily will specially come from Optina to Moscow, to the Patriarchal Novospassky Monastery - so that there, in the lower church in the name of Roman the Sweet Singer, he will venerate the Venerable Head of St. Alexis, first brought to Russia from Greece.

The village of Stanovoy Kolodez was hard-working and prosperous. IN late XIX century, out of three hundred houses, only four did not have chimneys and were heated with black wood.

As an everywhere, new government left her wounds and bloody marks in the small homeland of her father Elijah. From the Book of Memory of the Oryol Region and the data of the local police department it follows that at least ten people were repressed from the villagers with the surname Nozdrina, natives of Stanovoy Kolodez. Among them are peasants, a mechanic, a communications technician, a railway worker, a watchman, and the chairman of a collective farm. There is even a nun - Nozdrina Alexandra Mikhailovna, born in 1893, a nun of the Vvedensky Convent in Orel, which was dispersed in 1923.

In the fall of 1937, the nun was arrested in Stanovoy Kolodez and sentenced to ten years in labor camp. One wording of the accusation is worth it: “was participant church-fascist organization, had connections with the Polish church in order to fight the Soviet regime.” Further fate her is unknown.

IRON BOOTS

“Grandfather Batyushkin named Ivan,” says Andrei Zavrazhnov, director of the Rozhdestvensky orphanage, the spiritual child of Father Ilya, “categorically did not want to join the collective farm. Then he was told: “You don’t want to build” happy life“Then go with the whole family to the farm. He did just that and lined up there. But they were harassed there too - they had to return, and they settled in Redkino.

To make it clear with geography: since 1969, Redkino became Stanovoy Kolodez Street. There is a dirt road between the current paved highway and the houses. Cows were driven along it to graze in the meadows, and some residents rode along it in carts or sleighs. Obviously, these are the remains of the tract - along it Catherine II proceeded through Orel and Zmievka to Kursk. Next to him in early XIX century and the houses were built by the first residents of the Redkina farm.

The farm was located on the watershed of the Travna and Stizh rivers, blown by all the winds, unlike most settlements in the Oryol region, they were built along the banks of the rivers, under the cover of steep banks.

The eldest of the children in Afanasy Nozdrin’s family was brother Ivan. Baby Alexander died at the age of one. Alexey, future father Ily, was born in 1932. Then Sergei and Anna were born - she died on the operating table from a heart defect, about twenty years old.

Brother Ivan lived to old age and died in Klykovo in 2004, as did Sergei - he died quite recently, in 2008.

Father’s grandfather was an unusual person - strong-willed, integral, sensitive to manifestations of all kinds of injustice. For this reason, he had a negative attitude towards the activities carried out by the new government. This was especially true for “complete collectivization.”

As a sign of protest that people were being forcibly torn away from their way of life,” Andrei Zavrazhnov cites Father’s story, “grandfather Ivan welded iron boots for himself and walked around the village in them. He could say directly: “I’ll tear off Stalin’s own head for the truth!” Can you imagine what they would have done at that time for such words? And nothing to him. For the sake of Father Elijah, the Lord preserved him, or for some other reason - I don’t know.

Ivan Nozdrin was the headman of the Church of the Intercession in Stanovoy Kolodez. Sometimes, together with the abbot, we walked around the courtyards asking for money for the temple. When in a poor family, God forbid, a priest tried to get something, grandfather Ivan would very sternly say: “You must give to them, and not they to you!” Don't you see how they live? This and that." He stood up for justice.

And Ivan Afanasyevich, Father’s brother, grew up to be the same pronounced lover of truth, just like his grandfather,” concludes Andrei Viktorovich.

Grandfather Ivan died in 1942. He never came to terms with the new order and worked as a private trader: tinning, soldering, and repairing pots and other kitchen utensils. Nowadays people often change dishes, but back then they took care of them because they were obtained through hard work and cost a lot of money.

BREAD OF HEAVEN

Father Father went to the front in the first year of the war. Called up by the Oryol RVC. After being seriously wounded, Private Afanasy Nozdrin died in the Vladikavkaz hospital in 1942. According to the Ministry of Defense, this happened a little earlier - on December 16, 1941.

Alexey grew up as a very religious boy. There was a certain mark of God in him that those around him felt. The older guys laughed: “Here Alyosha the Divine has come.” The father of one of the girls, he sang in the choir, sternly admonished his child and other children: “Come on, don’t be naughty! This is a man of God."
He was baptized not at home, but in the village of Lukino, several miles from Stanovoy Kolodez, in a wooden church. In the 2000s, here in Lukino, with the blessing of schema-abbot Elijah, a wooden church will also be erected - in the name of the Transfiguration of the Lord.

His name was Lyosha,” recalled Alexandra Padurova, aka “Baba Sasha,” in the 2000s. “I’ve had a brother since he was 1930, and he used to look out the window and say: “Lyoshka is running to pray.” In the summer, he walked barefoot and wore boots at the ready. He sits on the edge, puts on his shoes, and only then goes to pray. That’s what his name was: “Alexy, the man of God.”

In 1947 and 1948, a wonderful, truly amazing event happened to Father Eli. My brother Ivan and I went for a one-time job and contracted for bread. And it was a hungry time, people survived as best they could, making pancakes from frozen potatoes. We were returning from Bryansk. At the station in Orel, where they spent the night, the brothers were robbed.

At home, Father prayed with tears in front of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, which was in their Red Corner. Then he left the house and headed towards the railway track. He walked without thinking about anything.

“If you were at his house,” explains Hieromonk Vladimir (Gusev), “then you know: here parents' house ik stands, and across the garden there is a railway track.

Father came out and headed along the path. And suddenly I saw a clean towel lying on the ground, and on it... a loaf of wheat. Hot! Then the whole family ate this extraordinary bread. “The Mother of God sent this as a consolation,” Father told his spiritual children.

According to “Baba Sasha,” “the whole universe was talking about what happened in the Nozdriny family”: This is a village! No one will hide anything here. He, like a child, came, rejoiced, and brought bread to his mother. Claudia told her neighbor, who told her neighbor, and off it went. The whole universe knew about this incident.

In general, the biography of Father Elijah consists of separate fragments, which, like a Byzantine mosaic, are “laid out” in their stories different people.
Father himself prefers not to talk about this topic, except perhaps with his colleagues in Christ, and when they “concern” him, he plunges into prayer.

In May 2007, in the Bogorodichno-Rozhdestvenskaya maiden hermitage (the village of Baryatino, Kaluga region), near Medyn, the sister’s building completely burned down.
Luckily, no one was hurt. “Now we have become nuns,” said Abbess Theophila (Lepeshinskaya).

Mother went to Optina to see Schema-Hegumen Elijah. I met, talked and returned with consolation from him. After listening to her story about the fire, Father Eli said: “Gold is purified by fire.” And I remembered how I burned down my parents’ house as a child. In winter, and it was December, he and his brother read on the stove with a kerosene lamp. The youths did not notice how the ceiling caught fire. God did not leave - they built new house. Father Eli pleased Mother with a promise to pray for the burnt victims.

Before saying goodbye, he asked Mother Theophila to wait a little. And soon he brought, without explaining anything, 210 thousand rubles? - for the construction site.

TABLET FOR ROKOSSOVSKY

Participation of Alexey Nozdrin in Battle of Kursk may seem like an absurd apocrypha, since he was only eleven years old at that time, but he made his personal contribution to the defense of the Fatherland at precisely that age.

“It was like this?” says Andrei Zavrazhnov. The priest prayed outside the house. Suddenly he sees drunken Germans passing by on a motorcycle and losing their tablet. It contained a map of the fortified area on Kursk Bulge. He, of course, did not understand all this, but he handed the map to the adults, and they forwarded it to ours.
One day I directly asked Father: “Is it true what they say?” - “Well, it’s true, it’s true.” In the morning, he said, the Nazis began to comb the surrounding area.

“When they entered the hut,” Father Eli recalled, my hair was burning like a thief’s hat. It felt like the Germans knew that it was I who picked up the tablet.”

To whom and how he transferred the secret documents, Father did not reveal this. But it is known for certain that the commander of the Central Front, Marshal Konstantin Rokossovsky, using information from four independent sources, launched a powerful pre-emptive strike on the Wehrmacht positions.
The main confirmation of Hitler's plans came from captured sappers. They were
captured on the night of July 5 in the sectors of two armies - the 13th and 48th - while carrying out work to clear mine passages for their troops. Sappers showed that German troops had taken their starting positions and that the offensive would begin at three o'clock in the morning.

As Air Chief Marshal A.E. Golovanov reports in his memoirs: “This was the fourth, but, as the commander decided, more specific, judging by the actions of the sappers. Although in war there are very different methods of disinformation, including through defectors, the data obtained still seemed to correspond to reality. G.K. Zhukov, who was at the front and who was reported about the information received from captured German soldiers, instructed Rokossovsky to act at his discretion.

Forty minutes before the time indicated by the prisoners for the start of the German offensive, that is, at 2 hours 20 minutes on July 5, 1943, by order of the commander of the Central Front, Rokossovsky, artillery fire was opened from 500 guns, 460 mortars and 100 rocket launchers at the supposed enemy concentration areas.”

The Nazis nevertheless began artillery preparation, but it was poorly organized. “When the German troops went on the offensive, it was as if a mountain had been lifted from my shoulders,” Rokossovsky later said.”
As far as we can judge, one of the four sources of information that made it possible to launch a pre-emptive strike was a tablet picked up by Alexey Nozdrin.

"APOSTASY"

The future inhabitant of Pechora, Athos and Optina studied in Serpukhov, receiving a technical education within the walls of a mechanical engineering college - one of the very first educational institutions cities. It was located in a building that before the revolution belonged to the Konshin factory owners.

We learn about this period in his life from Abbess Alexia, abbess of the Vvedensky Convent in Serpukhov: After the meal, I managed to talk with Father Eli, and he agreed to come to our monastery. Father Iliy studied at the Serpukhov Mechanical College from 1955 to 1958. This year (May 1998 - Author) it has been forty years since he was in Serpukhov. All the sisters and pilgrims were very glad to have the opportunity to talk with Father. Time flew by quickly..."

In addition to technical school, Father also served in the army. One day he told Andrei Zavrazhnov... how he had sinned against God!

“Father Eli told me not only everyday, but also psychological situations from his life. For example, how he committed “betrayal” to God. In the army, a sergeant major persuaded him to join the Komsomol. But Father is gentle and kind. You can persuade him, but it will not bring worldly happiness later. Well, so, about this foreman: he put the finishing touches on Father. And he, when he was still fourteen years old, read the Gospel and the words that the Savior said to the Apostle Peter: “Feed my sheep.”

“I’m leaving the village,” Father Eli recalled, and my heart leaped and my soul felt unspeakably good. I see a shepherd with cows and sheep outside the outskirts. And suddenly all these animals rushed towards me.”
When Father returned from the army, where he joined the Komsomol, then, in his words, his soul “felt so rotten.” This depressed him greatly. And in general, if Father Eli does something wrong, he won’t let him go for a long time - until he himself corrects the situation. Repentance in correction.

So, Father Eli is returning home from the army. Goes beyond the outskirts. The same shepherd, but the animals, seeing Father, scattered. “I came home,” he says, and cried bitterly... He took out his Komsomol card and put it in the stove and burned it. After that my soul felt better.”

FATHER JOHN. KAMYSHIN

Alexey Nozdrin met his first confessor in the city of Kamyshin, on the Volga. A perspicacious priest, Father John Bukotkin, served there. Front-line soldier. Guardsman. Knight of the Order of Glory, III degree. He fought on the Third Belorussian Front and in East Prussia, and was seriously wounded in the leg and shoulder.

Back in Astrakhan, parishioners once saw how during the liturgy in the church he rose into the air and hovered above the floor... Everyone was amazed by this miracle. Rumors spread throughout the diocese and reached the bishop. He invited Father John to his place and asked: “Is it true that you were hanging in the air while praying?” - “I just prayed, that’s all...”

After technical school, says Father Iliy, I was assigned to work in the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd region. The construction of a cotton mill began there. A large area was allocated for it, the so-called fourth section, about three kilometers from the city itself.
I started looking to see if there was a church in Kamyshin. The only church is St. Nicholas. Two priests served in it: the rector was Archpriest Nikolai Potapov, such a venerable priest who served ten years in Stalin’s camps, and the second was Father John Bukotkin.

St. Nicholas Church in Kamyshin was closed in 1933 and was used as a warehouse. At the end of the war, at the request of believers, the Council for the Affairs of the Russian Orthodox Church under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, by its Resolution dated March 24, 1944, allowed the opening of a former cemetery church in the name of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in the city of Kamyshin. The first service took place in October of the same year.

One day Father John called me to his place, we talked with him, and that’s how our acquaintance began... He invited me to enter the Saratov seminary.

Before that he served in Astrakhan. Then it was a diocese that covered the Volgograd, Astrakhan and Saratov regions. It was headed by Bishop Sergius (Larin), who was in Astrakhan at that time.

As Maria Dmitrievna Bukotkina, the widow of Father John, recalls, Alexey Nozdrin often came to them in Borovichi, this is the Nizhny Novgorod diocese, and “they talked to him all night long.” “Once,” she recalls, Alyosha began to go to the barn to pray at night. There was hay there that was laid out for the chickens, and he prayed on it. And then Father John comes to him and sternly says: “Stop!” And snake heads peeked out from a pile of hay...”

The confessor of the Samara diocese, mitred Archpriest John Bukotkin, passed away to God on May 8, 2000 - in the hospital for war veterans, on the territory of the former St. Nicholas Monastery. Leaving the house, he crossed himself with a wide cross and said: “Behold, this house is left empty...” He was buried in Iverskoye convent, in the very heart of Samara.

Father Eli received his spiritual education in Saratov and the Northern capital, at the height of Khrushchev’s persecution of the Church. On the territory of the RSFSR alone, about 10 thousand Orthodox churches were closed.

Father John helped me enter the Saratov seminary,” schema-hegumen Ily continues the story. I had little idea how this could turn out. When it came to the commissioner, he called Father John and knocked on the table: “Why are you agitating people, disrupting them from work? Give me back Nozdrin."
Because of me, Father John suffered, but remained in place in Kamyshin; he was not deprived of registration. He worked a lot, was a very spiritual person... He found joy and consolation in prayer. After the war, his legs hurt - the wound was taking its toll, and when he served in Astrakhan, he received boots from Archbishop Philip.
Of the stories of Father John, I remember one. When he was drafted into the army and somehow ended up in Moscow, in one apartment, many homeless people gathered there. I had to sleep on the floor and couldn’t sleep. Suddenly Father John sees huge dog— the tail, as he said, dragged along the “ground.” This “dog” comes up to everyone lying down and seems to whisper... When morning came and everyone began to tell what they had seen, Father John understood where such “fascinating” dreams came from and who whispered them.

Already at that time, Father Eli had the opportunity to see with spiritual eyes what is usually hidden from the eyes of most people.

Father told me one case about how he was traveling to Samara, in my opinion,” recalls N. He got off the train, it was in his youth, he saw a flock of birds: “Such a huge flock, the whole sky is black.” When I looked closer, I saw that these were not birds at all, but demons. “Father, how did you see?” - I ask him. “You know, high, but I saw every face. And so scary..."

STAFF OF LORD NIKODIM

It so happened that Father Eli began his spiritual education in Saratov, and finished in the Northern capital: After the seminary, while in St. Petersburg, I decided to become a monk. We were transferred there from Saratov after Khrushchev closed five seminaries, including Saratov. And there, in St. Petersburg, I accepted the monastic rank.

The name was given to him in honor of one of the forty martyrs of Sebaste - Ilian, which means “solar” in ancient Greek.

There was another tonsure ahead - into the great schema, and a new name - Eli, meaning “Sun”. This was the name of another martyr of Sebaste, who suffered at the dawn of Christianity.

Glorious Roman warriors from Cappadocia refused to bow to pagan idols. For this they were thrown into the high-mountain Lake Sevastia in Lesser Armenia, located on the territory of modern Turkey.
...It was winter, there was severe frost. The soldiers were stripped, taken to a lake not far from the city and placed under guards for the whole night. To seduce the martyrs, a bathhouse was set up on the shore. In the first hour of the night, when the cold reached extreme severity and the bodies of the saints froze, one of the forty could not stand the feat and ran to the shore. But as soon as he stepped onto the threshold of the bathhouse and felt the warmth, he immediately fell and died.

At three o'clock in the morning it suddenly became light, the ice melted, and the water in the lake warmed up. At this time, the executioners were sleeping, only one watchman named Aglaius was awake. He reflected on what he saw: the one who was separated from the martyrs died immediately, while the rest remained alive and unharmed in the bitter cold.

Amazed by the light that shone on the holy martyrs, he raised his head up and saw 39 bright crowns that fell on the heads of the sufferers.

Surprised that there were not 40 of them, according to the number of those who suffered, but 39, he realized that one crown was missing. He immediately woke up the sleeping guards, threw off his clothes and, in front of everyone, ran into the lake, exclaiming: “And I am a Christian!”

Father Elijah was blessed for monasticism by his first confessor, Father John Bukotkin. The tonsure was performed by Metropolitan Nikodim, who also ordained Father as a deacon and priest.

Bishop Nikodim did a lot in those days, Father Eli speaks of him, when at the level of state policy the authorities tried to strangle the Church. Khrushchev's promise to show the last priest is known.

Well, Nikita Sergeevich put it more rudely: at the XXII Congress of the CPSU, held in 1961, he promised to show “the last priest” on TV in 1980.

...Those were terrible times. Since 1959, mass administrative closure of parishes and monasteries began. In 1961, despite the opposition of believers and Patriarch Alexy I, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was closed again.

At the same time, arrests of church activists began who were trying to counteract the policies pursued by the state, including Archbishop Job of Kazan (Kresovich) and Archbishop Andrey of Chernigov.

The Pochaev Lavra in Western Ukraine turned out to be a tough nut to crack on which the atheists broke their teeth, and real battles broke out for it. Despite the arbitrariness and repression of the authorities, the Lavra was defended.

Metropolitan Nikodim, says Father Eli, with his erudition and authority, of course, kept the situation on his shoulders... at the cost of three heart attacks. He had to constantly be on the road. The responsibility is huge. He sometimes sat for the whole night on the phone... Late in the evening he prayed, sometimes even at one in the morning, before miraculous icon“Znamenie” and then traveled by train to Moscow, and from there abroad. The bishop’s health was undermined.

During the years of his stay within the St. Petersburg diocese, Hieromonk Ilian worked a lot in various parishes. Bishop Nikodim jokingly used to say to his employee: “You and I are relatives: you are Nozdrin, and I am Rotov.”

IN PECHORY

Ten years of the life of Schema-Abbot Elijah are associated with the Pskov Pechersk Monastery - one of the oldest and most revered shrines of Northern Rus', where his spiritual ascent continued. Father became its resident under Archimandrite Alypiy (Voronov), who ruled Pechory from 1959 to 1975.
He had to endure the brutal persecution of Orthodoxy during Khrushchev’s time... It would seem that everything then worked to destroy the Church...

“Father Alypiy prayed, worked, did charity, collected unique paintings, which before his death he donated to the country’s museums, writes Archimandrite Tikhon (Secretaryov). In a word, he seemed to live without despondency... However, only the Lord knows how his heart and soul grieved, what consolations and inner grace-filled joys visited him... It was a bloodless martyrdom, like the standing at the Cross of the Lord of the Apostle and Evangelist John the Theologian...”

In the twentieth century, the monastery, together with the Fatherland, had to go through two wars. But the ancient traditions, carefully preserved in the monastery, were not violated even in the most terrible times for Russian monasticism.
Through the prayers of the Most Pure Mother of God, the Pskov Pechersk monastery, by the providence of God, was assigned to “bourgeois” Estonia under the treaty of 1922 and remained there until 1940, thereby saving it from general ruin and desecration.

After the Great Patriotic War, the elders from Valaam came here, who before the war were transported from the holy island to Finland. Hieroschemamonks Mikhail (Pitkevich), Luke (Zemskov) and other lamps of faith appeared as a spiritual bridge connecting Old Valaam and the holy Pechersk monastery.

In the second half of the twentieth century in the Holy Dormition Pskov Pechersk Monastery most the brethren were participants in the Great Patriotic War and rear workers. They are the ones with God's help courageously defended the monastery and won a spiritual victory!

One of the inhabitants of the monastery, schemamonk Irinarch (Kazanin), was once asked: “What is the worst thing at the front?” He thought for a few moments and answered: “Panic.” — “What is panic?” — “When one person, with his fear and cowardice, deprives everyone else of courage.” — “How is it overcome?” — ​​“With the prayer “Lord, have mercy” .

The “waves of the worldly sea” raged around the monastery, but inside it spiritual life did not stop, the lamp of prayer, labor and feat of the monks glowed.

One day, Patriarch Pimen (Izvekov), the former abbot of the monastery, was asked by a correspondent of one of the newspapers: “Your Holiness! You have reached the top in the Russian Orthodox Church. Do you have any other wish?” He replied: “You know, in the Pskov diocese there is the Pechersky Monastery... I would like to be the gatekeeper of the holy gates there...”

“I stayed in Pechory for ten years,” says Father Eli. “The monastery never closed.” And at that time there was such a flow of people there... There was the Pochaev Lavra, the Kiev Pechersk Lavra was already closing. People felt spiritual hunger and came with a thirst to at least see and hear a living monk.

One of Hieromonk Ilian’s spiritual interlocutors was Elder Filaret (Rukhlenko). In his youth, he took part in the White movement and once miraculously escaped certain death.

One day the Reds were leading him to execution, and suddenly the executioners heard not far away the sounds of an accordion and a girl’s squeal. They decided to postpone the execution: they put the cadet under lock and key, left a sentry and went to have fun.

Further, Father Eli spoke on behalf of Archimandrite Philaret: “How you want to live! Lord have mercy! I saw an icon of St. Nicholas the Pleasant in the corner. I prayed as I had probably never prayed before. I pray and pray, and find myself in oblivion. I woke up - Saint Nicholas was standing in front of me, he put his finger to his lips: “Shh!” And he points to the door: it is open, the sentry is fast asleep. And I’m wearing only underpants... and you see, Father Ilian, now I’m sitting with you.”

This is what God and the power of prayer are... “Heaven is close, we don’t know how to ask,” said Ambrose of Optina.

“I... remember the first excursion to the God-created caves, which was conducted by Hieromonk Ilian (Nozdrin) in 1968,” writes Archimandrite Tikhon (Secretaryov) in his book “Be Perfect.”  “We walked with candles and sang.” Holy God

...A few words about Father Elijah’s mother. Father tonsured her into monasticism with her former name Claudia. She was a kind and sympathetic, but at the same time very persistent person. After the death of her husband, she never remarried, taking care of the children and housekeeping—she warmed everyone with her love.

On the grave cross in Stanovoy Kolodez, Father wrote the heartfelt words from the Apostles: “Sleep, dear...”

For the last ten years before Optina, Father carried out humble obedience on the Holy Mount Athos, in Vertograd of the Most Holy Theotokos. For ten blessed years his heart beat in time with Byzantine times. During these wondrous years, which Father Eli recalls with great warmth, the monastery of the Great Martyr Panteleimon became his home.

THE EARTHLY PORTION OF THE VIRGIN

The Holy Mountain has preserved many spiritual traditions in its priceless treasury. But its main tradition is love based on constant prayer. Elder Emilian (Vafidis) of Athos exclaims: “What would our life be without prayer, my beloved! What would the whole world be without her! A heart without prayer is like a plastic bag, which quickly breaks due to its burden and is soon thrown away. It is prayer, because it gives us God, that gives meaning to our lives and our entire existence.”

They say that life will end when people stop praying. But is it possible for this to happen? No, for there will always be those who love the Lord, and unceasing prayer will mysteriously nourish the world. And the greatest Russian saint of the twentieth century, Silouan of Athos, notes that “to pray for the world is to shed blood.” It's not enough to just read off lists of names, he says; we must intercede for people with tears and sorrow. “Praying for everyone” means “crying for everyone”: “... My heart aches for the whole world, and I pray and shed tears for the whole world, so that everyone will repent,” “And my soul cries for the whole world.” “Lord, grant me to shed tears for myself and for the whole universe.”

For ten hot, scorching Athonite years, Father shed his spiritual blood in prayer for the whole World. And only after this, by the providence of God, he found himself in his father’s land at a turning point, about which His Holiness Patriarch Alexy II said this: “Fully realizing that the collapse Soviet Union became a consequence of a totalitarian national policy, also based on militant atheism, I cannot help but say that the division that occurred between us for the absolute majority of residents of the Commonwealth countries was and remains something deeply misunderstood and unnatural. For it passed through every nation, through many families, through family ties, through a common faith, general culture, general history, the general economy, and ultimately through human hearts.”

In the “Journal of the Moscow Patriarchate” for 1976, No. 4, the Decree of the Holy Synod, dated March 3, 1976, was published: “... To bless the departure of Hieromonk Ilian (Nozdrin), Hieromonk Miron (Pepelyaev), Hierodeacon Ambrose (Busarev) and novice Anatoly (Vovkozha) to Mount Athos to perform monastic obedience.”

The Athos period of Father, as well as his stay in Pechory, is practically closed from us. Father himself hardly talks about him. The life of spiritual people in general is a hidden secret for us and only the Lord can know it fully.

The move of Hieromonk Ilian and other new inhabitants to Russian Athos was necessary not only for their spiritual growth, but also to save the St. Panteleimon Monastery and monastic monasteries, which were under the threat of being transferred to the Greeks.

With the coming to power of the atheists in Russia, the situation on Holy Mount Athos began to develop critically. Some time after the revolution, the huge flow of aid dried up. The last ship with gifts was wrecked. During the Second World War, Athos was blocked by troops of the German Wehrmacht, which caused famine.

In 1945, Russian monks wrote to Moscow: “We beg you, His Holiness Patriarch Alexy and the entire Russian Orthodox Church to immediately provide us with help. Otherwise, our monastery is doomed.” But help came only two decades later...

When the monks themselves began to experience need, the abbot of the monastery last time ordered the distribution of alms. This distribution was captured by a Russian emigrant photographer. When he developed the film, he was simply amazed: in front of everyone, under the guise of a wanderer, was the Most Holy Theotokos! Seeing this photo, the abbot said with tears in his eyes: “As long as I live, we will share the last piece of bread with the hungry, the last clothing with the naked, the last joy with the orphaned and wretched...”

At a time when Father was just preparing to take the path of monastic service, a struggle for Russian Athos unfolded in distant Greece. The brethren, who became an island of Holy Rus', had to endure many hardships.

In 1959, there was a severe fire in the St. Panteleimon Monastery, as a result of which the library, which stored rare manuscripts from the 11th and 16th centuries, was severely damaged. The Moscow Patriarchate tried to provide material assistance to the damaged monastery, but it turned out to be impossible to transfer it.

This is what the inhabitants of the monastery said about this: “We are very sorry that the Greeks write in their newspapers that the Russian Athonite monks do not want to accept the sacrifice from His Holiness Patriarch Alexy, as well as the new monks, all this is not true. We all want to unite with the Orthodox Russian Church, but our enemies do not allow..."

And yet the Russian Church managed to deliver the sacrifice to Athos. This was done with the help of a church delegation that was in 1959 in the city of Thessaloniki at the anniversary celebrations in memory of St. Gregory Palamas, in connection with the 600th anniversary of his death.

“Then, for the first time in many years, the official delegation of the Moscow Patriarchate was given permission to make a pilgrimage to Athos,” writes I. Yakimchuk. “But already in 1961, the Greek government did not allow entry to the Holy Mountain for another delegation of the Russian Church, which took part in the work of the Pan-Orthodox Conference on O. Rhodes and who wanted to venerate the shrines of Athos.

Soon, the Greek authorities began to persecute for letters and parcels that Russian monks received from their homeland. The Greek press resumed attacks on Russian monasticism on Mount Athos. Konstantopoulos, the then governor of the Holy Mountain, directed his activities towards the consistent limitation of the self-government of the Holy Mountain and complete subordination to the Greek government, but the Slavic monasteries stood in the way of this. Therefore, certain circles created all sorts of obstacles to the recruitment of monks to these monasteries,” the author reports.

FIGHT FOR RUSSIAN ATHOS

Since the early 1960s of the 20th century, the rector of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, Archimandrite Ilian (Sorokin), in letters to Archbishop Basil of Brussels and Belgium, pointed out the difficult situation in the monastery and monasteries - St. Andrew's and St. Elias. The main problem there was a lack of new inhabitants. He wrote in 1961: “Our Athos life is still the same. St. Andrew's Skete has completely weakened. Many of us died: the last one was Father Misail. There are approximately 35 people left."

It seemed that Russian Athos was coming to an end, and it was physically dying out - which, in fact, was what the Greeks were waiting for.
In those same years, the rector of the St. Elias monastery, Father Nicholas, addressed in writing “to all Orthodox Russian people living in dispersion” with humble words: “Currently, the Holy Mountain is experiencing great disasters. Our trouble is that after the First World War, access to Athos for monks ceased, and now we have a great shortage of people... Kaliki and kaliva remain empty and, as the monks die out, they go like escheated property into the wrong hands and are destroyed.”

Thanks to these few monks, the last remnants of the Russian presence were still preserved. Despite the fact that since 1962, pilgrimage trips to Athos by representatives of the Russian Church resumed, they were very, very rare. At that time, a phrase expressing the faith and patience of the Holy Mountain residents became a stereotypical phrase in the monastery: “We are fading away due to the lack of fathers, but we believe that the Mother of God will protect our home.”

“We always remember you,” testified Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) of Leningrad and Novgorod, “our Russian monks who are far from native land, in difficult and difficult conditions, carrying out their feats of spiritual improvement and prayer. God willing, the affairs of Russian monasticism will be settled on Holy Athos, glorified since ancient times.”

In October 1963, the Patriarch of Constantinople was given a list of eighteen people from Moscow who were awaiting permission to settle in the Panteleimon Monastery. Their “personal files” were also submitted to the Greek Foreign Ministry. In July 1964, permission was received from Athens for only five monks to enter the monastery. But even this was regarded in many Russian emigrant publications as a “great miracle.”

This joyful event was preceded by a statement by the Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, made on June 24, 1963 at the Meeting in the Lavra of St. Athanasius: “All Orthodox Churches can send as many monks to Athos as they see fit. As a clergyman, I myself will vouch for those who will be sent.”

In Russia, meanwhile, great changes took place: on October 14, 1964, on the feast of the Intercession of the Mother of God, N. S. Khrushchev, who was the main inspirer and strategist of the atheist campaign, was removed from all high posts. The country's new political leadership abandoned the extravagant projects of Nikita Sergeevich, including his plans to destroy the Orthodox Church. In his policy towards believers new team took into account the real state of affairs, although atheism still formed the core of communist ideology, and the elimination of religion remained the highest goal of the party. However, this goal was no longer proposed as an immediate task and prospect.

The situation on Russian Athos, meanwhile, continued to deteriorate. This is how its abbot, Schema-Archimandrite Ilian, described the situation in the monastery in 1964: “We have unusually cold weather this winter, it’s four degrees in the church, everyone fell ill with the flu, there are 16 people left for two churches, the rest are elderly and sick.”

In 1966, despite the unreasonably long and painful delay, only the first five monks (out of eighteen declared) were allowed to Athos, and the next year one of them returned to his homeland due to illness. Many saw them as Soviet agents; the police carefully inspected the suitcases more than once. According to schema-abbot Elijah, these five monks “simply saved the situation, because there were few Russian inhabitants left there, and the monastery could have already passed to the Greeks.”

By the way, few people know that the decision to save Russian Athos was made at the level of the Politburo of the Central Committee, and it was lobbied for, in modern language, by the head of government Alexei Nikolaevich Kosygin.

V. Grigoryan in the article “Descended to Russia” says: “Once Count Sheremetyev sailed on a yacht. He treated the monks from the Union more than arrogantly, rather even with contempt: they say the communists came to the Russian monastery in large numbers. Despite everything, he was received cordially. They showed us the library and the refectory, where they read the lives of saints in Russian during dinner. The Count walked and peered at simple faces his half-blooded fathers, the monks, listened to their chants and silence. When they saw him off, on the monastery pier the count suddenly knelt down and began to kiss the hands of Archimandrite Abel...”

“How he kissed it,” recalled Father Abel (Markedonov), “and how he cried! Almost bursting into tears: “I’m here in the homeland of my ancestors.” Here I felt how great Russia is!”

In October 1968, a strong fire destroyed the entire eastern wall of the courtyard of St. Panteleimon's monastery with its six chapels, as well as cells and a hotel.
After the disaster struck, the monastery presented a terrible sight. Archbishop Pitirim of Volokolamsk, who visited it in 1972 as part of a delegation accompanying His Holiness Patriarch Pimen, wrote: “There are empty burnt-out buildings at the monastery pier, the eastern and southern fraternal buildings were devastated by flames, and on the night of the Feast of the Transfiguration of the Lord in 1969 a large area burned out forest, descending from the pass from Stary Russik to the monastery itself.”

After this catastrophic fire, on the ground burned to a depth of several centimeters, an olive tree miraculously remained alive, once planted from a sprout of a tree that grew on the site of the martyrdom of the great martyr and healer Panteleimon. The brethren of the monastery perceived this event as an undoubted sign that the prayerful intercession of the saint would not leave his monastery.
As already noted, there were clearly not enough monks admitted to Russian Athos. The time has come, and the Greeks nevertheless declared St. Andrew's monastery to belong to the Vatopedi monastery. For the Russian brethren, this event was a real tragedy.

…For anyone who has not yet been to Mount Athos, it is difficult to understand the size and significance of St. Andrew’s Skete. The largest temple in Greece and the Balkans rises like a gray bulk over the surrounding area. At the beginning of the twentieth century, up to eight hundred Russian monks lived here. And of course, the small, cozy Greek temple usual for Athonite monasteries would not be able to accommodate even a fifth of the praying monks, not counting the numerous pilgrims and workers. The greatest shrines were kept here, including the Honest Head of the Apostle Andrew the First-Called.

Schema-abbot Ily recalls how Hieromonk Hippolytus (Khalin), his spiritual brother in the Pskov-Pechersk monastery, one of those who came to the Holy Mountain in 1966, persuaded the brethren to draw up a humble petition to the Vatopedi Monastery with a request to return the monastery. We wrote, but the appeal did not help.

It seemed that a little more, and the monastery of St. Panteleimon would be occupied by the Greeks. But the ways of the Lord are inscrutable: thanks to the enormous efforts of Patriarch Pimen and the firm position of the Kosygin government, in the summer of 1976 and spring of 1978, a group of Russian monks from the Pskov Caves Monastery was allowed to come to Athos, among them was Father Ilian, the future spiritual father of Patriarch Kirill, schema-abbot Iliy.

CONFESSIONAL

In those years, it was not only on Mount Athos that monks were needed. Their impoverishment was acutely felt in the USSR as well. People went to the Pskov Pechersky Monastery in a state of spiritual hunger, with a great desire to meet a living monk. “At the monastery gate,” said Father Eli, “a young man approached me with the question: “How can I enter the monastery?” For those years this was very unusual, and I was delighted by this, told him how to find Fr. Agapia."

This young man was the future hieromonk Rafail (in the world Boris Ogorodnikov) - a man of a difficult fate, full of trials, who tragically died under unclear circumstances in 1988. The Optina New Martyr Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov) spoke of him like this: “I owe him monasticism, I owe him the priesthood—yes, I owe him everything.”

The priest carried out obedience in the famous skete of the St. Panteleimon Monastery, on Stary Russik in the more than secluded dwelling of a single monk, hidden in the mountain gorges. There now stands a beautiful church boarded up with boards with a large icon of the Great Martyr Panteleimon above a rusty padlock at the entrance and several tightly boarded up hotel and monastic buildings, reminiscent of the former greatness of the monastery...

During the Athos period, Father Ilian was entrusted with clergy within the walls of the Panteleimon Monastery. Need I say how great this is, but at the same time heavy and sorrowful cross - to be a witness before the Lord, passing through oneself human sins. Essentially, the confessor undertakes to help the soul reach the Kingdom of God. He guides a person’s spiritual life and at the same time constantly begs for his spiritual child.

“The prayers of a confessor have great power,” writes Silouan of Athos. “I suffered a lot from demons for pride, but the Lord humbled and had mercy on me for the prayers of a confessor, and now the Lord has revealed to me that the Holy Spirit rests on them, and therefore I reverence confessors a lot.” . For their prayers we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit and joy in the Lord, who loves us and has given us everything we need for the (salvation) of our souls.”

On Athos, Father had the opportunity to communicate with many spiritual elders and ascetics of the faith, representatives and abbots of the Orthodox Churches. Fate brought him together with the future Archbishop of Berlin and Germany Mark (Arndt). This fact is noted in the “Bulletin of the German Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad” (No. 1, 2009):

“...On October 26, the monastery of St. Job of Pochaev in Munich was visited by the confessor of Optina Pustyn, schema-abbot Iliy. Father Elijah came to Baden-Baden for an operation, and, naturally, could not help but visit Archbishop Mark, whom he met on Mount Athos 40 years ago. Arriving at the monastery, he talked with Archbishop Mark for about an hour, and then attended the all-night vigil for about an hour.

After the all-night vigil, at the request of the brethren, Fr. Eli had a spiritual conversation in the library. The conversation flowed very lively and naturally. The brethren and pilgrims present at the conversation could ask their questions to this experienced confessor. On Sunday morning Fr. Iliy went with Archbishop Mark to Cathedral. And here about. Elijah in the refectory spoke about spiritual life and the life of the monks in the Optina Desert. In the evening he went to Russia."

You can learn about a small part of Father’s life on the Holy Mountain from a miraculously preserved letter sent to Essex (England) from Optina on Easter 1992. Its addressee is Archimandrite Sophrony (Sakharov), author of the book “The Undistorted Image: Staretz Silouan (1866 1938).”

“... I confess that since 1967, when the book “Elder Silouan” fell into my hands,” writes Father Eli, “I somehow immediately rose to a spiritual level and, so to speak, began to see the light. Since then, this book has served as my faithful friend. On Old Athos, I had to receive pilgrims and all sorts of people who arrived at the monastery, show them churches, and carry out the relics of saints. I can state that even before the glorification of Elder Silouan, many revered him as a saint. I am very grateful to the fact that it was you, dear Father Sophrony, who did a lot not only for the honor of Elder Silouan, but mainly accomplished the work of strengthening the faith and saving many. From everyone who read your book, I heard only positive reviews and frankly, not just positive, but with emphasized love for the book [... ].”

The spiritual feat of Elder Silouan, described in the book, as well as the feats of many great ascetics of Ecumenical Orthodoxy who labored on the Holy Mountain, prepared Father for the difficult mission that lay ahead of him in his homeland.

Divine services on Mount Athos include vigils that last for many hours every night. After midnight there is service, in the morning there is obedience, and so on throughout life. Once, in a conversation with his spiritual children, Archimandrite Ippolit (Khalin) spoke about that time like this: “On Athos we worked hard in obedience. Sometimes there was not enough strength to get to the cell. We slept for two hours somewhere under a tree... You wake up in the morning, look at the sky, and there the Mother of God blesses. You rise from the ground with joy and begin to pray and work.”

He also said: “When something bad happened, you go to the grave of some ascetic, serve a memorial service for him, and you look, and your strength is restored. There are a lot of holy relics on Mount Athos. And so, when you venerate the relics, you don’t feel tired.”

By the providence of God, Father Eli returned home to Russia, where he became the confessor of the Optina Hermitage, but, as his spiritual daughter nun Christiana once said with great warmth: “He is still sad about Athos, the Svyatogorsk cell is still waiting for him, but in humility Father carries out his obedience here, on Kaluga land. Eldership is such a cross... The Venerable Nektary of Optina, when Optina was dispersed after the October Revolution, had a desire to retire into seclusion, to go into seclusion. But the Optina elders appeared to him from heaven and said: “If you leave your people, you will not be with us.” This seems to be said about Father Elijah. There is no replacement for him. Russia needs it like the wind of the “fine cold spirit” from the Holy Mountain, it is the spirit of God, which is love.”

Very precise, true words. They can also be said about our other Holy Mountain residents who returned to Russia and stood in the way of oblivion that was ready to overwhelm the people and the country. Several people - they composed one of the wonderful chapters in modern history Russian Church.

There, on the Holy Mountain, Father thought about the fate of his Motherland. What awaits her?..

“While on Mount Athos,” he told Nadezhda Zotova, a correspondent for the Annunciation radio program, in December 2007, “I read an article about Kamyshin. It described how when the Emperor abdicated the throne, there was a holy fool in the city - he ran through the streets and shouted: “They turned over the barrel! The barrel has been turned over! But it will turn over again.”

And so it happened. In any case, as for the end of godless power and the revival of the Church, all this happened literally before our eyes. But even twenty years ago no one in the Soviet Union could even think about the very possibility of canonization Royal family. But they were in use historical novels Valentin Pikul, filled with pathological hatred of the last Russian emperor and his crowned wife.

Concluding the story about the Athos period in the life of Father, I would like to note: the “eternal citizenship” of Russian ascetics to the Holy Mountain is sealed in Heaven by their special and fiery love, sanctified by the Queen of Heaven herself. Nothing earthly can break this love. And the Russian Church will remain faithful to Athos forever.

HOMECOMING

The newest period in the history of Optina is inextricably linked with Father Eli, who was the fraternal confessor of the monastery. For each of its inhabitants, it is something very, very personal, deeply personal.
By decree of the Soviet government of November 17, 1987, Optina Pustyn was returned to the Russian Orthodox Church with the opening of monastery. On May 23, by the Decree of His Holiness Patriarch Pimen of Moscow and All Rus', the abbot of the monastery was appointed - Archimandrite Evlogii (Smirnov), professor and first vice-rector of the Moscow Theological Academy.

After a 65-year break, a monastic community was again formed in Optina. The first Divine Liturgy was celebrated here on June 3, 1988, on the feast of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God, in the Gate Church in Her honor. So many pilgrims flocked that some of them stood in the courtyard.

One Optina monk, while still in the world, long before taking monastic vows and coming to the monastery, wrote the following lines: “Your heart is a ship, ready to receive everyone. Your soul is an ocean of human pain." And when this monk first saw Father Elijah in the revived shrine - tired, bent, surrounded by many people, but with a radiant, sympathetic and kind smile, he understood about whom those lines were written by him.

He always has a pile of memorial notes in his hands, and in his heart there are thousands of names of people for whom he prays. Someone asked Father Raphael, Father’s cell attendant: “When does the elder usually go to bed?” - “What time does he go to bed?.. Does he even go to bed at all?..”

One of the children’s essays on the topic “How we went to Optina Pustyn” in March 2007 simply and heartily tells: “... After the service, we went to the monastery to get Holy water and eat prosphora, then we waited for the monk Elijah to bless us.

Before his monastic tonsure, Elder Eli was the monk Ilian and lived on Mount Athos. Then he returned from Athos and left to pursue asceticism in Optina Pustyn. Soon he became mortally ill, and he was tonsured into the schema. In the schema he received the name Eli. But he recovered and became a world-famous old man.
Then we walked around the monastery a little more and went home. Everyone said goodbye to Optina very touchingly, the guys waved from the window, and someone almost cried!”

It is no coincidence that such a person as Father Iliy appeared in Optina in the late 1980s. And now, after twenty years, we can say: he was a blessing for the monastery. Those who had the opportunity to communicate with him for at least a short time will forever remember his smile, warmed by the warmth of his heart, and his kind, sympathetic eyes. Anyone who talked to him for at least a few minutes will never forget this conversation.

In our spiritually impoverished times, the Lord sends spirit-bearing men, filled with grace and strong faith, to overcome our weakness, heal painful relaxation and strengthen us in Divine love.

Soon after the Local Council of 2009, Schema-Abbot Iliy became the confessor of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill and moved to Peredelkino, where the metochion of the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is located. But people still come to Optina to see Father. And to this day, letters addressed to him come to the monastery on Kaluga land from all over the country.

How many people, tormented by sin—dull, despairing, who have lost the meaning and purpose of life—have come to Optina Pustyn over the past twenty years... And everyone who was honored to see him was greeted by Father with love and affection. He almost never talks about himself and, of course, does not consider himself an old man. But is it really all about the name? The most important thing, and this is what people visibly feel in their hearts, is that his soul is fragrant with the fruits of humility and compassion, mercy and kindness.

Having passed Pechera and Athos, Father Eli continued in Optina those traditions of Orthodox monasticism, which Hieromonk Nikon (Belyaev) - spiritual son, novice and successor of the Optina elder Barsanuphius - wrote in his diary in January 1908: “Yesterday evening I was quickly torn away from the diary and went to Father. The conversation went on for a very long time, from 8 to 11 o’clock. Father said a lot of good things, but where can I remember everything? I will again write briefly and fragmentarily.

“The cornerstone of monastic life is humility.” Humility and obedience help to acquire various virtues, especially in the physical sense, but if there is pride, everything is lost. So, on the one hand, pride is a great and disastrous vice, and on the other hand, humility is a saving grace. “Who will I look at? Only the meek and humble, who trembles at My words,” says the Lord. And monasticism is a great boundless sea. It is impossible to exhaust it or swim across it.”

REVIVAL

Father Eli came to Optina in 1989. The monastery lay in ruins and looked as if it had been bombed - ruins of churches, piles of broken bricks and mountains of landfills around. “Nettles grow taller than me near the walls of the monastery,” Optina pilgrim Igor Roslyakov, also known as the future martyr Father Vasily, noted in his diary in the summer of 1988.

“I stopped on the road to the Optina Hermitage,” N.V. Gogol wrote a century and a half earlier, “and carried away the memory of it forever. I think it’s no better on Mount Athos itself. Grace is apparently present there. This can be heard in the outer service itself. I have never seen such monks anywhere. It seemed to me that everything heavenly was talking to each of them. I didn’t ask which of them lived and how they lived: their faces said it all. The servants themselves struck me with the bright tenderness of the angels, the radiant simplicity of their manner; the very workers in the monastery, the very peasants and residents of the surrounding area. A few miles away, approaching the monastery, we can already hear its fragrance: everything is becoming friendlier, bows are lower and there is more sympathy for the person ... "

What Hieromonk Ilian (not yet Iliy) saw in Optina is described in Nina Pavlova’s book “Red Easter”: “The devastation was so depressing that local residents later admitted that none of them believed in the revival of Optina. And if before the revolution there were nine churches in the monastery, now the picture was like this. From the temple in honor of the Kazan Icon Mother of God All that remained were half-collapsed walls—no windows, no doors, and instead of a dome, the sky. When the temple was intact, agricultural equipment was kept in it. We drove straight through the altar.

Antique brick was valuable - durable, beautiful. And the traces of the “bombing” of the monastery that struck everyone at first were the work of brick miners. They came here in teams, bringing truck cranes to load marble tombstones and crosses from graves. Local craftsmen realized that if you make “chairs” from marble, that is, supports for the floor, then such material cannot be demolished. For ease of transportation, the tombstones were hewn, sometimes on the spot. And in the year of the opening of Optina, a fragment of a tombstone was lying on the side of the road with the inscription: “To my beloved brother about...” What is your name, our beloved brother? The secret of this name is now known only to the owners of the house, where, it’s scary to think, a grave cross serves as a support for sex and family happiness.”

Wherever the godless government had no museum interest, it left behind the ruins of Holy Rus'...
“When the first monks arrived at the monastery,” he said local Nikolai Izotov, we looked at them in amazement: some bearded men in robes. Well, just pre-revolutionary cinema!

The first monks were few. And in the summer of 1988, the brethren of the monastery consisted of the father governor, two hieromonks, two hierodeacons and four novices, who were soon joined by Muscovite Igor Roslyakov.

Nina Pavlova quotes the story of Ustina Dementyevna Gaidukova:
—I remember our Optina priest, Hieromonk Rafail (Sheichenko), returned from the camp. Thin as a shadow - only eyes on his face. “Father,” I tell him, “I feel sad without church, I feel sick without Optina! And I want to run away from here.” “No, Ustya, stay here,” he replies. “Our Optina, remember, will be opened, and you will live to see that day.”

Almost forty years passed after that conversation, and the young woman turned into the bent woman Ustya. And when, short of breath from old age, she came to the first Divine Liturgy, she was at first dizzy at the sight of the ruins, not believing in any revival: in the Holy Vvedensky Cathedral, instead of a floor, there was a broken tractor track, and in the gate church there were chipped walls and plywood instead of an iconostasis .
“Is this our beautiful Optina?” the grandmother grieved, remembering the snow-white churches above the river.

But then the first Divine Liturgy took place - and such a wave of grace suddenly struck the heart that strangers, like family, rushed to hug each other. And grandma Ustya began to cry, exclaiming loudly:
- She made it! She made it! But I didn’t believe it. Lord, glory to You, I survived!

On the same day, in distant Gomel, the perspicacious elder schema-nun Seraphima (Bobkova) uttered the same words. She was a ryassophore novice of the Kazan Ambrosievskaya women's hermitage in Shamordino. When her spiritual father, the Monk Nikon (Belyaev), was exiled to the Russian North, she went after him. Shortly before his death, the elder predicted to Mother Seraphima that she would live to see the opening of Optina and return to her native Shamordino.

Fifty-seven years have passed since then. In the year of the resumption of the Optina Monastery, the schema-nice Seraphima turned 103 years old. In the summer of 1990, she returned from Gomel to Shamordino to soon find her last earthly refuge here.

Hieromonk Ilian died in the Optina Desert and the schema-monk Iliy was born. Needless to say, any tonsure is a great event in the life of every monk. And the determination to leave the world and everything in it is not simply given. Sometimes it takes a lifetime to take such a step.

But this is not enough—when a person expresses a desire to become a black man, he is tested. It happens that many years of trial pass while waiting for a solution—and not everyone survives this test, returning back. The world does not see and does not understand this: how much sorrow, pain, struggle, mental turmoil awaits on the way to tonsure and how much after it. One of the greats said: “If they knew the sorrows that await a monk, then no one would go to the monastery. The Lord providentially hides this.”

Who knows the weight of the monastic cross, who looks into the heart of a monk, who confesses the sorrow, the sadness, the wounds that this heart receives, both for himself and for everyone? One Lord.
“Before my eyes, Father was tonsured into the schema in the Church of the Baptist,” recalls N. “I was then a little boy and peeked with one eye at the robes that the monks were holding, and saw Father Elijah crawling in a shirt. The next day my eye was swollen and a huge stye popped out. As far as I know, lay people are not supposed to observe this sacrament.
The whole rite reminds of repentance prodigal son. Those being tonsured begin the journey from the shrine to the ambo; in order to commemorate humility and determination, they overcome this path by crawling; an exception is made only for the sick and infirm. The senior brothers, forming a living corridor, with candles in their hands, follow the newcomers, covering them with their robes.

“The Father’s embrace is open to me, I have longed for my prodigal life, looking at the unsearchable riches of Your mercies, O Savior. Now let me not despise my impoverished heart, for I call to You, Lord, with tenderness: those who have sinned, Father, to heaven and before You.”
...That’s it, the old man is no more, he died and a new one was born. Everything is new: the clothes, the name, and the soul are renewed—and the Lord cannot help but accept such great repentance.
“I remember,” continues N.’s story, “that Father at that moment was so detached from everything worldly that when people came up to him to congratulate him on his tonsure, it was as if he had fenced himself off from them with an invisible wall and stepped aside.

Secondly, I know people who gave very expensive gifts to Patriarch AlexyIIand told how the donation process itself went. His Holiness did not touch the gift, although he thanked him for the offering - the secretary accepted the box and took it somewhere. Common church practice. The gifts are then taken away; the Patriarch most often does not even know what they gave him. He's not interested in this.

Thirdly, it’s hard for me to imagine that Kirill couldn’t overcome such a simple temptation - to show off in some stupid watch. Before whom - before your flock?

Fourthly, I know that monks have a very serious spiritual experience: those who have not confessed are not allowed to take the cup of communion. For example, this is very difficult for me. Because he is aware of one remarkable feature of an important sacrament: insincere confession does not count. That is, you, of course, can lie to the priest, but what's the point? You can simply not confess.

And His Holiness the Patriarch confesses regularly. And if he has any sins, then he will somehow deal with them without our prompting.

So to whom does Kirill, “the most important Christian in Russia,” confess?

In the photo: Schema-Archimandrite Iliy receives confession from Patriarch Kirill

Schema-Archimandrite Iliy was born on March 8, 1932 in the village of Stanovoy Kolodez, Oryol Region, into a peasant family. Graduated in 1949 high school in his native village. He served in the army, where he joined the Komsomol. He graduated from mechanical engineering college in Serpukhov, and after graduation he was assigned to work in the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd region.

He entered the Saratov Theological Seminary, and after its closure he was transferred to the Leningrad Theological Seminary. Later he graduated from the Leningrad Theological Academy. Here he was tonsured a monk. He was successively ordained to the ranks of hierodeacon and hieromonk. He served in various churches of the Leningrad diocese.

From 1966 to 1976 spent in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery.

On March 3, 1976, he was sent to carry monastic obedience on Mount Athos to Greece. Lived in Stary Rusik, served as confessor of the Panteleimon Monastery.

In 1989, he was called to Russia and sent as a confessor to the rebuilding Optina Pustyn.

After the Local Council of 2009, he was elected confessor to his fellow student at the Leningrad Theological Academy, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow. On April 4, 2010, he was elevated to the rank of schema-archimandrite.

Lives in Peredelkino on the territory of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra.

Confession

Confession in Judaism, Christianity and Islam is one of the rites (in Orthodoxy and Catholicism - a sacrament) of repentance, which consists of confessing a committed sin. To make a confession, repentance and the intention not to sin in the future are required.

Confession is an integral part of the life of a Christian. It is the confession of sins by the believer before the priest, who, being only a witness, in the name of Jesus Christ, with special words of permission, absolves the sins of all who sincerely repented.

Saint Theophan the Recluse distinguished between the concepts of “spiritual father” and “spiritual father.” Confessor— this is the priest to whom they confess, the spiritual father— that shepherd whose advice is also guided in life. “You can confess to any priest, but you must be guided by the advice of one,”— spoke the remarkable ascetic of the 20th century, Archimandrite Seraphim (Tyapochkin)."Confessor"

To whom do priests confess?

It is clear that parishioners confess to the priest. But the priests themselves must repent of their sins to someone.

We used to go to the famous elder Father Elijah in Optina Pustyn. But since 2009, when the Local Council elected him as confessor to Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus', you can get to him in, which includes several churches and the summer residence of His Holiness the Patriarchs.

There is no schedule for Father Elijah's stay. You can find out whether he is in Peredelkino by calling the church phone number +7 495 435-53-67 or priest’s assistant Georgy Bogomolov +7 920 871-71-62.

See the site pages about what it is. Scheme of the Peredelkino reserve.

“THE MAIN THING IS TO LIVE AS A CHRISTIAN”

Elder Elijah about ISIS, the simplicity of the Russian people and the correct understanding of life

Nikita Filatov

How two journalists - a Russian and an American - went to Peredelkino to visit Elder Elijah to ask him questions that concern many people today.

The entire editorial team was preparing for this interview. The day before, in the manager’s office, we discussed for a long time what we would ask the elder. Father Elijah (Nozdrin) is 83 years old - a respectable age, and it is wrong to disturb the priest just like that. But the elder still receives people who come to him from all over our country, and from all over the world.

A colleague, a journalist, went with me English version our portal Jesse Dominic. He is American, Orthodox, and graduated from seminary.

If you are going to interview an elder, be prepared for difficulties or temptations. They started at the Kievsky railway station. The train to Peredelkino was supposed to leave at 12:22. We arrived seven minutes before the train left. And so it began!.. Running around the platforms, searching for the right train... There were so many passengers that we only got into the carriage at 12:30. We were lucky: the train was delayed.

And here we are in Peredelkino. We were met at the temple by Georgy Bogomolov, Father Elijah’s assistant. He is both strict and kind. He is always friendly, but I don’t advise anyone to abuse his kindness. He gave us a book and invited us to warm up and drink tea. Father Eli had not yet received anyone - he was performing the Sacrament of Baptism.

We waited for Father in the church in the name of the holy noble Grand Duke Igor of Chernigov and Kyiv. It’s a weekday, there aren’t very many people in the temple. The liturgy is over. Just watching the priest pray is a joy.

The elder reads a prayer. Behind Father Elijah's back, a man holds a child in his arms. While the elder is praying, the baby tries to touch his back with his small hand.

But now the Sacrament is completed. From the pulpit, the elder addresses the people with parting words. He is surrounded by people again. Father Eli, it seems, is ready to listen to requests and delve into the problems of absolutely every person. He talks to one woman for about 20 minutes. Georgy Bogomolov asks the people to take care of the priest: he has been on his feet since early morning. People are silent in understanding, but no one is going to leave. The festive evening service will begin in less than three hours. Father Elijah has practically no time left for rest. And the people are still arriving... Jesse and I are somehow not very sure whether the conversation with the elder will take place.

We leave the temple and head to the house where Father Eli usually receives the people. Along the way we manage to receive a blessing.

Father's house is cozy and warm. Everyone is offered tea and food.

Usually, Father Elijah has spiritual literature read aloud. At this time he accepts another person. I am sure that you can get many answers to your questions before talking with the elder. More than once I noticed that a phrase, for example, accidentally dropped by Georgy, turned out to be appropriate.

I gave the priest the prepared and printed questions. Father Eli looked at them carefully. And here are his answers.

– Russia declared war on ISIS. Father, what could you say to those who are hysterical and say that terrorists will begin to take revenge on our country on its territory?

“ISIS doesn’t listen to anyone. They do what they want. It's okay, we have the power. We have protection, we can defend ourselves.

And let those who raise hysterics themselves subdue ISIS. They are equal in social category to ISIS.

– More and more countries, including Orthodox countries, where state power is involved in the de-Christianization of the people: “anti-discrimination laws” are adopted that protect sodomy; Gay pride parades are held under police protection, for example in Serbia. What do you think is happening?

- This is a provocation. This is provoked on purpose. This was not the case in Serbia. Everything was done, supposedly the Serbs were like that. Everything is turned upside down.

– Father, the Pope speaks everywhere today: at the UN, at international meetings... But the voice of the Orthodox Church does not sound so loud.

– It will be, maybe over time. Because we had state atheism. He did not allow Russia to freely express its opinion. The Church could not defend itself. She was limited in her actions. And even now, in fact, we have a lot of communist stuff. Therefore, the Church has not yet truly emerged from the trenches, since we still have many communists who hold this damned Lenin.

– And young people today don’t even know about Orthodoxy...

- Yes, they know! They know! They just don't want to. So they were made atheistic. We had state atheism. The Church has been defamed. They poured dirt on the Church for 80 years. That's why young people believe all this. The worst thing is that the teaching staff, professors - they were all brought up in atheism. They fool the youth in the same way. It's the same in families. Families are growing up where there is no Church. Families do not raise their children in a normal way. No understanding of life.

– What, in your opinion, is the role of Russia in the modern world?

– As always, as at all times. God gave every person a place to live. Everything you need, opportunities to live life in the country. Russia wants to live as an Orthodox country, in a legal way. She doesn't go beyond her limits. Like any civilized state. To fulfill moral norms and norms of political life.

– Saints Nicholas of Japan and John of Shanghai were able to change the worldview of hundreds of thousands of people in Japan, China, European countries and the USA. Just two people were able to reach many, many. What can ordinary parishioners do to improve the spiritual and moral climate around them?

- Like all. Well, what is possible? Do as Saint Seraphim of Sarov says: create peace in your soul! Sow peace in your soul and many hundreds around you will be saved. The main thing is to live like a Christian. In the West there is a Catholic apostolate to the laity. There is a sermon. If you know good people. We know that there is God, that there is Truth. Live correctly. So that a person can create standards for a correct life. So that he does not suffer and is not tormented by his soul from his internal sins. It is absolutely obvious: there is God, there is the devil. And it is said in the Holy Scripture: many are going into eternal torment! If a person is tortured for, say, ten minutes, or tortured for an hour, that’s scary, right? What if a person falls into eternal torment? This cannot be denied. How can a righteous man who understands be turned away? Don't let this happen. The Gospel teaches us that a person should live correctly. The Church has always said that a person should live a normal, spiritual life. He fought with the devil, who “roars like a lion and wants to devour.”

– What, in your opinion, is the beauty, depth and mystery of the Russian soul, which foreigners love to talk about?

– The simplicity of the Russian person. Gullibility. Why did the revolution win? They said, “Put down your weapons,” and they did. Everything is a lie, a lie. A revolution based on lies, money and the simplicity of the Russian people.

– Father, what could you say to the youth audience of our portal?

– Youth must follow conscience and the law of God. Like this!

After the interview, Jesse and I talked with the priest and asked personal questions. Father Eli paid special attention to the passion for football, the nature of this game, the reasons for the passion for it.

Ten minutes later we returned to the editorial office. We walked to the train satisfied and happy. The street was crowded with people. And the most popular question in Peredelkino was heard: “Does Elder Eli receive?”

Talked with Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin) Nikita Filatov

Video. Elder monk Iliy Nozdrin

about the future of Russia

READERS' COMMENTS

2015-10-14
22:33

Mikhail Bondarenko :
About football...It's simple...Being interested and practicing for health is one thing, being a fan when passion controls a person is another...Then think and analyze for yourself!

2015-10-14
22:13

Alexei:
What about football? Watch or study?

2015-10-14
20:36

Michael:
Yes!

2015-10-14
19:40

Valera:
Thanks for the article. Thanks to Father Elijah.

2015-10-14
18:47

Olga:
Why are you obsessed with football?! It's like the whole interview is about him? Each person is given individual advice. And the author is also good - said “a”, say “b” too....

2015-10-14
18:41

Elena:
Please, dear Nikita Filatov, since we have touched on the topic of football, write what the elder said. This is important for many people; I have two sons who play football.

2015-10-14
18:26

TAMARA:
LONG AND MANY SUMMERS TO O. ILIJA AND TO YOU, NIKITA. SAVE AND SAVE YOU ALL, LORD.

2015-10-14
18:23

Svetlana:
Anyone who needs to get to the priest will get there. I got there very easily. I didn’t even think about it. My friend simply confronted me with a fact. We're going to see Father. One day we got ready and went. We prayed at the liturgy, then, when the priest was resting, akathists were read. When the priest began to receive me, I was almost one of the first to be called by the cell attendant to the priest. And in the priest’s house, both the tea and the pies are incredibly tasty. Although I am not the chosen one. The Lord arranged it this way. While we were waiting, the cell attendant told us that someone came several times and could not get to the priest. That's how it happens too. I didn’t plan anything in advance. I imagined how difficult it was to get to the priest. I just prayed and believed that God’s will would be done, I would talk to the priest. And when God’s will is there, everything works out easily. Thank God for everything!

2015-10-14
17:34

Svyatoslav Ryazantsev :
Normal people who love football, and do not perceive the game as an excuse to get drunk and fight, and go to the stadium to enjoy the games of the teams and throw out their emotions. And then they go to the playgrounds and play, leading a healthy lifestyle. I think that if any parent had a choice - where his son would go - to play football in the yard or to inject drugs or drink beer in the house, everyone would choose the first.
Further. Only people who don’t understand it and don’t want to understand football have such a one-sided and negative perception of football. Such people should be banned from everything in the world. And grace will come. Meanwhile, a person who has been interested in and involved in football since childhood broadens his horizons and deepens his knowledge in many areas - geography, languages, medicine, history, finance, tactics, strategy and much more. From personal experience I can note that people who actively those who show interest in football are much smarter, more competent and more reasonable than those who say that football is just 22 idiots running around after one ball and fanatics on the subway in the evening.

2015-10-14
17:09

Vlad Kuzmenkov:
Every sport that makes money is a passion

2015-10-14
16:52

Irina:
"Father's house is cozy and warm. Everyone is offered tea and treats." Probably offered to a select few. But certainly not ordinary people...
My daughter (9 years old) and I were in Peredelkino on Sunday, we were a little late for the early service because we came from Nizhny Novgorod, and decided to stand and pray also at the late Liturgy.
Then they left the temple and walked along the path to the priest’s house. A nun suddenly came out onto the porch and sternly asked how we got here and were walking around without asking.
We apologized and said that we had come to ask for Father Elijah’s prayers. We were told to leave the territory, allegedly because the priest had moved away. (although we first learned in the church that the priest was there, he just didn’t receive him the day before).
We left unsatisfied and upset. No one offered us any tea or treats :))
We went to the local pie shop and drank there, and then went home.... It's sad... This is the second time we've come and it's all in vain. And we take communion the day before in our city and take a blessing for the trip and pray intensely ourselves, but...

2015-10-14
15:07

Maria F:
The Venerable Elder Barsanuphius of Optina said this about football: “Do not play this game and do not go to watch it, because this game was also introduced by the devil, and its consequences will be very bad.”

Look at the ultra guys who throw slop at each other and start massive fights!
Living in Moscow, I am sometimes afraid to ride the subway in the evening, and when I see a lot of police at certain stations, I understand that today is a match...

2015-10-14
14:26

Konstantin:
Really interesting about football!

2015-10-14
14:00

Evgenia:
Maria

“It’s not like that” with sports in general, because “higher, faster, stronger.”
Long live physical education!

2015-10-14
12:58

Galina Ganicheva:
Thank God for everything!

2015-10-14
12:56

Veronica:
Dear father!

2015-10-14
12:38

Alexei:
Thank you for your work (article), many thanks to Elder Elijah.
If you have the opportunity, write (maybe here in the comments) what Elder Eli said about football?
I think many will be interested, many have children studying in sections.

2015-10-14
12:07

Maria:
What's "wrong" with football?..

Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin)

“We have the power. We have protection. We can defend ourselves"

“Russia wants to live as an Orthodox country, in a legal way. She doesn’t go beyond her limits.”

“Youth must follow conscience and the law of God. Like this!"

With Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin)

EVERYTHING IS IN THE BOOK

More detailed information about Peredelkino and its attractions is in our book.

For a long time, a special category of monks called elders appeared among Russian monasticism. These people are not always of advanced age, since the title does not testify to the years they have lived, but to the gifts of insight and wisdom sent down to them by the Lord, for meekness, humility and victory over their own passions. One of these chosen ones of God is our contemporary Schema-Archimandrite Iliy Nozdrin.

Father Iliy Nozdrin was born in 1932 into a peasant family in the village of Stanovoy Kolodez, Oryol district. At holy baptism he was given the name Alexey - in honor of Saint Alexy, the man of God. Despite the widespread atheism that existed in those years, his family was very religious. As Elder Eli (Nozdrin) himself recalls, he began to pray at the age of three. Having lost his father early, who died at the front in 1942, the boy became a faithful support for his mother, who, after the death of her husband, was forced to raise four children alone.

By the grace of God, from childhood the future Schema-Archimandrite Iliy Nozdrin was gifted not only with hard work, but with a lively and clear mind. Despite all the difficulties of the post-war years, he successfully graduated from high school and, after serving his stipulated term in the army, entered the Serpukhov Mechanical College. After graduation, Alexey Nozdrin (Iliy) was sent to the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd region, where he worked on the construction of a cotton mill.

Years of study

During these years, his desire to serve God manifested itself with particular strength. Leaving the profession of a builder, for which, as it turned out, he had no inclination, Alexey Nozdrin (Iliy) entered the Saratov Theological Seminary to study. However, it was not possible to finish it. As you know, in those years the enemy of the human race chose the head of state Nikita Khrushchev as his weapon, who carried out another persecution of the church. In the wake of this anti-religious campaign, the seminary in Saratov was closed, and Alexey went to Leningrad, where he continued his studies at the theological seminary, and then at the academy.

Academy graduate Nozdrin (Iliy) becomes a monk

Here, on the banks of the Neva, it happened most important event in his life. In March 1966, Alexey Nozdrin (Iliy) took monastic vows with the new name Ilian, which he took in honor of one of the forty Sebastian martyrs. Soon, Metropolitan Nikadim (Rotov) ordained the monk first as a hierodeacon - that is, a monk who has the right to perform deaconal service, and then as a hieromonk - a monk with priestly rank. From then on, he began to perform obediences in a number of parishes in Leningrad and the region.

Years spent in the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery and on Mount Athos

As Father Eli (Nozdrin) later recalled, the formation of his spiritual world was greatly influenced by the example of a native of the Tambov province, who became a monk of the Athos Monastery, and was subsequently canonized, Silouan of Athos. Having the desire to also devote himself to life in the holy monastery, Ilian spent a long period of time, from 1966 to 1976, within the walls Pskov-Pechersky Monastery, where he closely communicates with an outstanding figure of the Russian Orthodox Church - the recognized elder and seer Archimandrite John Krestyankin.

Came true in 1976 cherished dream Father Elijah - he was sent to the monastery of the Great Martyr Panteleimon, located on Holy Athos. Living in one of the mountain monasteries, far from the bustling world, he bore the obedience of the confessor of the monastery brethren, which, of course, provided him with the opportunity to gain rich experience in learning the secrets of human souls.

In Optina Desert

The end of the eighties in Russia became a period of spiritual revival of the country after decades of total godlessness. In order to give this process an additional impetus, the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church used all the reserves at its disposal. By decree Holy Synod Hieromonk Ilian was also summoned from Athos.

He was sent to the once famous Optina Pustyn, which was to be restored after decades of desolation. Eli begins his stay in it by accepting the great schema - the highest monastic rank, which provides for complete renunciation of the world and spiritual reunification with God. According to the church charter, he also receives a new name - Eli, by which he is known today.

Recognition of the Elder's Merits

Optina Pustyn owes much of its revival of its former spiritual greatness to the senile ministry that Schema-Archimandrite Eli has been carrying out there for the past three decades. It was thanks to his tireless work as a coordinator and ideologist that the monastery has become today the largest center of Orthodoxy and pilgrimage.

Since 2009, Father Eli has been fulfilling an important and honorable mission - he is the personal confessor of the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill. To care for his spiritual child, he moved to his residence near Moscow, located in the village of Peredelkino, widely well-known topics that many prominent figures of Russian and Soviet art lived there.

Elder ministry

Carrying out such high obedience, the elder does not stop communicating with ordinary people while in the Optina Desert. Many people experience various difficult situations, which, in their opinion, only Elder Eli (Nozdrin) can understand. How to get an appointment with him is a question that worries many. However, this is a very real task, if it were the Will of God and own wish. Optina monks report that the priest regularly receives pilgrims right at the table in the refectory and devotes most of the day to this.

As a rule, there are a lot of visitors, and this is no coincidence, because the prayer of the elder has a special power of grace, which has been repeatedly confirmed in practice. There is a known case both within the walls of the monastery and outside it when, with his prayer, he brought back to life a seriously wounded and already dying soldier brought from Chechnya. It is known that this episode, widely discussed in medical circles, was not found scientific explanation. Other cases are also known miraculous healings according to the prayers of the elder.

We must remember: first of all, there is God, man has a soul. There is eternity. And in order for this truth to be recognized, we have so many arguments that one person will never count them.

Before we begin to acquaint readers with the answers of Schema-Archimandrite Elijah (Nozdrin) to our questions - questions that concern many Orthodox Christians - I would like to talk about one episode that we witnessed.

Among those who came to Elder Elijah that day was a woman with a sick son - the boy has cerebral palsy and cannot walk. They are from Central Russia. Georgy Bogomolov, as soon as he found out about them, told them to let them through without a queue. They talked with the priest for about seven minutes, no more. A woman raising her son alone (her husband left) decided not to take up too much of the elder’s time. And she probably had something to talk to him about... But there were those in the queue who talked for 20 minutes, and maybe more. And they asked whether it was worth selling the cow. No one eavesdropped - we ourselves accidentally witnessed such a conversation.

Many years ago I heard Georgy Bogomolov once throw into the crowd: “They come and start talking about cats...” At that time I completely did not understand the meaning of these words. What kind of cats? What cats should you talk about with the old man? Now I am personally convinced that they are talking not only about cats...

And then we met the mother of this sick boy and, while we were waiting for a taxi, we started talking. An amazing woman: calm, persistent. Her son Victor suffered serious complications after being vaccinated. But I didn’t see any melancholy in the eyes. She came to the Church three years ago. Now she feels much better. And a few minutes of communication with Father Eli was enough for her to understand something important.

But let’s continue the story about our conversation with the elder.

– Father, now there are many broken up young families. And not only young spouses, but also those who have lived together for 20–25 years, get divorced. Why is this happening? What needs to be done to save the family?

– It’s all about our morals, of course. We must remember: first of all, there is God, man has a soul. There is eternity. And in order for this truth to be recognized, we have so many arguments that one person will never count them. For this, one might say, even a million is not enough. Everything says so. Look at yourself, man! Look around you! Look at life, at history. We have Holy Scripture, which from Adam to this time bears witness to God. And how many examples, phenomena of the other world. We also have thousands of these examples! All this speaks of Divine Truth! There is nothing against it! We will not be mistaken if we say that it is zero. Only the charm of the devil. And those people are unhappy in the full sense of the word who do not want to recognize the Truth. Recognize it as Divine Truth. Like a real story.

And it would seem that we have achieved so much thanks to Christianity, thanks to a morally stable life! A lot of things: both in technology and in culture - a lot of things! In development... For example, rockets, and now wireless phones... Thanks to the New Testament, thanks to Christianity.

But man does not want to admit that he is eternal. That he has a soul. Of course, this is from the devil. And if a person lived according to the Law, he would see how poor he is if he is without God! How unhappy he is - both in this world and in the future, which will inevitably be. Ask any grandmother, ask a scientist. After all, we have so many great scientists. The first university was founded by Lomonosov - he was a deeply religious man. How he talks about the sun! Behold, this terrible mass is like a spark before You - before You, before God! Look at his poems. There have been some of the greatest scientists in the past and this century.

When we live a godless life, the life in us becomes impoverished and falls. Man without God is diminished

What you asked about is not from the teaching, no. This is only from the corruption of the soul. These are young people who do not want good things for themselves, who do not want to penetrate history. They don't know anything! They refuse God. They are absolute laymen. Look, they don’t understand life, they don’t know life! And when we live a godless life, of course, the life in us becomes impoverished and falls. Man without God is diminished. He does not truly live: neither internally nor externally. However, he does not want to recognize what is truly positive in life: recognize God, recognize eternity, recognize the immortality of his soul. He doesn't want to. Not because he doesn’t have proof, evidence, but the devil, of course, is just playing around. And just say to them: Lord, let me understand Your Truth! Or the first words of the Savior: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” This is eternity, this is life right. And if in life there is such a consistent - like now - departure from God, then that’s it! This threatens with dire consequences.

Now we have a brochure “The Last Call”. It is unknown, maybe it was an adult, but they say it was written by a child. Many have read it. Of course, it’s scary to even think about, I don’t even want to say what this atheism, this retreat, threatens.

So you asked about family. A family is a unit, it is a small part of our society. The state of the family, the strength of the family, determines the state of society. The weakening of the family threatens with dire consequences. All this is a loss of morality, a loss of conscience. Loss of consciousness. Loss of direction, of what is most important in life.

– Father, what does Orthodoxy mean for Russia?

– Thank God that now it is at least called Russia. At least the word in the name of the country is Russia. An ancient word. How many centuries has it already existed? The communists wanted to completely obscure the entire past. How can a plant develop if its roots are cut off? This is how it was with us under the Soviet of Deputies, under the Soviet regime. They didn't want anything old, only new. But this is demonic - it was the devil who set people up to throw away our history, Russia, our roots. Thousands greatest heroes and generals! How many of our inventors are in the past, no matter what! They didn't mention it. Only: revolution! revolution! - as this one shouted, burry. He only needs a revolution. That's all. Of course, Russia is a great country. Holy Rus'! It was called Holy Russia. Indeed, she was great. What great, healthy, strong people they were! What are we all now? Small fry turns out. Even if you look at the appearance.

No, it cannot be denied: thank God, now many people are coming to faith. They come deliberately. This makes me happy. It's nice, of course. People fill churches and realize why a person lives, what life is and the meaning of human life. Not just in wasting your life. It is in our high morality that Christianity gave birth to. Such is the achievement here of correct life and the realization of our eternal life.

– Why do the holy fathers encourage abstinence so much? What does it give us?

- Well, of course! This goes without saying, abstinence. (Laughs.) Of course, asceticism is built on abstinence. Our morality, our strength, our consciousness are built on abstinence. If you don’t abstain, how can you? The church established its own charter. To our deep regret, people discredit the Church, priests, and bishops. They do not know the essence of our spiritual life at all. Church life, do you understand? After all, how did they fight before? For Faith, Tsar and Fatherland!

Our morality, our strength, our consciousness are built on abstinence

If there is no abstinence, it will lead to bad consequences. In the family, for example. Take children: their parents allow them a lot. There are many examples of children killing their parents. From what? Because they were allowed too much! Do you understand? This is a matter of education. And the Church is the first to educate a person. For example, in Lent. Not every family will allow you to buy everything they can: for food, for clothing - this is a luxury.

So the son asks: father, buy me a car. Wait, earn money yourself, then buy: a car or something else, an apartment, for example. Then it will be valuable to you. And when all this is handed to you on a silver platter... You have to work hard, then you will appreciate your car, take care of it, even drive more carefully.

– Father, you mentioned bishops. Who is a bishop in the Church? What should be the attitude of the flock towards him?

– If we talk in a secular way, then the bishop is the boss. Christianity must be understood. People attack faith, but they do not have any precise concepts about the Christian faith, about what faith is. Where does the history of Christianity begin? We have the holiday of Trinity. What is the Trinity? This is the descent of the Holy Spirit on the apostles, and therefore on the world. The Lord promised that after His Ascension He would send the Holy Spirit. But we don’t understand... Without knowing faith, we don’t understand the essence of life. After all, everything - from a bug to a huge animal: an elephant, a camel; from a small petal to huge trees - everything lives only thanks to the action of God’s grace. The action of the power of God, the Wisdom of God. Even if the grace-filled power is taken away from a repeat offender, who is scary to even talk about, he will not be able to live even a day. Everything lives only by grace. Youth, godless people, different denominations, confessions - God preserves everything only by His grace. And into the world after suffering and the Resurrection, after His Ascension, the Lord promised to send the Holy Spirit. First to the apostles, and through them to the whole world. The first successors of the Holy Spirit are the apostles. They initiated the leaders of the first followers of the Savior. You should read about it. Unfortunately we don't know New Testament, the history of Christianity.

By the way, theological science is the most extensive of all branches of knowledge. After all, it originates in the Old Testament. But, unfortunately, people don't want to know this. The devil, of course, holds everyone back. Some people believe that a believer is a narrow-minded person. Like Khrushchev, who said that fools cross themselves. Of course, he himself was confused. How many people died through him - thousands of people! Without thinking, he gave up Crimea. And Crimea has always been Russian. A sea of ​​Russian blood was spilled there. He turned out to be a traitor. And he believed that believers could be sent to a madhouse. Yes, that’s how it was done, that’s how it was. How many people were sent! And I almost got there myself.

– Father, I would like to receive your comment on Ukraine. Now schismatics want to take away the Kiev Pechersk Lavra and are collecting signatures on the Internet. How should Ukrainians, how should Russian people react to this?

– This Ukrainian unrest began with the Maidan. The revelry of these presumptuous friends. How many thousands of people died. And how much has been destroyed? And to this day the consequences. Impudence. It's easy for bandits to seize power. Conscience does not exist for them. Law too. As they say: no law is written for fools.

– Recent years 20 Psychics, fortune tellers, and all kinds of healers have become extremely popular. People are ready to pay them a lot of money for their “help,” often even the last. What is the danger of such hobbies?

The worst thing for us is school, where children do not receive the correct understanding of the essence of life

- This is all a retreat. Loss of real faith. Consequences of godlessness. In the old pre-revolutionary times, we had missionary seminaries and theological schools. Then they gave the correct concepts about faith. And when sects and abnormal teachings arise, these are all, of course, products of demonic power. A person strives to know something true, but there is no right direction, no right teaching. The worst thing for us is school, where children do not receive the correct understanding of the essence of life. And, of course, when a person wants to know something beyond the ordinary, he rushes to all sorts of bait. It's like a bird. Take a chicken: there is no good food for it, and if you give it some sand, it will peck at it too. So are people. They become infected with all sorts of sects.

– Father Eli, how to deal with pride? So you go to church and pray, but you just can’t overcome it in yourself. There are also worries, doubts, and despondency. How to resist them?

– Remember that our entire earthly life is short. It is not guaranteed even for a single day in this world. But the Lord pointed us to eternity. The Lord could create everything for this life. He could deliver from the devil and from everything abnormal and turn a person to Himself. But since man is the crown of creation, he is endowed with will. Here is an example of the 12 apostles, and among them is Judas. The God-Man Savior knows that Judas will betray Him. He could have preserved him, like the other apostles. The Lord gave him everything so that he would believe, but... So the Lord leads every person to good, but retains his will. We are temporary. Our whole life is too short, too limited. And the Lord points to eternity. How many empires, how many states there were... The Lord shows us our future endless eternity. published

Nikita Filatov talked with Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin)