Venerable Ambrose of Optina (+1891)
The Venerable Father Ambrose (in the world Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov) was born on 23 November 1812 in the village of Bolshaya Lipovitsa in the Tambov province. His father, Mikhail Fyodorovich, served as sexton in the church, and his grandfather was a priest. Alexander was the sixth child of Mikhail’s large family. Little Alexander was a very lively, restless and cheerful child. He was taught Church Slavonic, the Horologion and the Psalter at home. On feast days his father always took Alexander with him, and in church he sang and read together with his parents. After finishing the Tambov theological school, in 1830, Alexander fell gravely ill. In this desperate state the young man made a vow before God that if he recovered he would go to a monastery. The Lord heard his prayer. He was healed. “After my recovery I hesitated for four whole years; I could not make up my mind, it was very hard for me to part with the world,” Father Ambrose himself later recalled. After finishing seminary he taught Greek at the Lipetsk theological school, but the years went by, and the voice of conscience over his unfulfilled vow weighed ever more heavily on the young man’s soul. He turned for advice to Father Hilarion (Fokin), whose lips uttered truly prophetic words. “Optina needs you,” he said to the future monk. “Go to Optina!” On 8 October 1839, a Sunday, Alexander went to Optina. He was received by the Venerable Leo. On 2 April 1840 the saint was enrolled among the brethren of the monastery.
For some time he was the cell attendant of the Venerable Leo. In November 1840 he was moved from the monastery to the skete and appointed assistant to the cook. In the summer of 1841 Alexander was clothed in the rason. The needs of his obedience often took him to the venerable fathers Leo and Macarius. “He will be a great man,” Father Leo said of him prophetically, seeing in him his spiritual heir.
On 29 November 1842 Alexander was tonsured a monk with the name Ambrose, in honour of Saint Ambrose of Milan, and on 2 February 1843 he was ordained deacon. After this Father Ambrose was placed under obedience to the Venerable Macarius and helped the saint receive visitors. The years spent in this obedience with the God-inspired teacher gave the future lamp of Optina great experience.
On 9 December 1845 Nicholas, bishop of Kaluga, ordained Father Ambrose hieromonk. Because of illness, and partly because of his rank, on 2 January 1846 he was released from the duties of Father Macarius’s cell attendant. And in August the Most Reverend Nicholas blessed him to take up, together with the Venerable Macarius, the labour of guiding the brethren of the monastery and the visitors. Hieromonk Ambrose was then thirty-four.
The Lord, who was preparing the young spiritual father for a great ministry, permitted a grave and lengthy illness to come upon him, which lasted from September 1846 to the summer of 1848. Father Ambrose’s condition was so serious that no one any longer hoped for his recovery. He was tonsured into the great schema without change of name. In the summer of 1848 the elder’s health gradually improved, but it was never fully restored, and from time to time it again made itself sharply felt. In 1860, in 1868–69 and in 1871 he again had to endure grave illnesses, which weakened him greatly. “In a monastery the sick do not die quickly,” Father Ambrose used to say later, “but their illness drags on and on until it bears true fruit. In a monastery it is even necessary to be a little ill, so that the flesh rebels and rises up less, especially in youth, and fewer foolish thoughts come into one’s head.” “God does not require bodily labours of the sick,” the saint said, “but only patience with humility and thanksgiving.”
After his recovery Father Ambrose helped the Venerable Macarius greatly in his many labours: he received visitors, with his blessing translated books and prepared them for publication, and some of the brethren of the monastery lived under his spiritual guidance. To those who had sinned but repented with a pure heart and set out on the path of amendment he was merciful beyond measure. He made no distinction between rich and poor, worthy and unworthy, like the Saviour, who ate and drank with publicans and harlots so as to set them on the way of truth. The saint never condemned the sins of others, and lovingly drew those who turned to him; only slander he could not bear, and he was quite implacable towards those who slandered their neighbour.
The heart of the Venerable Ambrose’s ministry was the guidance of the spiritual life of the brethren of the Optina hermitage, whom he loved dearly, and he laboured tirelessly for the salvation of each of them. Once the elder several times warned Hieromonk Palladius, who was in perfect health, to receive the sacrament of Unction and be tonsured into the great schema, which at Optina was usually done before death; but the hieromonk refused. At last he did agree, but while he was preparing for the anointing he was struck by paralysis and lost the power of speech. The fathers anointed him, gave him communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, and he died that same night. The saint’s gift of foresight showed itself many times on other occasions too, and Father Ambrose always directed it towards the spiritual profit of the brethren.
After the death of the Venerable Macarius, Father Ambrose gathered disciples around him and himself continued the work of publishing books begun by Father Macarius. Under his direction some twenty books were published: works of the holy fathers and other books profitable for the soul.
The Venerable Ambrose helped the poor and needy a great deal; he talked with simple village people with wonderful humility and sympathy, felt their pains and always tried to comfort them. Once a peasant woman came to Father Ambrose in tears and asked him to teach her how to feed her master’s turkeys, which had been entrusted to her, so that they would not die. The elder asked how she fed them and gave her suitable advice. When Father Ambrose was told that he was wasting his time in idle conversation, he answered lovingly: “But her whole life is in those turkeys! Her peace of mind depends on them, doesn’t it?! And her soul is as precious to the Lord as the soul of a person with loftier concerns!”
Father Ambrose showed special care for sick women, girls, widows, orphans and the needy, and tried to settle them in one of the monasteries that were under his spiritual care. Among these houses a special place was held by the convent of Shamordino, founded by the saint himself.
The miracles worked by the saint were countless. Through his prayer the sick were healed and those in peril were delivered from disaster. By his grace-filled word suffering and sorrowful people were comforted. Well-known writers and public figures of the nineteenth century came to Father Ambrose at Optina: F. M. Dostoevsky, V. Solovyov, K. Leontiev (afterwards the monk Clement), A. P. Tolstoy, L. N. Tolstoy, M. P. Pogodin and others. The people came in an unbroken stream, and not one of them went away uncomforted. The saint made everyone wise with the word of God, explained to them the meaning of the Gospel and of the words of the holy fathers, and set their lives and labours on a course pleasing to God. Asked how to understand the words of Holy Scripture, “Be ye wise as serpents,” the Venerable Ambrose explained: “A snake that wishes to exchange its old skin for a new one always looks for a narrow crack and passes through it, leaving its old skin behind on the way. So too a person who seeks to put off the old man must begin to walk the narrow way of fulfilling the commandments of the Gospel. In time of danger and trouble a snake guards its head above all the members of its body. So too a person must strive above all to preserve the beginning and head of every good thing: faith. As long as true faith is preserved, it is still possible to put everything right.”
The elder’s strength gradually declined. In the summer of 1890 Father Ambrose went, as usual, to the convent of Shamordino. At the end of the year he tried three times to return to Optina, but because of illness he could no longer do so. The venerable father took this threefold hindrance as a manifestation of the will of God, and no longer thought of leaving Shamordino.
On 10 October 1891 the Venerable Ambrose reposed. The news of his death quickly spread throughout Russia. The stream of the faithful did not cease. The saint’s spiritual children gathered at the house of Shamordino from every side. About eight thousand people came to the funeral. Out of love and reverence for the departed elder a disagreement arose between the Optina and Shamordino monasteries: where should the father, dear to both houses, be buried? To settle the question they turned to the Holy Synod, which designated the Optina hermitage as the venerable father’s place of eternal rest. “Father Macarius was a great man. God grant that I be counted worthy to be buried at his feet!” Father Ambrose often said in his lifetime. And indeed his remains were buried beside the Venerable Macarius. On his gravestone are carved the words of the Apostle Paul: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Cor. 9:22). These words express exactly the essence of the Venerable Father Ambrose’s labours on earth.
