The Elders of Optina: Elder Leonid

Spiritual Disciples of St. Paisius Velichkovsky

Adapted from the Synaxarion by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonos Petra

The work of the venerable Moses and Anthony had created conditions favorable to the establishment of startchestvo, which came into its own with the arrival at Optina in 1829 of Starets Leonid, who was already sixty and was to spend the remaining twelve years of his life at the Skete.

Father Leonid (Nagolkin) came of a family of modest standing from Karachev in the government of Orel. Having spent his youth as a commercial traveler, he had acquired a wide experience of mankind. He had entered Optina as a novice at the age of twenty-nine but stayed for only two years and received the Habit at White Bluff Hermitage (Belye Berega). Not long after, on his ordination to the priesthood, he met Starets Theodore who, after some years at Neamts (the monastic training-ground of Saint Paisius in Moldavia), had returned to spread the hesychast tradition in Russia. When Leo became Abbot of White Bluff (1804) Theodore joined him there. At the end of four years Leonid resigned, received the Great Habit under the name of Leo (Lev), and went with Starets Theodore and Cleopas (another hermit from the Monastery of Neamts), to devote himself to prayer in the forest. As many faithful eager for instruction were drawn by the spiritual renown of Theodore, the three hermits decided to flee the district. Leonid and Cleopas settled in a skete of the distant Monastery of Valaam where Theodore joined them, after a three-year confinement in another monastery following calumnious accusations. At Valaam monks were always coming to seek their counsel, for the light of their lives could no more be hidden there than before. Suspicious of their reputation, the Abbot of Valaam complained of them to the Metropolitan of St. Petersburg as “innovators.” Although cleared of that charge, the three hermits thought it best to leave Valaam, and they settled at the Monastery of St. Alexander of Svir (Aug. 30) where, five years later, Starets Theodore entered into rest (1822). The loss of his spiritual father was a severe trial for Leonid. He took refuge in God who, from that time, gave him the gift of continual prayer and of discernment of thoughts. He wanted to retire to the Skete of Optina but the brethren would not let him go.

In 1829 Starets Leonid was able at last to leave the Monastery of Svir and to settle at Optina with six disciples. The perfection of his ascetic life, his wisdom, his gift of insight into the hidden depths of souls, as well as his kindness and compassion for sinners and for the distressed, won him the love and respect of everyone. He was tall, of tremendous physical strength and, in spite of advanced years and a malady that made him corpulent, always completely alert. He had long, yellow-grey hair like the mane of a lion, a bright, penetrating eye and a lively, familiar way of speaking that was never without a touch of humor. Those who encountered him received an impression of undaunted strength and majestic calm that gave them a sense of peace and confidence, so that in his presence hearts opened to God, and disappointments and evil thoughts vanished. People crowded into his cell, which became the spiritual center of the monastery, and each person was able to ask him the questions he wanted while the white-clad Elder sat on his bed and continued his usual manual work of plaiting belts. To some he revealed their secret thoughts to help them change their lives, others he healed by reading them a prayer or by anointing them with holy oil. He taught, exhorted, making himself all things to all men without ever losing his interior recollection and prayer. Some monks, however, were scandalized at a hesychast conversing so freely, and often for so many hours, with people of all sorts and conditions. Others accused him of innovation in his administration of the sacrament of Confession. Fr. Leonid answered that the practice of revelation of thoughts and of spiritual conversation with an Elder, which goes back to the origins of monastic life, does not aim at replacing the sacrament of Confession but a completing of it. It is not enough to listen to an often mechanical confession of sins and to read a prayer of absolution: the conscience must also be set right and freed, and the ability to advance towards God must be restored to the person in all his uniqueness.

Those who encountered him received an impression of undaunted strength and majestic calm that gave them a sense of peace and confidence, so that in his presence hearts opened to God, and disappointments and evil thoughts vanished.

Nevertheless, the Elder’s activity continued to excite jealously and suspicion. In 1836, a denunciation accusing Abbot Moses and Starets Leonid of wanting to ruin the Monastery for the benefit of the Skete was delivered to the Bishop of Kaluga by the secret police. The Bishop, who had already made plain his opposition, summoned Moses and reprimanded him severely. Leonid was ordered to live at the monastery, and was forbidden to wear the Great Habit or to receive visitors. The Elder obeyed the first two injunctions but could not drive away the crowd of faithful who pressed at the door of his new cell. When the Abbot in fear warned him that the Bishop would deport him for his rebelliousness, he replied: “Well, what of it? Even if you send me to Siberia, even if you make a bonfire and put me on it, I’ll still be the same Leonid! I don’t ask anyone to come to see me, and I can’t drive away those who do come. Many, especially of the simple folk, are perishing for foolish reasons and crying for spiritual help. How can I disregard their needs?” Unable to say a word to the contrary, Abbot Moses silently withdrew.

Persecution of Father Leonid extended to his disciples. He was accustomed to send those of his spiritual daughters who desired to consecrate themselves to God to take counsel of a virtuous nun called Anthia at the Monastery of Belev. The confessor of this Convent took umbrage at the reputation Anthia gained from this, for she was not under his spiritual direction, and he accused the Starets of disseminating a new heresy by allowing a nun to hear confessions and to give absolution in his name. He was even labeled a “free-mason” for recommending nuns to read Saint Dorotheus of Gaza! When the matter was brought to the attention of Bishop Damascene of Tula, on whom the Convent depended, he ordered the expulsion of Anthia. As for the Starets, he was transferred to an isolated cell and the injunction against receiving visitors was renewed. But that turned out to be a complete dead letter, for it could not prevent crowds coming to bow down at his feet and kiss the hem of his garment. He would undoubtedly have been exiled to Solovki in the Far North, but the providential intervention of the Metropolitans Philaret of Kiev and Philaret of Moscow, who had been alerted to the situation in a letter from Starets Macarius, supported by Saint Ignatius Brianchaninov (30 Apr.), prevented this. Anthia was recalled to Belev and subsequently became Abbess there, while the Bishops of Tula and Kaluga went to Optina together in order to reinstate Father Leonid in his charismatic ministry. The Saint gave up his soul to God not long after, on 11 October 1841, at the age of seventy-two. He left as his successor Starets Macarius, his fellow-laborer and close friend who had become, as it were, his “other half” during the last seven years of his life.

By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile, / and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance. / By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe! / O our holy father Leonid, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!

Troparion, Tone 8

Elder Leonid of Optina is commemorated on October 11th.