Our righteous Father Moses of Optina.
Our Righteous Father Moses of Optina was born Timothy Putilov on January 15, 1782 in Borisoglebsk in Yaroslavl Province of pious parents. In 1805, with his brother Jonah, he entered the Sarov Hermitage when it was flourishing under the spiritual leadership of its Superior, Hieromonk Isaiah. Abbot Nazary, who later restored the Monastery of Valaam, was then struggling at Sarov as a recluse, and so was Saint Seraphim, who had been at Sarov for thirty-seven years. The young brothers profited greatly from their wisdom and example, and Jonah remained at Sarov Hermitage, eventually becoming its abbot with the monastic name of Isaiah. Timothy, however, left for Moscow in 1808 to put in order official paperwork required by the government, but instead of returning to Sarov entered the Svensk Monastery in 1809, apparently drawn to it by the renown of the elders there who were, for the most part, disciples of Saint Païsius Velitchkovsky. The following year, when the Holy Synod refused him permission to receive the monastic tonsure, he returned to Moscow again to put his papers in order, but instead of returning to the Svensk Monastery, sought out the anchorites in the Roslavl forests, of whom he had heard much while at Svensk.
In 1811 he made himself a cell in the forest and joined the eremetical life of the experienced solitaries living there, where, without official approval, he was secretly tonsured a monk with the name of Moses, for Saint Moses the Ethiopian, whose warm and welcoming hospitality to all he imitated. He lived in the Roslavl forests for ten years, with a brief return to Svensk for protection in 1812 because of the Napoleonic invasion of Russia. In 1816 he was joined by his younger brother Alexander, who was eventually tonsured with the name of Anthony. In 1820, Father Moses visited Optina Hermitage, which he had visited before, where the Abbot introduced him to Philaret, then Bishop of Kaluga, but better known in his later post as Metropolitan of Kiev. Bishop Philaret had already conceived the idea of founding a skete at Optina, and proposed to Father Moses that he move to Optina with his brotherhood and found a skete in any part of the forest belonging to Optina Hermitage.
Father Moses arrived at Optina, accompanied by three of his fellow anchorites from the Roslavl forests, in June, 1821, and began the heavy work of clearing space in the forest for the skete and building the first cells to live in. By 1826 Father Moses had been elevated to the priesthood under compulsion by Bishop Philaret, and assumed the duties of Abbot of Optina Hermitage.
In his tenure as abbot from 1826 till his repose in 1862, he transformed Optina into a large flourishing monastery that became a great spiritual center for all Russia. Besides successfully undertaking immense labors to expand the existing buildings and add to them substantially, he was responsible for introducing into Optina the form of spiritual guidance known as eldership for which Optina became renowned, and of which the Elder Ambrose was perhaps the most remarkable example. The Elders of Optina received great gifts of guiding their spiritual children with astonishing clairvoyance and insight into the secret wounds of their souls. The Elder Moses is notable among them in that, while he could also have shown in himself the grace of eldership, he dedicated himself rather to the spiritual direction of Optina Monastery as a whole, together with all the cares of building it up materially; and while he did not show the striking gifts of the other Elders, it was he who fought to establish eldership itself, properly understood and practised, at Optina, when eldership and the candid revelation of one’s thoughts to one’s elder was suspected as a heretical teaching by some, and he laid the foundation upon which all the other Elders flourished.
As with Saint John the Almsgiver, it is only when one reads Saint Moses’ full life, with incident upon incident illustrating his magnanimity, his unshakeable faith in God, his courageous practice of life-giving mercy and forgiveness rather than strict justice according to human conceptions, that the cumulative effect imprints upon one’s mind the image of Christlike mercy and goodness that turns all worldly calculations of justice and retaliation on their head and shows the goodness of God that makes His sun to rise on the just and the unjust, and sends His rain on the good and on the evil alike.
Saint Moses built up Optina by faith, looking to God for help – both in his ambitious but never unjustified construction projects, and in liberally providing for the poor. He was so far from trusting in hoarded money that after his death all that was found in his possession was a coin hidden wedged in the crack of a drawer. His brother the righteous Anthony observed that had Father Moses seen it, he would have spent that too. In the life of Saint John the Almsgiver, which we have noted the Elder Moses’s life resembles in its spirit of mercy and magnanimity, if not in its outward circumstances, it is recorded that at the time of his death Saint John had only one small coin called a trimision to his name, and he directed that it too be given away to the poor.
It is in reading the full life of the Elder Moses, and witnessing the persecutions he endured for many years from his bishop (this was not Metropolitan Philaret of Kiev who always supported him, but Nicholas, who was Bishop of Kaluga for seventeen years) with almost superhuman patience, faith in God, and good will towards his persecutor, that one begins to grasp his spiritual greatness. And it is in reading the many incidents of his dealing with others that one perceives his gentle sense of humor, and his ingenuity in dealing with others and in hiding his own accomplishments. The following incidents are from The Elder Moses of Optina, translated and copyright by Holy Nativity Convent in Brookline, which we strongly recommend to all.
Some of the Superior’s actions appeared to be unfounded to one of the old inhabitants of Optina. He struggled with himself for a long time, wanting to explain this to the Superior but fearing to upset him. Finally he decided to say his thoughts—“no matter what happens!” he thought. He went to the Father Archimandrite and told him, “Batiushka, there is a thought that’s bothering me a lot.”
“And what does your thought say to you, my brother?”
“Well, Batiushka, my thought says to me that you’re not doing this right, and you’re not doing that right . . .” and he explained everything that was on his mind.
Father Archimandrite Moses listened to it all silently and attentively, then quietly answered with a smile, “My brother, tell your thought that this is none of its business.” And with that he dismissed the monk, who was disarmed by the Superior’s meekness and went away completely at peace. Later he would laugh at himself and at how easily all his doubts had been resolved. (page 179)
Father Archimandrite Moses forbade taking walks after the evening rule. Once as he was walking at this time along a forest path, he saw two novices coming toward him. One of them ran off as soon as he saw the Superior; the other hid in a bush by the road. The Father Archimandrite could not but notice this, but he continued on his way, came up to the bushes on the other side of the road directly opposite the spot where the novice was hiding, and paced back and forth near him for a long time. He kept walking around those bushes, talking loudly to himself, “How strange! Or was it an illusion? Why, I saw it with my own eyes. There were people here—they were coming toward me—where did they go? Or else I had an illusion . . .” The novice could hear all this and sat there scarcely breathing. However, Father Archimandrite Moses did not come up to his hiding place, but only walked around the bushes opposite and then went away. The next day the novice himself came and asked and received forgiveness. (pages 189–90)
During the time Father Moses was abbot, a certain rich merchant stayed at a monastery guest house with his grown-up son. Because of unexpected flooding they had to remain several days. This merchant did not trust monks and was not well disposed toward them, and he was only staying so long at the monastery because he was forced to by circumstances. Seeing that the monastery guestmaster had diligently waited on them for several days and brought them meals, he once said to him at dinner time, “You sure treat us well, but just how much are you going to charge us later?”
“We’re not going to charge you anything.”
“What, nothing?”
“This is how we do it—we have a box on the wall and you just put in there whatever amount God puts into your heart to give.”
“Why, of course I’ll put something in, but the next person won’t, and maybe there will be a lot of people like him, and so the monastery will go broke feeding everyone for free!”
“Our Father Abbot says that even if ninety-nine people do not give anything, God will send a hundredth person to make up for them all.”
At this the merchant looked at his son and said, “Well, my boy, it looks like that hundredth person is you and me.” Astonished at the Superior’s faith, he became a regular benefactor of Optina Hermitage from that time forth. (pages 200–1)
He was especially kind to the poor and needy, and regarded them with great love and sympathy because he had himself experienced poverty. He did not become angry because of constant demands and importunity, but always cheerfully gave as much as he could. Once the Father Archimandrite was sitting in the sitting room with guests when an elderly, poorly dressed woman came into the front room, carrying a pillow. Father Moses saw her through the open doors and came out to her in the front room as usual, asking, “What do you need?”
“Batiushka, won’t you buy a pillow?”
“No, we don’t need one.”
“Batiushka, please do us a kindness, take one—I have hungry children at home, we have nothing to eat.”
“And how much does this pillow cost?”
“A ruble and a half.”
“No, that’s too much, you can have a ruble.”
With these words Father Moses went into his bedroom, picked up a five-ruble note, returned to the front room and gave it to the old woman, pretending it was a ruble and muttering, “That’s too much, that’s too much.” The woman bowed and left. The Father Archimandrite returned to his guests, but had just had time to sit down again when the old woman, who had made out the bill in the hallway, opened the door again and said, “Batiushka, you must have made a mistake.”
“Just go on, go on. I told you that’s all it’s worth.” The old woman went off, and the guests had only heard a conversation about a one ruble coin. Father Moses would often conceal his good works in this way. (pages 203–4)
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