Macarius of Optina

Venerable Macarius of Optina (in the world Mikhail Nikolaevich Ivanov, 1788-1860) was a hieroschemamonk and one of the great elders of Optina, disciple of Venerable Leonid and of Elders Athanasius and Paisius, protector of the writings of the Fathers and of the translations of Saint Paisius Velichkovsky. He belongs to the Synaxis of the fourteen venerable elders of Optina. He is commemorated on 7 September, the day of his repose, by the old calendar, and in the synaxis of the Optina elders.

Youth

He was born on 20 November (3 December) 1788 in the village of Shchepyatino, Dmitrovsk district, Oryol province, to a noble family. He was the eldest of four brothers, Alexei, Pavel, Pyotr, and a sister, Varvara. His mother, Elizaveta Alexeevna, died of consumption in 1797. He studied at Karachev, with his father's sister, but at fourteen he had to enter the district treasury at Lgov as an accountant, and three years later became head of a desk at the Treasury Chamber in Kursk. In 1806, after his father's death, he left the service and went to the inherited estate.

In 1810 he went on pilgrimage to the Ploshchansk Hermitage of the Mother of God, forty versts from the estate, and decided to stay. On 16 November 1810 he was received into the monastery, and on 24 December he was tonsured a rassophore with the name Melchizedek. On 7 March 1815 he was tonsured into the mantle with the name Macarius, in honour of Saint Macarius the Great. In that year Elder Athanasius Zakharov, a disciple of Paisius Velichkovsky, moved to Ploshchansk, and in him he found a spiritual guide.

At Optina

In 1834 he moved to Optina. His guide there was Venerable Leonid (in the schema Lev). Thanks to Elder Macarius the manuscripts gathered at Optina and the translations of Saint Paisius Velichkovsky were published. He was greatly helped by his spiritual children, the philosopher and writer I. V. Kireevsky and his wife, Natalia Petrovna. Under his influence a whole school of editors and translators of spiritual literature formed. A. K. Tolstoy, A. S. Khomyakov, N. V. Gogol and A. N. Muravyov came to him for confession and blessing. For seven years Elders Lev and Macarius led the spiritual life of the community and of many thousands of people.

Two years before his death he received the great schema. To the end he received spiritual children and pilgrims, guiding and blessing them. He fell asleep on 7 (20) September 1860.