Moses of Optina

Venerable Moses of Optina (born Timothy Ivanovich Putilov, 15 January 1782 to 16 June 1862) was a schema-⁠archimandrite, abbot and elder of Optina Pustyn, the first of the Optina eldership. He was glorified as a locally venerated saint at Optina in 1996, and in August 2000 the Jubilee Council of Bishops of the Russian Orthodox Church glorified him for veneration in the whole Church, in the Synaxis of the Elders of Optina. He is commemorated (Old Style) on 16 June, 16 July, 11 October and 13 December.

Beginnings

He was born at Borisoglebsk, in the Yaroslavl province, in the family of the pious merchant Ivan Grigorievich Putilov, who brought up his children strictly, teaching them reading and writing himself. At eighteen Timothy, with his fourteen-⁠year-⁠old brother, Jonah, was sent to Moscow, in the service of the tax farmer Karpyshev. With his younger brother he visited several monasteries and well-⁠known elders and gradually their desire for monasticism grew stronger. They began their journey at the Sarov hermitage, where they found the great elder Saint Seraphim. The brother remained at Sarov and later became abbot, while Timothy entered as a novice the Dormition monastery at Svensk, in the diocese of Oryol, where he spent ten years and where he was tonsured a monk by Elder Athanasius, a disciple of Paisius Velichkovsky, with the name Moses, after Saint Moses the Ethiopian.

At Optina

In 1812, because of the French invasion, the hermits left the hermitage, and Father Moses stayed at Svensk and Belye Berega and then returned. In 1820, at thirty-⁠eight, he passed through Optina Pustyn and was presented to Bishop Philaret of Kaluga. After correspondence and an invitation, Saint Moses, with his brother, Saint Anthony, and two other monks, arrived at Optina. In 1822, at forty, he was ordained hieromonk and appointed the confessor of Optina. After three years he was elected abbot. From then began the spiritual growth and glory of the monastery. In the years of his abbacy the eldership was born at Optina: he invited Elder Leo and placed the burden of spiritual guidance of the brotherhood on his successor, Saint Macarius. In his time the future elder Ambrose came to Optina as a novice. He also gathered a very rich monastery library. His brothers, Jonah and Alexander, were also known priests.

Repose and glorification

He reposed on 16 (28) June 1862, in the eighty-⁠first year of his life. In 1996 he was numbered among the locally venerated saints of Optina, and in August 2000 he was glorified for veneration in the whole Church.