Nectarius of Optina

Venerable Nectarius of Optina (in the world Nikolai Vasilievich Tikhonov) was a hieroschemamonk and elder of Optina Monastery, one of its last great elders. He was born in 1853 at Yelets, in the Oryol governorate, and died on 12 May 1928 (29 April by the old calendar) in the village of Kholmishchi. He was glorified locally on 26 July 1996 and, throughout the Church, together with 12 other Optina elders, by the Council of Bishops of 13 to 16 August 2000; even in his lifetime he was venerated as an elder. The record also gives 11 October, which the sources do not explain.

He was born into a poor family, that of Vasily and Elena Tikhonov. The month and day of his birth are hard to establish, because the metrical registers of the 1850s in the archive of the Lipetsk region have hardly survived. His father was a mill worker and died early. His mother died soon after his father, and the boy was left an orphan of both parents. From the age of 11 he worked in a merchant's shop and by 17 had risen to junior clerk.

In 1873 Nikolai went to Optina Hermitage, where he was received by Venerable Elder Ambrose. What they spoke of he told no one, but after it he decided to remain in the skete forever. His spiritual guide was Venerable Anatoly. Under their guidance Nectarius grew quickly in spirit. On 14 March 1887 he was tonsured into the mantle, on 19 January 1894 ordained hierodeacon and, four years later, hieromonk by the bishop of Kaluga. In 1912 the Optina brethren elected him elder. In April 1920 he was tonsured into the great schema.

After the closing of the monastery, in 1923, he was arrested. After his return he lived briefly at Plokhino, then in the village of Kholmishchi, in the Ulyanovsk district of the Kaluga region (the Russian source also mentions the Bryansk governorate), in a peasant family. He died in 1928, at 75, and was buried in the village cemetery. After the revival of Optina Hermitage, on 16 July 1989, on the day of commemoration of Metropolitan Philip of Moscow, the relics of Venerable Nectarius were found.