The Youth of Alexander Grenkov (1812–1839)

The early life of Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov, the future St. Ambrose of Optina, from his birth into a poor sexton’s family in the Tambov countryside through his brilliant seminary years, the deathly illness and vow that he long postponed fulfilling, and the recluse Hilarion’s word that sent him secretly to Optina in 1839.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (canonized 1988)

Birth in Bolshaya Lipovitsa (1812)

Alexander Mikhailovich Grenkov was born on November 23, 1812 (Old Style), in the settlement of Bolshaya Lipovitsa, in the Tambov guberniya of central Russia. His father, Mikhail Fyodorovich Grenkov, was a ponomar (sexton, or parish clerk); his grandfather was the village priest, and the family lived in the priest’s house at the time of the birth. Alexander was the sixth of eight children, born into the crowded, modest world of the rural Russian clergy (Agapit (Belovidov), Life of the Optina Elder Ambrose; “Ambrose of Optina,” Wikipedia / OrthodoxWiki, used to locate dates and cross-checked against the OCA Life).

The hagiographical tradition is unanimous that the boy was, from the first, lively, quick, and irrepressibly cheerful — the kind of child who is always at the center of the noise. The Lives draw a deliberate connection between this native temperament and the elder he would become; in a saying often reported from his own mouth, he reflected on the continuity of his whole life under the same sign: “Just as I was born in the middle of a crowd, so I continue to live surrounded by them” (St. Ambrose, quoted in The Life of St. Ambrose of Optina, OrthoChristian.com). What looked like ordinary boyish gaiety was, in the providential reading the Lives propose, the raw material of a future pastor who would spend twelve hours a day in the press of pilgrims.

The Seminarian (Tambov)

At about the age of twelve Alexander entered the Tambov clerical school, and from there passed to the Tambov theological seminary, which he entered around 1830. He was, by every account, a brilliant student, consistently ranked among the first in his class. His gifts were not only academic: he was witty, charming, an irresistible talker and mimic, the soul of every gathering. “His conversation was witty and brilliant,” the OCA Life records, “and all his jokes and puns were on the mark” (Venerable Ambrose of Optina, Orthodox Church in America).

This documented gaiety the Lives present without embarrassment — indeed they treat it as part of the portrait, the lively seminarian who would only with difficulty be turned toward the monastery. Years later, as an elder, he would speak of his youthful chatter and high spirits with affectionate self-mockery, recalling how readily he had given himself over to entertaining a room. The Lives keep both halves of the picture in view: the brilliant, gay young man, and the deeper seriousness that he himself kept hidden even from his friends.

The Deathly Illness and the Vow (c. 1835)

In his final year at the seminary, around 1835, Alexander fell dangerously ill — so gravely that his recovery was despaired of. In the extremity of the sickness he made a vow: that if God restored him to health, he would become a monk (Venerable Ambrose of Optina, OCA; “Ambrose of Optina,” Wikipedia, cross-checked against OCA). His prayer was answered and he recovered — and then, as the Lives candidly report, “although his prayer was answered, Alexander seemed to forget his promise” (OCA Life).

What followed was a delay of some four years, and the Lives do not soften it. Having graduated, Alexander did not enter a monastery but took up the ordinary path open to a seminary graduate: he worked for a time as a private tutor in a landowner’s household, and then as a teacher at the Lipetsk clerical school. Outwardly he was the same cheerful, gifted young man. Inwardly, by his own later testimony, the unkept vow gnawed at him. He would slip away alone into the woods or to a stream to pray, weeping and reproaching himself, and then return to company and resume his old gaiety — a documented double life of remorse and laughter that he later described as a torment of conscience. The hagiographers present these four years not as a lapse to be excused but as the very pressure under which his vocation finally ripened.

Hilarion of Troekurov: “Go to Optina”

The decisive external word came from a recluse. In the village of Troekurovo, in the same Tambov region, lived the ascetic Hilarion, widely sought for his discernment. Visiting him — by some accounts with a friend, seeking counsel on his unresolved state — Alexander received an immediate and specific direction. The recluse told him: “Go to Optina — you are needed there” (Hilarion of Troekurov, quoted in Venerable Ambrose of Optina, OCA; cf. the fuller form, “Go to Optina hermitage; there you will become experienced. You could also go to Sarov, but now there are no experienced elders there as there once were,” The Life of St. Ambrose of Optina, OrthoChristian.com).

This word — pinned to its place in the Lives as the hinge of the whole story — did not at once break the delay. Alexander returned to his teaching, still hesitating, still postponing. The Lives describe a final evening in which, having once again entertained a gathering of guests with his usual brilliance, he was struck by remorse so sharp that he resolved that very night to delay no longer.

The Secret Departure (1839)

Alexander’s decision, once made, was carried out quietly and without the proper formalities. Fearing that his friends and superiors would dissuade him — and unwilling to face the bureaucratic obstacles of requesting a formal release — he left almost in secret. The Lives note that he departed “without even receiving permission from the diocesan authorities” (The Life of St. Ambrose of Optina, OrthoChristian.com). He arrived at Optina Pustyn in October 1839, at the age of twenty-six — bringing into the monastery the same crowd-loving, talkative, brilliant nature that the Lives had recorded from his childhood, now laid at last on the altar of the vow he had so long deferred.

What he found at Optina, and the elders who would form him there, belong to the next stage of the story (see Under Leonid and Macarius).

See Also

• Under Leonid and Macarius — Alexander’s formation at Optina and his tonsure as Ambrose
• Becoming the Elder — the eldership that grew out of this formation
• Orthodoxy Guide: Spiritual Direction — the Optina startsy lineage in which Ambrose stands
• Orthodoxy Guide: Russian Monasticism — Optina within the broader Russian monastic revival

References

• Agapit (Belovidov), Hieromonk. Zhizneopisanie v Boze pochivshego optinskogo startsa ieroskhimonakha Amvrosiia [Life of the Optina Elder Hieroschemamonk Ambrose]. The standard nineteenth-century Life.
• Chetverikov, Sergius. Elder Ambrose of Optina. Platina, CA / Crestwood, NY: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood / St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press (English translation of the standard Russian biography).
• Venerable Ambrose of Optina. Orthodox Church in America (oca.org), Lives of the Saints, October 10.
• The Life of St. Ambrose of Optina. OrthoChristian.com (orthochristian.com/42293.html).
• Dunlop, John B. Staretz Amvrosy: Model for Dostoevsky’s Staretz Zossima. Belmont, MA: Nordland, 1972.
• Kontzevitch, I.M. Optina Pustyn’ i eya epokha [Optina Pustyn and Its Era]. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1970.
• “Ambrose of Optina.” Wikipedia / OrthodoxWiki (used to locate dates; chronology cross-checked against the OCA Life and OrthoChristian biography): born 23 November 1812 (OS), Bolshaya Lipovitsa; sixth of eight children; arrived Optina October 1839.