Saint Anatoly the Elder and Saint Hilarion

Two elders of the middle generation: St. Hilarion (Ponomarev, 1805–1873), the skete superior who inherited St. Macarius’s cell and the care of the confessional eldership; and St. Anatoly “the Elder” (Zertsalov, 1824–1894), a disciple of Macarius and Ambrose, a gifted teacher of the Jesus Prayer and the devoted spiritual father of the Shamordino convent.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (Optina synaxis glorified 1996 local / 2000 general)

Saint Hilarion (Ponomarev)

St. Hilarion of Optina was born Rodion Nikitich Ponomarev in 1805, of a devout provincial family; before entering monastic life he had led a mission-like life of charitable work, and he came to Optina as a mature man, attaching himself to Elder Macarius as disciple and cell-attendant (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn i eyo vremya, Jordanville, 1970, on Hilarion; the Optina Lives). Tonsured with the name Hilarion (Ilarion), he served Macarius closely for many years, sharing in the labor of the eldership and the publishing work, and on Macarius’s death in 1860 he inherited his cell and, in time, the office of skete superior and confessor of the skete brotherhood (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Hilarion’s succession to Macarius’s cell and his superiorship).

Hilarion’s eldership was quieter and more inward than the great public startchestvo of Ambrose, who was his contemporary in the same skete; the two elders labored side by side, Ambrose receiving the vast crowds and Hilarion caring especially for the skete brotherhood and for those he directed, with a particular gift, the sources record, for the healing of the passions and the guidance of penitents (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970). He bore a painful final illness with the patience the Optina elders taught, and died on 18 September 1873, the date on which his feast is kept (the Optina record and the Synaxis of the Elders). His life shows that Optina in its height held more than one elder at a time: the eldership was a brotherhood, not a solitary office, and the skete could shelter a Hilarion and an Ambrose together (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on the plurality of elders in the skete).

Saint Anatoly the Elder (Zertsalov)

St. Anatoly of Optina, called “the Elder” (starshy) to distinguish him from the later St. Anatoly the Younger, was born Alexei Moiseevich Zertsalov in 1824, the son of a deacon; he studied and worked for a time in civil service before entering Optina, where he became a disciple of both Macarius and, above all, Ambrose (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Anatoly Zertsalov; “Anatole I, the ‘Elder’ (Zertsalov) of Optina,” St. John the Baptist Cathedral, following the Optina Lives; Elder Ambrose of Optina, St. Herman Brotherhood, on Anatoly among Ambrose’s disciples). Tonsured with the name Anatoly, he was formed directly under Ambrose and became one of his closest collaborators in the eldership (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970).

Two things mark Anatoly the Elder. First, he was renowned as a teacher of the Jesus Prayer and of the inner life, and his surviving letters of direction — many to nuns — are among the clearer practical guides to the prayer in the Optina tradition, insisting always on humility and obedience as its foundation (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Anatoly’s teaching of the Jesus Prayer; see Orthodoxy: The Jesus Prayer). Second, he was, at Ambrose’s appointment, the principal spiritual father of the Shamordino convent, and he poured himself out in the care of its sisters, especially after Ambrose’s death in 1891, so that the bond between Optina and Shamordino was maintained through him (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Anatoly and Shamordino; see The Shamordino Convent and the Crowds). He survived Ambrose by only a few years, worn out by his labors, and died on 25 January 1894, the date of his feast (the Optina record; “Anatole I (Zertsalov) of Optina,” St. John the Baptist Cathedral).

The Middle Generation in the Line

Hilarion and Anatoly the Elder belong to the generation that bridges the age of the founders and the age of the last elders. Both were formed by Macarius and Ambrose; both handed on what they had received; and both illustrate a feature of Optina that is easy to miss when attention fixes on Ambrose alone — that the eldership was continuous and collegial, several elders laboring at once and each preparing the next (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on the continuity and collegiality of the Optina eldership; Paert, Spiritual Elders, Northern Illinois University Press, 2010, ch. 4–5). It is worth noting that this middle generation also includes elders whom this compendium treats only in passing but who belong to the glorified synaxis: St. Isaac I (Antimonov) (1810–1894), the long-serving abbot of the monastery who governed it for over three decades and who, like Abbot Moses before him, protected and enabled the eldership from the office of superior (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Abbot Isaac I; the Synaxis of the Optina Elders lists him with a feast on 22 August). The abbots and the elders together — Moses and Isaac I governing, Leonid, Macarius, Ambrose, Hilarion, and Anatoly directing souls — are the two halves of a single institution.

From this generation the line passes to the last elders: to St. Joseph, Ambrose’s own cell-attendant, and to St. Barsanuphius, whose extraordinary late vocation is the subject of the next file, and on to St. Anatoly the Younger and St. Nektary, in whom Optina met the Revolution (see St. Joseph and St. Barsanuphius and The Last Elders).

See Also

References

  • Kontzevitch, I. M. Optina Pustyn’ i eyo vremya. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1970. (Hilarion’s life and succession to Macarius’s cell; Anatoly Zertsalov, the Jesus Prayer, and Shamordino; Abbot Isaac I; the collegiality of the eldership.)
  • Elder Ambrose of Optina (trans. of Chetverikov and the Optina Life). Platina, CA: St. Herman of Alaska Brotherhood. (Anatoly Zertsalov and the other disciples of Ambrose.)
  • Paert, Irina. Spiritual Elders: Charisma and Tradition in Russian Orthodoxy. DeKalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, 2010. (Ch. 4–5: the later Optina elders and the continuity of the eldership.)
  • “Anatole I, the ‘Elder’ (Zertsalov) of Optina, venerable”; the Synaxis of the Optina Elders. Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (Washington, DC) and the Optina record — used to locate the repose dates (Hilarion, 18 September 1873; Anatoly Zertsalov, 25 January 1894; Isaac I, 22 August), cross-checked against Kontzevitch.