"He Created the Conditions for the Existence of Eldership
On St. Moses of Optina"
Father Nikolai, tell us about the St. Moses’s early life.
—Timofey Putilov, the future Elder Moses, was born in the town of Romanov-Borisoglebsk (now Tutayev in the Yaroslavl region) into a large merchant’s family. He was the third of ten children. His mother came from a family of priests; she often went to the monastery to pray with her grandfather, a hierodeacon, and her niece became a nun at the Holy Ascension Convent in Moscow.
Timofey’s father sang in the choir and taught the children how to sing. He also strictly observed fasts and took care that his children were raised in piety. Their family’s Christian way life set a good example for the children.
And the beautiful town on two high banks of the River Volga, with many ancient churches, the magnificent Resurrection Cathedral, centuries-old Orthodox traditions and solemn cross processions, undoubtedly left a deep mark on the souls of the young Putilovs.
When the future elder turned eighteen, his father sent him and his fourteen-year-old brother Jonah to work for a merchant in Moscow.
In the [at that time Moscow was the OLD Russian Capital, as St Petersburg was the official capital up til the dread Bolsheviks took over and reinstated Moscow as the capital of all Russia] capital, in their free time the brothers read spiritual literature, visited monasteries, and sought companionship with holy ascetics.
Thus, they met Eldress Dosifea (1746–1810) from St. John the Baptist’s Convent, and Monks Alexander (Podgorchenkov) and Philaret (Pulyashkin) from Novospassky Monastery, who were in spiritual communion with the holy Elder Paisius Velichkovsky.
Both Timofey and Jonah longed to join a monastery, but this wasn’t so easy to do. They belonged to the merchant class. In order to enter a monastery they would have to change their status to ecclesiastical, which, unlike the merchant class, was tax-exempt, and therefore someone (the community or an individual) had to pay taxes to the State for those who left.
In addition, as obedient sons, the Putilov brothers had to receive their father’s blessing. The brothers feared that he would not give them his blessing, because he wanted them to work, which is why he had sent them to Moscow.
To do this a document called a passport would be issued at the family’s place of residence, which could be used to travel around Russia. It was given for a certain time. It was extended at the official place of residence where the person in question was registered.
Timofey and Jonah went to Sarov Monastery to labor for a while. At that time, St. Seraphim (with whom they associated) was still alive; the holy Schemamonk Mark (Maltsov; 1733–1817), like St. Seraphim a native of Kursk, who took a vow of silence and became a “fool for Christ”, struggled with him. There were other ascetics as well.
The brothers wrote a letter to their father asking for permission to join the monastery, but he did not give his consent.
It was only during a serious illness that Ivan Grigorievich Putilov (believing that he was dying) allowed Timofey and then Jonah to join the monastery.
—Why did they want to go to monastery in the first place?
—This period is little described, as it was their inner maturation. They had lived a religious life since childhood, seen other people live properly, saw that those people were all good, were in contact with true monks. They had heard and read about wonderful examples of the ascetic life of celebrated monks. There were many such small “starting points”. Naturally, a healthy human soul would be very wary of another way of life, a wrong way of life.
Neither children nor family are the main purpose of human life. The main purpose is salvation in Christ. Therefore, monastic life and life in the world are simply different paths. But if you see that are not up to the monastic path, then you take the usual, secular one. Elder Moses lived in Sarov for three years, undergoing a period of self-examination.
After the brothers had received their father’s blessing, Jonah (who later became Monk Isaiah and later the abbot of Sarov Monastery) returned to Sarov, and Timofey entered the Sven Holy Dormition Monastery as a novice.1 There he met the holy elder, Vasily (Kishkin; 1745–1831) and other elders, and then went to learn monastic life with some ascetics who struggled in the Roslavl Forests near Smolensk.
Life in the forest was truly eremitic; the elders lived by manual labor. The most they could do was exchange mushrooms and berries for butter and other necessaries. They had to cut down trees, uproot stumps, make plots, and grow vegetables, of which only turnips grew on the forest soil. They lived there very sparsely and had to do everything on their own: housing, tools, and getting food... Of course, there were also other hardships there. Wild animals and storms frightened them, and once they were beaten and almost robbed by thieves (there were many of them at that time).
They were lucky not to have been driven away, because the forests belonged to a landowner, and if he had wanted to, he could have evicted them or handed them over to the police, who were not well disposed to unregistered monastic settlements. From the perspective of ascetic and eremitic life, it was good to live in the forests. But a good deal of effort went into maintanence and food, leaving little time for solitary prayer.
They had small miracles too. On the feast of the Theophany, the monks caught several burbot,[2] and it was a great event for them. There were also other moments of consolation. But overall it was very hard.
Their life in the forests was unauthorized. According to the legislation of the Russian Empire, monastics could live either in monasteries or in official sketes established by monasteries. From a legal point of view, they were considered to be law-breakers on a level with runaway soldiers, peasants, and robbers (who also lived in the forests). With a situation beyond state control, in the mid-1820s officials began to restore the generally accepted order. All the monks were caught, and some of them (who had no documents or whose documents had become invalid) were even imprisoned.
—What brought Elder Moses to Optina Monastery?
—At that time, it occurred to Bishop Philaret (Amfiteatrov) of Kaluga that the revival of monasticism should be promoted after the tragic reforms of Peter the Great, and Catherine II’s secularization policy. This idea was understood by ordinary monks and hierarchs alike. Although ascetics arose, they were mostly individuals, and their personal ascetic labors would not be able to provide monastic impetus for the whole country.
So they thought of creating an oasis of eldership in the form of a small monastery or a skete. Optina Monastery was chosen for this purpose. At the time, it stood on the edge of a large forest. The town of Kozelsk was situated some distance away, and no major roads passed through Optina Monastery. People usually travelled to Optina by ferry on the Zhizdra River.
St. Philaret (Amfiteatrov) talks with monks of Optina Monastery and the monastery’s benefactors. Painting, 1847
And so the idea was born to establish a skete, where monastic elders could come together. Candidates were chosen from known quantities—the ascetics from the Roslavl Forests. Fr. Moses and his other brother Alexander, who was tonsured with the name Anthony, responded to the bishop’s invitation. And there, as experienced and active monks, they set about organizing a skete. The first cells and a church appeared. When the site was more or less habitable, other also ascetics joined. This was St. Moses’ path to Optina Monastery. There he lived as a true monk and a zealous builder. He was appointed head of the Skete of St. John the Baptist under construction.
And at this monastery he labored together with his brother and other ascetics from the Roslavl Forests, organizing the monastery buildings and working in its orchard and vegetable garden. The monastic rule there was initially strict. When Elder Moses first came, he was the most experienced of the ascetics. Of course he confessed, he had a father-confessor, but there were no elders as such there yet. The experience that he and Anthony had gained by living in the forests was transferred to the skete environment. Elder Moses labored very hard. Both the monastery and its farm were in excellent condition. Thus, in 1825 he was appointed abbot of Optina Monastery, and his brother Anthony, who had chosen Elder Moses as his father-confessor, was made head of the skete.
—Whom can we properly call “elders”?
—The word “elder” (“starets” in Russian) refers to a person who is old by age. When someone has already lived most of his life, he has gained experience. Moreover, if he is a monk, an ascetic, then he is not merely old man, but is a truly experienced mentor.
If by an “elder” we mean a man of prayer, an ascetic, then the age does not matter. Not because we welcome mladostartsy (“young eldership”), but because a person has gone through all the monastic stages, regardless of the number of years he has lived. The path to eldership often lies not only through the years lived, but also through illness and deprivation.
Now many wonder why there are no elders today—it’s because there are no real disciples. All these elders were once disciples. Take Elder Moses—he struggled at Sarov Monastery, then lived in the forest to learn from experienced ascetics. And he did indeed learn much.
An elder is someone who has extensive experience of spiritual life. He doesn’t have to be elderly—he has to have lived a significant spiritual life. This experience can be gained in a short span of time under the guidance of an experienced mentor.
—Why is St. Moses called an elder?
—The eldership of St. Moses was that of the abbot of a monastery. He was a spiritual man, he had spiritual children, but he did not have as many as did Elder Leo/Leonid (not to mention St. Ambrose) had. The invaluable contribution of Elder Moses is that, himself a hard worker, a man of prayer, an ascetic and an extraordinary personality, he created the conditions for the existence of eldership.
It requires a lot of humility. The abbot works non-stop and hardly has time to pray. There are elders who are great men of prayer, spiritual mentors, and everyone knows them; while almost no one knows the abbot, and the faithful don’t go to him from far afield. This is a common problem. Where an experienced spiritual father appears, people immediately gather around him, with an inevitable human factor—misunderstandings and conflicts.
St. Moses supported and provided eldership, and at the same time he himself, even as abbot of the monastery, was in obedience to the elder. They had a spiritual symbiosis of love.
Of course, the elder of the monastery called on all the monks under his spiritual care to obey the abbot. But the abbot also turned to the elder for advice on pressing issues. The elder supported the abbot, and, reciprocally, the abbot took great care of the elder (to the point protecting the him from attacks) and heeded his counsels.
He acknowledged the spiritual significance of the elder, who was not officially in authority over him. It can be said that by doing so he belittled his own authority and rank, but in fact, he only elevated them from a spiritual point of view.
And subsequently this tradition took root at Optina Monastery.
Elder Moses was such an administrator. Hundreds of monks, a skete, and its subsidiaries were under his rule. But he obeyed the monastery elders and showed everyone an example of obedience.
The main purpose of human life is salvation. And throughout his life, Elder Moses pursued this goal. His father was not very pleased that all of his sons had become monks, because this meant the end of their family line. But that family did not live in vain—St. Moses became the abbot of Optina Monastery, Isaiah became the abbot of Sarov Monastery, and Anthony became the abbot of St. Nicholas Monastery in Maloyaroslavets.3
Just like St. Seraphim of Sarov, there was no one left in his family, but he proved to be its most important fruit.
Sergei Vityazev
spoke with Archpriest Nikolai Skurat
Sretensky Monastery
6/29/2025
1 Named after the River Sven; it is situated in the village of Suponevo in the Bryansk region.
2 Bottom-dwelling, fresh-water cod.—OC.
3 A town in the Kaluga region. The former monastery is now St. Nicholas Chernoostrovsky (“Black Island”) Convent.