Амвросий Оптинский

A special place among the Optina elders is occupied by the Monk Ambrose, “the elder Ambrosim,” as he was popularly called. “His fame was very great, flowed by gravity, from mouth to mouth, without noise, but with love. They knew that if there was bewilderment, confusion, grief in life, you had to go to Father Ambrose, he would sort everything out, calm down and comfort you. <...> So he distributed himself, without measuring or counting. Is it not because there was always enough, there was always wine in his skins, because he was connected directly with the first and boundless ocean of love ”, - so, in a few words, but surprisingly accurately Boris Zaitsev defined the essence of the elder's attractive power. The elder's love attracted not only the simple hearts of the pilgrims from the people, who had full confidence in the priest. Representatives of the color of the Russian intelligentsia rushed to the "shack" of Father Ambrose, to whom the spirit of the Optina elders discovered the wealth and beauty of the Church and the Orthodox faith. F. M. Dostoevsky, L. N. Tolstoy, the philosopher V. S. Soloviev, the writer and philosopher K. N. Leontiev, and many others addressed to Elder Ambrose.

In the appendix you can find the Akathist to the Monk Ambrose of Optina, his life, miracles, as well as some teachings.