There are several priests in the Optina Pustyn monastery, whom many people already consider elders, but they are not officially called that in the monastery, because this implies widespread recognition of such confessors in the church, Bishop Joseph (Korolev), vicar of the Vvedensky Stavropol Monastery of Optina Pustyn, told RIA Novosti.
He recalled that the dawn of old age in the Optina Desert occurred in the period from the 1820s to 1920, when "there were confessors in the monastery, to whom the whole of Russia went - intellectuals, writers."
"The word "elder" has a high meaning, it implies that a priest has certain spiritual gifts, not necessarily foresight, but such spiritual wisdom. And in our time there were and still are such confessors. For example, Father Kirill (Pavlov) from the Trinity-Sergius Lavra, Father John (Krestyankin) from the Optina Desert were called an elder. Now Father Elijah (Nozdrin) is called an elder – this is probably the only living elder," Bishop Joseph told RIA Novosti during the Dostoevsky Days festival.
According to him, in order for a person to be called an elder, it is necessary to have wide recognition in the church - among the clergy and laity. "There are several experienced priests in Optina who have many spiritual children to whom people go. Many people already consider them elders, but officially we don't call them that yet. For example, Archimandrite Anthony (Gavrilov), Abbot Tikhon (Borisov). In general, the elders are growing spiritually, and we hope they will be named again," concluded the agency interlocutor.
Earlier, he told RIA Novosti that the monastery continues to collect evidence of miracles related to the three inhabitants of the monastery killed in 1993 - Hieromonk Vasily (Roslyakov), monks Ferapont (Pushkarev) and Trofim (Tatarnikov) - for their canonization.