The inhabitants of Kalmykia will honor the memory of St. Ambrose of Optina tomorrow

Tomorrow the inhabitants of Kalmykia will honor the memory of the Monk Ambrose of Optina (Alexander Grenkov), who lived in Russia in the XIX century.

He was born in the family of a ponomar in the Tambov province in 1812, received a spiritual education and took a vow of monasticism after a serious illness. The decisive moment was the meeting of Alexander with the ascetic Hilarion, who advised him to go to Optina Deserts, which Grenkov did in the autumn of 1839. His spiritual mentor in the monastery was the elder Lev. Here he took monastic tonsure with the name Ambrose, soon becoming a hierodeacon, and later a hieromonk.

The last decade of his life he devoted to the creation of a female monastery in Shamordin, located 12 versts from his monastery. The Monk Ambrose died in 1891 and was buried in the Optina Desert.