The rebirth of Optina Monastery
A modern person in a large city is heavily engaged in intellectual activity. Moreover, they often stay up late at night in front of the computer. One should strive to live a more detached and measured life. It is good to receive a blessing to live according to the Rule, to schedule everything—what to do and when. Of course, it is not always possible to follow the Rule precisely in the world, but one should still try to bring more order into life
That is why Father Ilia blessed people to live on the land, to return from the city to the village. In the countryside, a person is more in tune with the natural rhythms established by God—the procession of winter, spring, summer, and autumn. Father Ilia often reminded us of the words of Mikhail Vasilyevich Lomonosov, that one must read the “Book of Nature,” which, like the Holy Scriptures, was revealed to us by the Creator Himself.
In the village, it is easier to find faith and return to one’s religous roots. Here, one is no longer tormented by the exhausting anxiety of the city, the consumer dictatorship of advertising, or the endless office rush. A person living on the land becomes self-sufficient. It is here that one can more deeply feel how God blesses human labor, and this becomes his way of life. No matter what global upheavals occur—power outages that bring down the modern dominance of the internet and telecommunications, the collapse of financial systems, sanctions—a person living on the land will survive! This inherent, fundamental independence is spiritually crucial. Here lies the frontline of resistance against the Babylonian civilization of the Antichrist.
That is why when Optina Monastery was being revived—where Father Iliy was sent after ten years of ascetic struggle on Mount Athos—attention was given not only to restoring the monastic coenobitic rule but also to developing the monastery’s own economy. The monks of Optina have always sustained themselves through their labor.
The rebirth of Optina Monastery
Here, Father was tonsured into the Great Schema with the name of another Sebaste martyr, Iliy (Ilian, which translates from Greek as “sun”), and received a blessing to revive the tradition of eldership, for which Optina has always been renowned.
Born and raised in a village, he knew how difficult rural life is—but also how salvific it can be. Elder Iliy’s generation experienced this deeply. He remembers how the Russian people were deliberately severed from the land—forced into collective farms, where they were not even paid wages but had to work for mere labor quotas. During Stalin’s rule, which coincided with Father Iliy’s childhood, exorbitant taxes were imposed on every piece of livestock, every fruit tree, and even every currant bush in a garden. As a result, people cut down their orchards, stopped raising poultry and livestock, and, whenever possible, fled to the cities.
Thus, for generations, a deeply ingrained stereotype took root—that life on the land was undesirable, something to be abandoned.
Two elders, Frs. Iliy and Valerian Krechetov
Even in those difficult times, Archpriest Valerian Krechetov recalls, people still possessed a certain inner strength and resilience. Children in villages were raised in the chief Christian virtue—the spirit of gratitude.
They valued food because they saw how hard it was to obtain. They respected labor, especially that of their parents, which meant they grew up fulfilling the commandment to honor their father and mother (Ex. 20:12). In general, he says, people appreciated everything—clothing, a roof over their heads, tools for work—because they had almost nothing.
But what they did have was mutual aid. From an early age, children learned to share. Even the smallest thing could bring joy!
Today, in contrast, the spirit of excess breeds apathy and despondency, despite all the hustle and bustle of modern life.
Ksenia Stepanishcheva
Lawyer Ksenia Stepanishcheva, who had visited Father Iliy at Optina Monastery many times for advice, was troubled by her husband’s risky pursuits. A former paratrooper, he sought adrenaline through parachute jumps.
By the early 2000s, however, this had become increasingly dangerous—many specialists were leaving the aeroclubs, and parachute packing had turned into “Russian roulette”. Every year there were incidents and accidents during jumps.
Ksenia was filled with anxiety over her husband’s passion and was about to share her concerns with Father Iliy when unexpectedly, she witnessed him sternly reprimanding a group of grown men. They had bought motorcycles out of boredom, simply to chase the same adrenaline rush.
“You have families! Children! If you crash or become disabled, they will suffer. You should be working to revive agriculture. Start working! Spend more time laboring on the land and you won’t have time to be bored. And stop racing on motorcycles!”
Ksenia went home and relayed everything to her husband. She didn’t know how exactly Father Iliy’s words had influenced him, but by that time, her husband—already a father of two—had completely given up parachute jumping. To everyone’s surprise, he took up agriculture instead.
Soon after, with Father Iliy’s blessing, the family was blessed with a long-awaited third child, born after an eight-year gap.
Much like the saving grace of life on the land, large families were something that the Russian people had been deliberately conditioned to abandon. Despite the apostolic teaching that they are saved through childbearing (1 Tim. 2:15), women were instead burdened with “socially useful labor”—whether over-fulfilling quotas in collective farms or working in urban industries. Meanwhile, their infants were placed in state nurseries, then kindergartens, essentially being raised by the system.
Evgenia Ulyeva, with Father Elijah’s blessing, gave birth to eight children. The elder even accurately predicted her eldest daughter’s future husband five years before they met. Today, she is a mother herself.
An even more remarkable story unfolded with the second daughter. One day, Evgenia and her daughter visited Father Iliy, and as soon as they arrived he said:
The Ulyev Family
“Go to the village of Burnashevo,” Father Elijah said. “There, you will find a woman named Ira, who has cows. And you,” he turned to Evgenia’s daughter, “will marry her son, Maxim.”
So they went to the village, found the house, and met Ira and her son Maxim…
“The most amazing thing,” recalls Evgenia, “is that the young couple fell in love at first sight! And soon afterward we celebrated their wedding. Now they live in the village, raising two children. They are happy, with a farm of their own and their own herd of cows.”
The Polunin family, Konstantin and son Nikolai
The Polunin family, once city dwellers from Moscow, now rejoices in their decision to move to the countryside, following a blessing. Father Konstantin and his wife Alla have seen incredible changes in their children’s lives.
Now homeschooled, their kids have transformed from typical stressed-out city schoolchildren into winners of numerous academic competitions. This is not to mention that they have become much healthier since leaving the urban environment.
Father Iliy also gave his blessing to Fyodor and Sophia Belavin to start a farming business. Optina Monastery even allowed them to purchase an old combine harvester for a small fee, which they now use to cultivate land and harvest crops near the monastery.
Despite their young age, Fyodor and Sophia have already built a thriving family and are raising three children.
Sofia Belavina, her children, and their own wheat fields
In the capital, there are also educational institutions embracing a connection with the land. One such example is the private school called “Integration.” Its director, Oksana Vyacheslavovna Dolgaleva, received Father Iliy’s blessing to purchase a rural plot of land and establish an expansive educational and experimental farm.
“Just start,” he encouraged them. “It will be difficult, but do it!”
Children must at least become familiar with life on the land. It holds the key to physical and moral revitalization, freeing people from illusions, harmful dependencies, and the utopian traps of both the past and present.
Schema-Archimandrite Iliy at the Belavin Farm
Father Iliy, a student of the Saint. Petersburg Theological School, gave his blessing to fulfill the prophetic testament of one of its great spiritual figures—Saint Seraphim of Vyritsa:
“Russia will live by the land.”
After all, for whom did the heroic generations reclaim Russian soil? For whom do they still pray for peace and life to this day?
