ELDER ILIY REPOSES IN THE LORD—RUSSIAN CHURCH’S MOST REVERED ELDER (+VIDEO)
Kozelsk, Kaluga Province, Russia, March 17, 2025
Photo: Foma
Elder Iliy (Nozdrin), the most beloved and revered elder of the Russian Church, reposed in the Lord on Saturday night, March 15.
He was 93 years old at the time of his repose, Optina Monastery reports.
Schema-Archimandrite Iliy spent decades laboring in asceticism at Pskov Caves Monastery, St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mt. Athos, and Optina Monastery, which he helped rebuild from ruins. In his later years, he served as the spiritual father for Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
“Recently he often said: ‘I feel good here, I’m at home.’ He came to love Optina,” said Optina abbot Bishop Joseph of Mozhaisk. “He lived spiritually in recent times, he prayed a lot.”
He continued:
Father lived a long life. He’s a representative of that generation that went through persecutions, godlessness, war, he communicated with clergy who had experienced tsarist times. This is a loss. We’re losing a chain that connects us with our saints.
The gifts he acquired were visible to people who came to him. Numerous churches and monasteries were opened with his blessing. Everyone remembers him with warmth and love. He had enormous spiritual strength.
Elder Iliy spent his last days and reposed in Optina’s St. John the Forerunner Skete. After the brethren of the skete bid farewell to their beloved elder in skete church, his body was moved to the Kazan Church in the main monastery.
His funeral will be served on March 18. May Elder Iliy’s memory be eternal!
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Photo: Optina Monastery
Schema-Archimandrite Iliy was born in 1932 in the village of Stanovoy Kolodez, Oryol Province, in a pious peasant family. At Baptism, he was named in honor of St. Alexis, the Man of God. His father died in a hospital after being wounded in battle in 1942, and his mother raised four children alone.
In 1949, he graduated from high school in his native village. He served in the army. From 1955-1958, he studied at a mechanical engineering college in Serpukhov. After completing his studies, he was assigned to the city of Kamyshin, Volgograd Province. There he decided to dedicate his life to serving the Church and entered the theological seminary in Saratov.
After the closure of the Saratov seminary in 1961, he continued his education first at the Leningrad Theological Seminary, then at the Academy. During his studies, Metropolitan Nikodim (Rotov) tonsured him as a monk with the name Ilian in honor of one of the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste. The same bishop ordained him as a hierodeacon and hieromonk.
During his years in the Leningrad Diocese, he worked in various parishes.
In 1966, he entered the Pskov Caves Monastery, where he carried out obediences for ten years.
By the decision of the Holy Synod on March 3, 1976, Hieromonk Ilian, along with four other monks, was sent to serve a monastic obedience at the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mt. Athos, where, together with other inhabitants, he managed to preserve monastic life, maintain the monastery’s connection with Russian Orthodoxy, and prevent the closure of the monastery. He carried out his obedience in a skete hidden in mountain gorges. He was also entrusted with the role of spiritual father at the St. Panteleimon Monastery.
In the late 1980s, he was sent as a spiritual father to Optina Pustyn, which was being restored after 65 years of desolation. He was tonsured into the Great Schema there with the name Iliy in honor of another Sebastean martyr. For 20 years, Schema-Igumen Iliy revived the ministry of eldership for which the monastery had always been famous.
In 2009, he settled at the Patriarchal Metochion of the Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra in Peredelkino near Moscow. He was the spiritual father of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.
On Pascha, April 4, 2010, he was elevated to the rank of schema-archimandrite.
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