Venerable Isaac (the First) of Optina

Isaac (Ivan Antimonov, 1810–1894) was one of the thirteen children of a wealthy merchant of Kursk. In 1847 he came to Optina, where he baked bread, cooked, kept bees and bound books in the skete; he was tonsured in 1854 and, at the urging of his elder Macarius and against his own wish, ordained priest in 1858. Macarius had named him to succeed abbot Moses, and in 1862 Isaac became abbot. In his thirty-two years he put the finances in order and built a hospital with a pharmacy, an almshouse, a hotel for pilgrims and a bookshop, while the elder Ambrose's convent at Shamordino grew nearby. He died on 22 August 1894.