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Schema-archimandrite Elias (Ilie,Russian:Схиархимандрит Илий,secular nameAlexey Afanasyevich Nozdrin,Russian:Алексей Афанасьевич Ноздрин; 1932–2025) was aschema-archimandrite and elder (starets) of theOptina Monastery ofRussian Orthodox Church.
He was born in 1932 in the village of Redkino,Central Black Earth Oblast (nowOryol Oblast) to peasant parents. The name Alexey was given to the boy in honour ofSt. Alexius of Rome.
In a 2022 broadcast on theSpas TV Channel, Father Elias Nozdrin recounted how, as a 10-year-old boy, he had picked up maps that had fallen from a German car and gave them to a capturedRed Army soldier who had managed to escape. The soldier passed them on toKonstantin Rokossovsky, and this find proved decisive in issuing an urgent order to open fire on the enemy fortifications marked on the maps, which helped the Red Army achieve victory in theBattle of Kursk.[1][2][3]
In 1949, he graduated from secondary school in his native village. He served in the army, where a sergeant persuaded him to join theKomsomol. Upon returning home, he deeply repented of this, seeing it as a sin against God, and immediately burned his Komsomol membership card. From 1955 to 1958, he studied at a mechanical engineering technical school inSerpukhov and, after graduation, was assigned to work in the city ofKamyshin,Volgograd Oblast. He attended the only functioning church in the city, dedicated toSt. Nicholas. After the closure of the Saratov Seminary in 1961, he was transferred to the Leningrad Seminary and later graduated from theLeningrad Theological Academy, where he first met Vladimir Gundyayev, the futurePatriarch Kirill of Moscow.
On 13 March 1966, he was tonsured a monk byMetropolitanNikodim Rotov and given the name Elias in honor of one of theForty Martyrs of Sebaste. Later, he was successively ordainedhierodeacon andhieromonk by Metropolitan Nikodim Rotov. He carried out his service in various churches of the Leningrad Diocese.
From 1966 to 1976, he spent time at thePskov-Caves Monastery, and under the influence of reading a book aboutSilouan the Athonite, he decided to enter theSt. Panteleimon Monastery onMount Athos. By a decision of theHoly Synod on 3 March 1976, Hieromonk Elias, along with other monks, was sent to carry out monastic obedience at the Russian St. Panteleimon Monastery on Athos. There, together with other residents, he managed to preserve monastic life in the monastery, maintain its connection with Russian Orthodoxy, and prevent its closure. He carried out obedience in a skete hidden in mountain gorges. He lived in Old Russik and served as theconfessor of the St. Panteleimon Monastery.
In 1989, he was called back to Russia and sent as a confessor to theOptina Monastery, which was being restored after 65 years of desolation. The abbot of the monastery,ArchimandriteEulogius Smirnov, tonsured him into theGreat Schema.
Following the2009 Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church, Eleas was chosen as the confessor of the newly elected Patriarch Kirill of Moscow, who was his fellow student at the Leningrad Theological Academy. He settled at the Patriarchal Metochion of theTrinity Lavra of St. Sergius in the village ofPeredelkino,Moscow Oblast.[4]
On 4 April 2010, onEaster Sunday, in theCathedral of Christ the Saviour inMoscow, he was elevated to the rank of Schema-Archimandrite by Patriarch Kirill.
He died on 15 March 2025, at the age of 93.[5][6][7]
On 18 March 2025, a funeral service was held at the Kazan Church of the Optina Monastery, led by Patriarch Kirill.[8][9]
Elias was buried near the Resurrection Chapel at the Optina Monastery.[10]
Father Elias Nozdrin spoke out againstcommunism andStalinism, callingStalin a bandit and considering his role in the country's history, including the entire period of theWorld War II, as unequivocally negative.[11] He opposed the erection of monuments to Stalin, speaking of the revival of Stalinism as a "turn towards ruin, towards the destruction of Russia".[12] He referred toVladimir Lenin as a "hater of the Russian people, a villain among villains".[13] Elias considered communists to be enemies of God, with whom a Christian must do battle. According to him, who citedJohn Krestiankin, around 95 million human lives were sacrificed in the struggle for the "bright future" of the communist idea in the world.[14]
Elias held a positive view ofBoris Yeltsin, whom he compared toSt. George, and credited him with restoring the role of theRussian Orthodox Church inRussia.[15][16][17]
Elias actively supported theRussian invasion of Ukraine, repeatedly expressing his support for the Russian authorities and callingVladimir Putin a God-chosen leader.[18][19][3] In his view, ban of abortions, prohibition offoul language, and Lenin's body burial are the three things necessary for Russia's victory in theRusso-Ukrainian war.[20]
