Last Abbot of Optina
The Optina Hermitage, near Kozelsk in the Kaluga region, had become one of the most influential spiritual centers of nineteenth-century Russia through its succession of elders. Isaac II stood at the end of that succession as the monastery's final abbot before its dissolution under the Soviet state. Accounts of him describe a man of great calm and simplicity who was noted for the abundance of tears he shed during the Divine services.
His abbacy spanned the years of revolution, civil war, and the systematic closing of monasteries. The community of Optina was suppressed, and Isaac, like many of its monks, was subjected to repeated arrest as the authorities moved against the surviving clergy and monastics of the region.