Venerable Anatoly (Potapov) of Optina, the Younger

Venerable Anatoly (in the world, Alexander Alekseevich Potapov) was born February 15, 1855, in Moscow. He came to Optina Hermitage in 1885, at age thirty, after his mother's death, and became cell-attendant to St. Ambrose of Optina. He became renowned for his gift of clairvoyance and consolation of the sorrowful, earning the nickname "the Comforter" and being regarded as a "second Seraphim [of Sarov]." He supported believers through the early years of Soviet persecution of the Church, as the monastery began facing repression, continuing to secretly receive numerous spiritual children. He reposed on July 30 (August 12, New Style), 1922, at Optina Hermitage. He was glorified in 1996 among the Synaxis of the Optina Elders, canonized for church-wide veneration in 2000.