Aleksandr was born in the family of sexton Mikhail Fyodorovich Grenkov and Marfa Nikolayevna Grenkova.

He recovered but delayed his decision and became a private teacher in a family of a landlord and later in the Lipetsk clerical school.

This seclusion allowed him to concentrate on the mastering of the Jesus Prayer or hesychasm and to experience the meaning of hesychia, the silence of the soul before God or theoria.

And over time, learning from some credible people about one hidden, wandering spiritual elder, Ambrose immediately tried to get close to him.

He constantly wrote secret letters to this elder with the intention to do everything with the advice of another person in which he saw the expression of the will of God – not following own will.

Most convents were very poor and had to rely on the incomes of women who had a certain personal wealth in order to remain open.

After the death of the first abbess, Mother Sophia, Ambrose went there in June 1890 to put the convent's affairs in order.

Elder Nektary of The Brothers Karamazov referred to Ambrose as "an earthly angel and a heavenly man."

In the Russian Orthodox tradition, this is the definitive sign of transfiguration and citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven to come, or paradise, similar to what has been attributed to Seraphim of Sarov.