[1] The future St. Leonid was born Lev Danilovich Nagolkin in Karachev in the Orlov Province in 1768 of a family of ordinary parents.

He worked for a merchant during his early years, making frequent trips as part of his employer's business, thus he gained experience dealing with different people.

As a mature young man, Leo decided to enter a monastic life.

After two years he left to enter White Bluff monastery in the Orlov eparchy, where Hieromonk Basil (Kiskin) was igumen.

Basil, Leo underwent training in monastic virtues of obedience, patience, and various external endeavors.

Leonid also spent some time at Cholnsk monastery where he met Schemamonk Theodore, a disciple of St. Paisius Velichkovsky.

Leonid learned a great deal about spiritual struggles and how to acquire the grace of the Holy Spirit.

In 1804, after only five years at White Bluff, he was appointed by Bishop Dorotheus of Orlov and Svensk to succeed Fr.

Leonid once again shared conversations that inspired him to even greater progress in the spiritual life.

Theodore, longing for solitude, received permission to establish his cell, with his disciple Cleopas, about a mile from the monastery.

The fame of the three ascetics, however, brought many visitors and distractions from their spiritual struggles, causing them to look elsewhere.

He treated their spiritual afflictions with the knowledge and experience he had gained after thirty years of living in asceticism.

In 1841, he also came entangled in jealousies among the nuns over his spiritual counsel that resulted in the expulsion of Mother Anthia and one of the other sisters from the convent based on erroneous opinions.

It was with the intervention of Metropolitan Philaret (Amphiteatrov) of Kiev that the expelled sisters were received back into the convent on October 4, 1841.

He received Holy Communion on September 28 and, taking no food and little water, he was strengthened only by the life-giving Mysteries of Christ.

Leonid was buried near the main church of the Entrance of the Theotokos, opposite the chapel of St. Nicholas.

The local veneration of the Elders of Optina was authorized by the Patriarchate of Moscow on June 13, 1996.