Early Life and Entry to Optina
According to the tradition, Rodion Ponamarov was born during the night of Pascha in April 1805 in the village of Kluch, the son of Niketas and Euphemia Ponamarov. His father was a tailor, and Rodion learned the same trade, working at it in Moscow from 1825. Sources relate that he was twice engaged but never married, his first betrothed having died after a short illness.
Before settling at Optina he is said to have engaged in missionary efforts in the Saratov region, seeking to refute the teaching of local sectarian groups. Drawn by the reputation of the Elders Leonid and Macarius, he came to the Optina Hermitage around 1838–1839 at the age of thirty-four, after visiting several monasteries in search of a spiritual home.
Discipleship under Elder Macarius
At Optina, Hilarion was placed under Elder Macarius and served as his cell-attendant from late 1839 until Macarius's death in 1860, a discipleship of some two decades. The sources note that he confessed to Macarius and revealed his thoughts daily to Saint Leonid, and that he also carried ordinary monastic obediences, tending the gardens and working as a baker and bee-keeper. He received the monastic tonsure and the name Hilarion during these years.
Macarius is said to have recognized his disciple's maturity, entrusting him together with the future Elder Ambrose with the counsel of his own spiritual children, and predicting that he would succeed him as an Elder. This placed Hilarion within the continuous line of Optina eldership rather than treating his guidance as an individual office.
Skete Superior and Confessor
In 1863, some years after the death of Macarius, Hilarion was chosen Superior of the Skete and Father Confessor of the monastery. In this role he heard the confessions of the brethren entrusted to him several times each year and received the stream of lay visitors who came to Optina for spiritual direction.
The synaxarion describes his pastoral method as careful and exacting: he would lead those who came to him to review their whole life and recall forgotten and unconfessed sins, treating spiritual ailments at their root. He served in this capacity until his final illness.
Repose and Glorification
Hilarion died early on the morning of September 18, 1873. According to the account of his repose he received Holy Communion in the night and died a few hours later, and he was buried beside his Elder, Saint Macarius.
He was glorified among the Optina Elders by the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia in 1990 and received universal glorification within the Russian Orthodox Church in 2000.
