The last synodically elected elder of Optina was the Monk Nektary, a disciple of the skete commander, the Monk Anatoly (Zertsalov) and the Monk Elder Ambrose. He carried the cross of senile ministry during the years of severe trials for the Russian Orthodox Church and for the whole of Russia. Elder Nektary spent fifty years in the Optina Hermitage, twenty of them in seclusion. He ascended the spiritual ladder from seclusion to public service and was a worthy follower of the Optina elders. Endowed by God with the great gift of prophecy and foresight, long before the revolution and the civil war, he saw the coming troubles and sorrows of people. Elder Nektary prayed for the whole of Russia, comforted people, and strengthened them in their faith. During the years of severe temptations, St. Nectarius took upon himself the burden of human sins. He shared the fate of many of his faithful compatriots: he was persecuted, exiled, and died in exile. Less is known about his life in connection with the persecution of the Church and the persecution of monasticism than about his illustrious predecessors.
The Monk Nektary (in the world Nikolai Vasilyevich Tikhonov) was born in 1853 in the town of Yelets, Orel province, into the poor family of Vasily and Elena Tikhonov. His father was a mill worker and died when his son was only seven years old. Before his death, he blessed his son with the icon of St. Nicholas, entrusting his child to his care. The elder did not part with this icon all his life.
Later, the Monk Nectarius often began stories about his childhood with the words: "It was in my infancy, when I lived with my mother. There were two of us in the world, and the cat lived with us. We were of low rank, and poor at that. Who needs them?" Nikolai had the warmest and most cordial relations with his mother. She acted more with gentleness and knew how to touch his heart. But his mother also died early. The boy was left an orphan. At the age of 11, he began working in the shop of a rich merchant. Nikolai was hardworking and by the age of 17 he had risen to the rank of junior clerk. In his free time, the young man was very fond of going to church and reading church books. He was distinguished by meekness, modesty, and spiritual purity.
When the young man turned twenty, the head clerk decided to marry him to his daughter. At that time, an almost hundred-year-old schemer, the elder Theoktista, the spiritual daughter of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk, lived in Yelets. The owner sent a young man to her for a blessing on marriage. And the schemer blessed him to go to Optina to Elder Hilarion. The owner released the young man to Optina, and Nikolai set off on his way.
In 1873, he came to Optina Deserts, carrying only the Gospel in a knapsack on his back. Here, by God's Providence, he found his true purpose. For it is in the power of the Lord, and not in the power of him who walks to give direction to his footsteps (Jeremiah 10:23). First, the young man went to Elder Hilarion, the head of the hermitage, and he sent him to St. Ambrose. At that time, so many people came to the great elder Ambrose that it took weeks to wait for the reception. But he accepted Nikolai right away and talked with him for two hours. What their conversation was about, the Monk Nektary did not reveal to anyone, but after it he remained in the hermitage forever. He became the spiritual son of the Monk Anatoly (Zertsalov), and went to the council of the Monk Elder Ambrose.
Under the guidance of his great mentors, the Monk Nektarios grew rapidly spiritually. On March 14, 1887, he was tonsured into the mantle, on January 19, 1894, he was ordained a hierodeacon, and four years later he was ordained a hieromonk by the Kaluga bishop. He was forty-four years old at the time.
Already during these years, he healed the sick, possessed the gift of clairvoyance, miracle-working and reasoning. But in his humility, he hid these high spiritual talents under an external foolishness. He had the blessing of the elders for his foolishness. Optina elders often covered up their spiritual greatness with foolishness – jokes, eccentricities, unexpected sharpness or unusual simplicity in dealing with noble and arrogant visitors.
In 1912, the Optina brethren elected him to the elders. But the Monk Nectarius refused, saying: "No, fathers and brethren! I am poor and I cannot bear such a burden." And it was only out of obedience that he agreed to assume the eldership.
At first, after being elected elder, Father Nektary intensified his foolishness. He bought a jukebox and a gramophone with spiritual records, but the skete authorities forbade him to start them; he played with toys. He had a whistle bird, and he made grown-ups blow it, who came to him with empty sorrows. There was a spinning top that he let his visitors run. There were children's books that he distributed to adults to read.
The elder's foolishness often contained prophecies, the meaning of which was often revealed only after time had passed. For example, people were perplexed and laughed at how Elder Nektary suddenly lit an electric flashlight and walked with it around his cell with the most serious look, examining all corners and cupboards... And after 1917, they remembered this "eccentricity" in a completely different way: that's how, in the dark, by the light of flashlights, the Bolsheviks searched the monks' cells, including the room of Elder Nektary. Six months before the revolution, the elder began to walk with a red bow on his chest – this was how he predicted the coming events. Or he collects all sorts of junk, puts it in a locker and shows everyone: "This is my museum." And indeed, after Optina's closure, there was a museum in the hermitage.
Often, instead of answering, Father Nektary would place dolls in front of the visitors and act out a small performance. The puppets, the characters of the play, gave answers to questions with their lines. 
There are numerous cases when the priest healed terminally ill people. 
The elder often and lovingly spoke about prayer. He taught constancy in prayer, considering it a good sign from the Lord not to fulfill petitions. "We must continue to pray and not be discouraged," the priest taught. – Prayer is capital. The longer it stays, the more interest it brings. The Lord sends His mercy when it pleases Him, when it is useful for us to accept it... Sometimes, after a year, the Lord grants the petition... An example should be taken from Joachim and Anna. They prayed all their lives and were not discouraged, and what a comfort the Lord sent them!" He once advised: "Just pray: "Lord, grant me Your grace!" A cloud of sorrows is coming at you, and you are praying: "Lord, grant me Your grace!" And the Lord will carry the storm past you."
After the monastery was closed on Palm Sunday in 1923, the Monk Nektarios was arrested. The elder was taken to the monastery's bread building, which had been turned into a prison. He was walking along an icy path in March and he was falling. The room where he was put was not blocked up to the top, and in the second half the guards were sitting and smoking. The elder was suffocating from the smoke. On Holy Thursday, he was taken to a prison in Kozelsk. Later, due to an eye disease, the elder was transferred to the hospital, but sentries were posted...
After leaving prison, the authorities demanded that Father Nektary leave the Kaluga region. The elder lived in the village of Kholmishchi in the Bryansk region with a peasant, a relative of the spiritual son of the priest. The Cheka threatened this peasant with exile to Kamchatka for sheltering the elder. In the autumn of 1927, he was subjected to a particularly heavy tax.
Despite the difficulties, spiritual children traveled to Kholmishchi in search of solace and advice, and a stream of people from all over Russia reached out to the elder. The Holy Patriarch Tikhon consulted with the Monk Nektarios through his confidants. 
Reverend Nektary, being a seer, predicted in 1917: "Russia will rise up and will not be rich financially, but it will be rich in spirit, and there will be seven more lamps and seven pillars in Optina."
In 1935, robbers dug up the grave of the elder, hoping to find valuables there. They tore off the coffin lid and placed the open coffin against a tree. In the morning, the collective farmers who came to the cemetery saw that the elder was standing incorruptible – waxy skin, soft hands. The coffin was closed and lowered into the grave with the singing of "Holy God."
After the revival of Optina Pustyn, on July 3/16, 1989, on the memorial day of Metropolitan Philip of Moscow, the relics of St. Nectarius were found. When the solemn procession moved through the monastery, a wonderful fragrance emanated from the relics: the mantle of the elder turned out to be incorruptible, the relics were amber in color. In 1996, St. Nektary was canonized as a local saint of Optina Desert, and in August 2000, he was glorified by the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church for ecclesiastical veneration. Currently, the shrine with the relics of Elder Nectarius is located in the western part of the Ambrosievsky chapel of the Vvedensky Cathedral of the monastery.