In the year 1589 the number of monks in the monastery of Petschenga reached sixty, and there were more than two hundred lay-brothers. On account of the secular business in which the members of the monastery were engaged, some of them were always away, either attending to the mill, the shipbuilding, or the fisheries, or else they were travelling on business to Vardö or Kola. But on the great festivals they were all assembled in the monastery, and the services were conducted with full and impressive solemnity. The forms of worship in the Eastern Church, which the monks were bound to observe, are strictly observed at the great feasts, and also during the forty days of Advent and Lent. The daily offices of the Church are six, and sometimes seven, in number, according to Psa. cxix. 164: ‘Seven times a day do I praise Thee, O Lord.’ These offices are said partly during the night, and the following is the appointed order: At midnight what is called Mesonyktikon is said; this lasts for three hours. Then there come Matins, and then the lesser Hours. At seven in the morning the Liturgy itself is celebrated. This is the service in which the Eucharist is hallowed and administered. The Brethren usually receive the Sacrament four times a year. In the afternoon Vespers are said, and finally, at the close of the day, Compline. On fasts and great festivals ‘Apogrypnia’ is said after ten o’clock at night, and this is an office which requires that the night shall be passed in the church and spent in prayer. When ‘Apogrypnia’ is said, it is usual to celebrate the Liturgy rather earlier, and then the monks go to rest till Vespers. There is never any sermon at these services, but on the festivals a portion of the lives of saints and martyrs is read. Ambrose was not as yet a full monk, but he had completed his novitiate, and it was decided that he should take the vow on Christmas Eve, 1589. The venerable and aged Superior, Gurij, had frequently discoursed with him, and had earnestly explained to him the unalterable nature of the vow which he was to take, and which would, for all his future life, bind him to the monastic life. Ambrose had declared that he was ready to take the vow, and with it to bid farewell to everything in the world which was not consistent with the strict, secluded life of a monastery. Nevertheless, old Gurij, who had attached himself more to this young man than to any of the other monks, had observed at times that there was an indication of something like suppressed anxiety in his pale face as the day approached nearer and nearer on which the solemn vow was to be taken. He fancied that at times there was in Ambrose’s features an expression as of a profound and unendurable anguish. Ambrose, who was usually very silent, had never told him much about his earlier career. It was not improbable, therefore, that in some deep recess of the man’s heart there lay hidden away memories of occurrences of which nobody had any knowledge.