Biography
Not far from Pskov on the lake there is an island that is the name of Talabsk. It is also called the island is chosen, because earlier the collective farm named Ivan (Yana) is filled. Forty years in the temple on this island served father Nikolay Guryanov, Archpriest, one of the most revered elders of the stroke of the twentieth and twentieth centuries.Childhood and youth
On May 24, 1909, a child was born in the village of Mosanic sites in the village of the Orthodox family. Baby ordered with baptism Nikolai, in honor of St. Nicholas Wonderworker. His father Alexey Stepanovich Guryanov, Regent Church Chora, died quite young, in 1914. And on the shoulders of Mother Catherine Stepanovna lay down the concern for four sons. All the brothers Nicholas went to the Father - had a musical hearing. Senior Michael even taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. And all took war.
My mother had one Nikolai, and he had a chance to take care of the mother, who could have helped his son in his ministry to his death in 1969. Such a development of events foresaw his father, saying once his wife, that it was this son in old age "to" cook. " Nikolai Guryanov, who had a sharp character, had a lot of effort to learn not to flare out because of a trifling.
There is no doubt that Belief helped in this young man. From an early age, Nikolai was brought up on the Orthodox traditions, served in the altar of the local temple, sometimes went with the mantis on the pilgrimage on the holy places. So, in his youth, he visited Talabsk Island, where there was so many years later.
Nikolay graduated from the pedagogical technician in Gatchina, entered the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, and then there was a choice between the faith and a more or less peaceful life in the country who denied God. In 1929, Guryanov was expelled from the first year of the university, because he opposed the closure of a certain temple.
This speech to the closure of the temple did not prevent, but at the same time closed the young man to the university diploma. And, of course, the NKVD drew close attention to the advocacy faith. Nikolay returned to his native village, served as a psaller and at the same time taught children mathematics, physics and biology.
Life
Communist persecution to the church was expressed not only in the closure of temples, but also in repressions in relation to churchmen. Many fell into the camps, and Nikolai Guryanov, among other things. He was arrested for religious propaganda. Before the trial, the future Talab old man spent a few months in the Leningrad's sadly famous "crosses", and after the sentence announced the sentence in Syktyvkar, in one of the "Islets" of the terrible "Gulag archipelago". There, prisoners in inhuman conditions were built by rail, Nikolai became disabled - both of his legs were crumpled.
According to one information, he was released in 1937, and in others - in 1942. After the liberation, Nikolai as repressed could not get a residence permit in Leningrad. I had to stay in the Tosnensky district. There, Guryanov was lucky - there were lack of teachers in rural schools, and he got a job, despite the fact that he had no higher education, and the conviction, on the contrary, was.
When the Great Patriotic War began, the disabled teachers did not take into the army. In addition, then they remembered about his conviction. When Leningrad was taken to the ring of the blockade, Nikolai was on the territory occupied by the fascists, and was forcibly sent to the Baltic States.
It was in the occupation of Guryanov finally dedicated himself to God. In February 1942, the 8th, he was ordained in San Diacon. Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky) committed a rite of ordination. Simultaneously with San Nicholas accepted celibacy - vows celibacy to the end of life. And on February 15, 1942 he received a sacred san. After the end of theological courses, Nikolai went to Riga, where he served in the female Holy Trinity Monastery a priest. Then almost a year was the Stretch of the Holy Okrug Monastery in Vilnius.
Since 1943, Guryanov was the abbot of the church of St. Nicholas in the village of Gegobrosts in Lithuania. In 1956, Father Nikolai received San Archpriest. According to the memories of his parishioners, Rimma Orlova, father Nikolai was distinguished by kindness and friendliness, served inspired, lighting, engaging all the parishioners in the action of worship.
Not a monk, he led a strictest life than the monastic. Ascetic observed in everything in prayer, post, human relations. And selflessly served God, feeding an example to all others. No wonder his arrival was called "Oasis of Orthodox Piece" in the midst of Catholic Lithuania.
The ministry of Father Nikolai combined with study - in 1951 he received a diploma of the Vilen Sacred Seminary, then he studied in absentia in the Leningrad Spiritual Academy. And in 1958 he left to serve God on the island of Talabsk, tied his biography forever. People who knew Guryanov closely, recalled that the name of the service of the ministry called Father Nicholas a certain old man, to whom he traveled.
The end of the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s - the time of the Khrushchev anti-religious campaign, when the authorities announced a close victory over the obscuration, meaning Orthodoxy. Therefore, Nicholas and his mother met with suspicion on Talabsk. But benevolence, the meekness and patience of the priest helped establish a kind relationship with local residents.
My own hands, Father Nikolai restored his dilapidated temple - painted the walls, the wing re-roof. Himself, without the help of the diocese, I was looking for funds for materials for repair. Presents Pitch Clearing, when services have already begun in the church. And she helped everyone who could have looked after the elderly, nursing children, sled trees on the island.
In the first years, already putting good-neighborly relations with the inhabitants of Talabsk, Nikolai often defeated worship without a flush - people did not go to the church under the influence of anti-religious propaganda. One of the villagers even wrote a denunciation on the priest. The representative of the authorities came to the island, Nahamil, heated and stated that tomorrow the Archpriest will take.
All night father Nikolai prayed, and miracles began in the morning, or a confluence of circumstances, as whom I like to count more. A storm began on the lake, and three days from the mainland on the island was not to get there. And then the authorities seem to forget about Guryanov.
In the 1970s, Nikolai Guryanov, who was already called the old man Nicholas, gained unprecedented glory. His prophecies came true, and therefore people drove to him from all over the Soviet Union. The old man unmistakably called strangers by name, warned about the dangers threatening them, said how to avoid them.
The sorry for the launched, held the rite of expulsion of demons, pulled healing from God from incurable diseases. Nikolai Guryanov, among other things, was very tacty in his sermons and statements, gave instructions, not humiliating the virtues of a person who was asking for help.
In 1988, the elder was awarded Mitra and ministry rights with open royal gates to Khryuvimskaya, and in 1992 - the rights of liturgy with open royal gates to ours. This is the highest church difference for the protoier. It was rumored that Nikolai Guryanov was secretly ordained in the San Bishop, but then these awards are set in doubt, because the Episcopian San himself gives such rights.
In the late Soviet and post-Soviet periods, when the church began to receive the support of the state, the number of admirers of the elder Nicholas, both among Russians and among the Orthodox abroad, has grown. In Canada, on his blessing, the skete was founded.
Olga Kormukhin, Konstantin Kinchev and other famous creative people came for the blessing to the old man. In addition, in the late 1990s, the elder predicted the future of Russia, and on the true sense of these prophecies argue to this day.
As Igor Izbortov wrote, the author of the book about Starta, Talabsk island called Orthodoxy Island. Actually, the father of Nikolai was for believers "fertile island." In one interview, the elder was asked that he was worried about in contemporaries. And he replied: "Cleverness."
"Go to the temple and believe the Lord. To whom the church is not a mother, God is not a father "- this quote of the elder Nicholas needs to be remembered by every Orthodox Christian.Death
The life of Father Nikolai Guryanov ended with his death on August 24, 2002 on the island of Talabsk. He is buried there.
More than 3 thousand believers gathered at the elder funeral. Pilgrims still come to the grave of the elder.
Memory
The film "The Word of Truth", filmed in 2003, says that the elder supported the order and called for the canonization of Grigory Rasputin and John Grozny. But, according to the fans of Nikolai Guryanov, in recent years, the elder in his immortality depended on the environment, which was given all sorts of speculation for the speeches of the father. Their opinion confirms the article Yuri Maximov in the magazine "Felling Fire". But the fact that Father Nikolai respectfully responded about the royal family, after all, it looks like the truth.
A society of zealous memory of the righteous Nikolai Pskovzersky (Nikolai Guryanova) was created. There are icons, as well as akafist and canon, in the holy Father, our righteous Nikolai Pskovzersky, the bishop of God.
In the "People of God" of the Publisher of the Sretensky Monastery printed the book of "Archpriest Nikolay Guryanov". Anyone user is available photo of an elder.