Presbyter
Father Grigory Nikolaevich Nikolsky was born on November 13, 1854, in the stanitsa of Yaryzhenskaya in the Region of the All-Great Don Army. After graduating from the Novocherkassk Spiritual School in 1871, he served in the Astrakhan Province. In 1883, he was ordained as a deacon and priest, actively participating in the activities of the Astrakhan branch of the Missionary Society.
From 1892, he served in the Stavropol Diocese, where he organized a free public reading room and visited the Nikolayevsky Caucasian Missionary Monastery for solitary prayer. Since 1915, he was a cleric of the Black Sea Mary Magdalene Women’s Monastery, leading the women’s section of the Kuban Correctional Shelter School and caring for the wounded in the monastery hospital.
Father Grigory was revered as a worthy pastor and a talented educator, repeatedly awarded for his service and educational activities. His life was filled with love for his neighbors and concern for Christian enlightenment.
In the summer of 1918, after the capture of Kuban by revolutionaries, Father Grigory was arrested by the Bolsheviks. After the Divine Liturgy, he was brutally beaten and killed while attempting to sign himself with the cross.
The memory of Father Grigory Nikolsky is honored in the restored Mary Magdalene Monastery, where memorial services are held for him.
