Hieromonk
Hieromonk Niphont was born in 1882 in the city of Yeysk to a poor peasant family. In 1913, he moved to the village of Podlesnoye to the well-known missionary Hieromonk Anthony, where he entered the monastery and was tonsured into monasticism. From 1925, he served in the church of the village of Berezovy Khutor until his arrest on December 28, 1930. The local OGPU department sent police officers to arrest the priest; however, despite the protests of the faithful, he was arrested and placed in prison in the city of Syzran.
During the investigation against him, no charges were brought, and he did not confess to any wrongdoing. Hieromonk Niphont died on August 30, 1931, in Syzran prison. The day before his arrest, his spiritual son Alexander Antonovich Medem was also arrested. On November 19, 1937, the NKVD Troika sentenced Archbishop Augustine, Archimandrite Ioanniky, Priest Ioann Speransky, and other church servants to execution, who were shot on November 23, 1937, and buried in a common unmarked grave.
