Presbyter
Saint Nikolai was born on April 15, 1867, in the village of Tolstikovo, Bezhitsky district of Tver province. After graduating from Bezhitsk Spiritual School and Tver Theological Seminary, he was ordained as a priest in 1890. From 1906, Fr. Nikolai was a member of the Tver Orthodox Missionary Society, and from 1910, he was a member of the charitable society in the name of Saint Great Martyr Barbara. In 1915, he was awarded the Order of Anna III class for teaching the Law of God.
In Fr. Nikolai's family, there were two children - a son, Vladimir, and a daughter. After serving at the front, his son went abroad, where he graduated from a physics and mathematics institute.
Father Nikolai served in the Bezhitsky Monastery until his arrest in 1937, after which he was interrogated by the NKVD. His interrogations concerned his activities and accusations of anti-Soviet agitation, but he denied all accusations. On September 13, the NKVD Troika sentenced Fr. Nikolai to execution, and he was shot on September 17, 1937.
He was canonized among the ranks of the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia at the Jubilee Archpastoral Council of the Russian Orthodox Church in August 2000 for church-wide veneration.
