Deacon
Saint Nicholas Vasyukovich, a deacon and holy martyr, was born on March 28, 1882, into a priest's family. His father served as the rector of the church of Saint Righteous Anna in the village of Koski, Minsk district. After graduating from the Theological School in 1908, Nicholas worked as a teacher and then served as a psalmist at the Church of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos in the village of Litviany. After being ordained as a deacon, he continued his service in this temple. In 1930, when the Bolsheviks burned the church, he expressed his sorrow, calling them a 'gang of passersby.'
In 1936, refusing to sign for a loan, he said: 'I have nothing to strengthen this power...'. On August 6, 1937, he was arrested. During the interrogation, he was somewhat taciturn, and the Chekists sentenced him to execution. He was killed in Minsk on September 26, 1937.
He was glorified as a locally revered saint of the Minsk Diocese by the Synod of the Belarusian Exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in 1999. 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 universal veneration.
