Presbyter
Nikolai Vasilyevich Dvoritsky was born on May 7, 1878, in the village of Degzho, Dedovichsky district of Pskov province, in the family of a priest. He was ordained as a deacon at the Mikhailovskaya church in the village of Dno in 1898. The parish of Dno was numerous and lively, but suffered from the disbelief and materialism of the local inhabitants. In 1909, he became acquainted with Archbishop Arseny (Stadnitsky), which marked the beginning of a long relationship. In 1911, he was transferred to the Novgorod diocese, where he served as protodeacon in the St. Sophia Cathedral. In 1918, he was ordained as a priest and appointed rector of the Kazan church in the village of Lukomo. After the establishment of Soviet power, persecutions against the Church began; he was stripped of his civil rights and arrested in 1930 for 'anti-Soviet agitation.' His second arrest occurred in 1937, where he was sentenced to death. On November 6/19, 1937, he was shot in the Staraya Russa prison and buried in an unmarked grave.
