Ηegumen / Abbot
Saint Barlaam (born Vasily Mikhailovich Nikolsky) was born in 1872 in the village of Lyturitsy, in the Tula province. He graduated from the theological school and, in 1895, he entered the Chudov Monastery in Moscow as a novice. Soon afterward, he was tonsured a monk and received the name Barlaam. In 1909, he was ordained as a deacon and later as a hieromonk.
From 1917 to 1925, he served at the Church of St. Nicholas Plotniki, and later, from 1925 to 1929, at the Church of the Savior in the Sands (Spas-na-Peskakh). In 1929, he became an abbot. On December 28, 1930, during the period of great persecutions of the clergy and of all monks, he was arrested.
On January 31, 1931, during interrogation, he openly expressed his opinion regarding the existing regime, emphasizing that he was a monk and a faithful supporter of the Church. As a result, he was convicted of counterrevolutionary activity and sentenced to three years of exile in Kazakhstan.
After returning from exile, he served at the church in the village of Dyakovo and later at the church in the village of Andreyevskoye. On November 5, 1937, he was arrested again and got imprisoned in Moscow. False witnesses accused him of anti-Soviet propaganda and of attempting to expand the influence of the Church.
On November 17, the NKVD troika sentenced him to death. Saint Barlaam was executed on November 19, 1937, and was buried in an unknown mass grave at the Butovo firing range near Moscow.
