On August 24 we honor the memory of the great elder - Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov (1909–2002). For more than 40 years, the elder served in the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker on the island of Talabsk (Zalit) of the Pskov diocese. Being himself a great elder, Archimandrite John (Krestyankin) said about Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov that he is “the only truly perspicacious elder in the territory of the former USSR.”
advised:
“Man was born to talk with God”
“Be always joyful and in the most difficult days of your life do not forget to thank God: a grateful heart needs nothing.”
“Don’t be upset about visiting troubles: these are life companions in our recovery.”
“A believer, he must have a loving attitude towards everything that surrounds him. Lovingly!”
“Man was born to talk with God.”
“We must have pity on people and always pray: “Lord, deliver them from this enemy darkness.”
“After all, we are visiting now, and then we will all go home. But only, my precious ones, woe will befall us at home if we were guests and did something bad.”
"Live as if you were going to die tomorrow."
“Go and do good. All love covers a multitude of sins.”
The Elder in the Memoirs of Contemporaries
Simplicity and love for people, animals, plants, for everything that God created, set him apart from others... When Father Nikolai arrived on the island, there was an empty space near his house, opposite - a cemetery with a broken fence and not a single tree. And he really wanted to decorate everything! And he collected plants, roots of bushes and flowers from Kyiv, Pochaev, Vilnius, Pyukhtits and planted them on the island. Father lovingly looked after the trees. At that time there was no running water there, and the priest carried water from the lake, 100–200 buckets each. He watered everything himself: the bushes, the flowers, and the future trees. Near the house, the priest planted chrysanthemums, dahlias, and gladioli. Now we see the fruits of his labors: thujas, firs, and larches have turned green everywhere. And where there is greenery, there are birds. How many of them filled the previously empty island with their voices! For them, for the little birds of God, Father Nikolai arranged an “open-air dining room.” With his pure soul, the priest was close to everything that was created by the right hand of God.
Father Nikolai was celibate. In Vilnius, everyone knew him and remembered him in notes as Hieromonk Nicholas. I asked Mother Abbess Nina (Batasheva; Varvara in the schema) about this, and this is what she told me. Father Nikolai said that, if the Lord wills, he will take monastic vows. Mother Nina even kept the clothes that the sisters sewed for Father Nikolai’s tonsure. But during the war, when the convent was heavily bombed, Mother Abbess’s everything was burned, including these clothes. Father Nikolai decided that it was not God’s will for him to become a monk, and did not take monastic vows.”
All creation was after the priest’s heart. He always looked carefully so that neither the flower nor the tree was damaged
Archpriest John Mironov, who was connected with half a century of spiritual friendship, said: “The courtyard of my father’s modest house-cell was like an illustration to the first chapters of the Book of Genesis: chestnuts, cypresses and other trees, many pigeons on the branches and roof sitting tightly, like chickens on a roost. There are also sparrows and other small birds. And cats and a dog walk peacefully next to the chickens. And the priest tried to warm everyone up and treat them. The cat Lipushka lived with her father for 28 years and became completely human. One day, someone hit a crow with a stone, so the priest came out, cured it, and it became completely tame. Every morning then I met the priest, croaked, flapped my wings and said hello. And everything around – both trees and flowers – everything on the island lived with the priest’s care. Bees, midges, bugs - everything was not alien to him. It won't even hurt a mosquito. All creation was after the priest’s heart. He always looked carefully so that no flower or tree was damaged.”
Vladyka Pavel (Ponomarev; now Metropolitan of Minsk and Zaslavsky, Patriarchal Exarch of All Belarus; in 1988–1992 - abbot of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery) told the following story: “Mother Georgia (Shchukina) came to us in Pechory. It turns out that she had a conversation with His Holiness the Patriarch about the possible sending of her to Jerusalem. And she needed to consult with her confessor - Father Nikolai, a famous elder on the island of Zalit. But she didn’t manage to get to the island: the ships no longer operate, and the ice has not yet risen... And the housekeeper asks me: “So, bless me for a helicopter?”... We called the airport - it turned out to be quite accessible. After 40 minutes the helicopter was already at the monastery. We arrived - and there was nowhere to land. It just snowed nicely. We sat down somewhere in the garden. We see: Father Nikolai himself is coming. And the mothers are running, making noise. It turns out that after the service and meal, everyone went to their cells - and suddenly Father Nikolai began calling everyone. “Come out,” he calls. “Mothers, guests are coming to us: Mother Abbess of Jerusalem, Father-Vicar and the brethren of the monastery.” They say: “Father, are you out of your mind? Who's coming to us? Steamboats don't operate. Lie down and rest.” And suddenly - a helicopter, noise. But then, not only were there no mobile phones, there was no connection with the island at all. And after all, Father Nikolai already called Mother Abbess of Jerusalem, although no one knew about her future at all...”
I was amazed by his insight. He foresaw a lot
Archpriest Oleg Teor talked about the elder: “I appreciated Father from the very first meeting and always respected him very much. I was amazed by his insight. He foresaw a lot and, if necessary, said something that later came true. For example, there was such a case. Father Nikolai always remembered death, his preparation for it, often spoke on this topic and told him what to bury him in. One day he promised one of his spiritual daughters that she would be at his funeral. Another, named Antonina, immediately declared: “And I will, father. I’ll definitely come.” And he says so secretly: “No, you’ll be at home.” And it turned out that this Antonina died. And the one who was promised to attend the funeral was actually there. And my father told me that I would bury him. And so it happened.
Now I also feel his prayerful support. It happens that when I remember him, help comes to me. Father Nikolai also had the gift of healing. His prayer was very effective. One of his spiritual daughters became so seriously ill that doctors diagnosed cancer. She felt very weak, her face was pale and transparent. She worked in a hard job where she had to deal with chemicals that were harmful to her health. Doctors recommended that she move to another job. But Father Nikolai did not bless. The patient obeyed. Many years have passed, but, through the priest’s prayers, she recovered and is still living. When I became very ill, Father Nikolai also very convincingly assured me that the Lord would heal. And indeed, I was healed.
Father Nikolai tried to instill in his children the memory of death
Father Nikolai tried to instill in his children the memory of death. He said that if people knew what was in store for them, they would behave differently. Often, for the sake of understanding and clarity, he showed the guests the icon of the Last Judgment, explaining it and reminding them of retribution for sins. He taught with great conviction, using evangelical words and examples. He indicated in the image where and for what sin the person would have to suffer. This sobered many and made them think and always remember about the hour of death.”
Archpriest Georgy Ushakov shared: “Often I saw that even when the priest spoke to a person, his lips moved between phrases. I think that he was a constant man of prayer. This is where his insight and openness to the heavenly world came from. During prayer, the Lord revealed to him the soul of man and His will for him.”
Archpriest Vladimir Stepanov said: “I lived then in Pskov and served as a deacon in the Trinity Cathedral. Next to the cathedral there is a bell tower in which the nun Archelaus lived in the 1970s. I go one day to visit my mother. The conversation turned to Father Nikolai. She tells me that it was very difficult for her, and she prayerfully turned to the priest: “Father Nikolai! Help me! Father Nikolai! Help me…” And so several times. The next morning, the priest arrives in Pskov, comes to Mother Archelaus and says to her from the doorway: “Well, what are you asking me: Father Nikolai, help me, Father Nikolai, help me...”
The Lord rewarded the priest with living faith and unceasing prayer. It was often noticeable that he was saying the Jesus Prayer. I have experienced the power of his prayer myself, more than once. One example: I had a serious problem, and in winter I walked from the highway along the lake to the elder. He listened to me, then stood up and said: “Let’s pray.” Father kneels down in his tiny kitchenette, and I follow him too. A few minutes of prayer. We get up from our knees. Father Nikolai blesses me, and I clearly feel in my soul that my problem no longer exists. God bless!"
Priest Alexy Likhachev recalled: “Father seemed a little naive to me: he kept trying to persuade me to read morning and evening prayers every day. And I was such a diligent student that it seemed strange to me not only that I couldn’t read the prayers, but that I also read the Psalter religiously. “Doesn’t he know that I do this without any persuasion?” But then at the academy I found myself in a circle of young people, experts and adherents of the Greek tradition, who, making fun of our Russian piety, sneered: “Without proofreading this rule, you will not be saved.” So the priest strengthened me in advance so as not to succumb. And one more thing: now, ten years later, I am so burdened with the construction of the temple, as well as family difficulties and everyday troubles, that I sometimes fall asleep without undressing. But the words of Father Nikolai sound today like a reproach.
You still had to be able to understand Father’s language. He revealed such deep things to people, and even in a few words, that they had to be clothed in the form of images or symbols, which became clearer gradually, over time, filled with new spiritual meanings and twists of fate. A certain novice who came to the island with me began to tell the priest about the troubles in the monastery. He gently touched her neck: “Are you wearing a cross?” She took out the cross from her chest. “Here you go.” (A year later she developed a mental disorder.)
And the girl Valya, who asked him if she could go in for horse riding and dancing, Father Nikolai with affection and a smile says: “Let me add some color to you,” and he takes a gray strand from his hair and seems to put it on her . She's laughing, you know. But he hinted at her grief to the point of gray hair.”
Doctor Vladimir Alekseevich Nepomnyashchikh talked about the elder: “Outwardly he seemed detached from everything earthly. It was felt that there was a huge distance between us sinners and the elder. For many who came up for blessing, the priest no longer answered questions, but only silently anointed his forehead with oil in the shape of a cross. At the same time, people felt the need for questioning disappearing. However, Father Nikolai talked with those who really had a need, answered their questions and even invited people to his house. He did not answer all questions, but selectively... Undoubtedly, Elder Nicholas knew the will of God and revealed it to the extent that he considered necessary.”
Father Nikolai blessed me with a big cross and said: “You will neither drink nor smoke for the rest of your life.” And so it happened
Andrey Lukin recalled: “From my youth I became addicted to alcohol, and by the age of 26 I realized that I could not live without it for a long time. I started looking for a way out, tried to encode myself - it didn’t help, it only got worse... I started taking vows. He promised before God, on the cross and the Gospel, in the presence of a priest, to abstain from alcohol, first for six months, then for a year and a year and a half. This went on for six years, but the trouble was that as soon as the end of the vow came, literally on the same day I started drinking again, because the passion was approaching and it was impossible to fight it. And so in 1999, in the month of August, I came to Zalit Island to visit Father Nikolai Guryanov. I approached him and said: “Father, bless me not to drink for three years and not to smoke for a year (take vows).” Father Nikolai blessed me with a big cross and said: “You will neither drink nor smoke for the rest of your life.” Seven years have passed since then, and during this time I haven’t even thought about drinking or smoking (thank God!). But I smoked for more than 20 years.
And two years before this wonderful event, my wife, together with her eldest daughter, went to Father Nikolai with the question of whether I should leave my worldly work and work entirely in the church or not. Father, not knowing my name, said to his wife: “I bow deeply to Andryushenka, and ask for your prayers.” What humility the priest has - as he called me, a drunk... And he answered his wife: “There is no need to leave worldly work, but let him work as a regent.” And so it happened: “I worked”, after six months, less, I had to leave the regents. The wife also asked about her daughter: should she continue studying, since her academic success was unimportant, to which the elder said: “Study, study and study. A three and a four are also good marks.” My daughter graduated from school, a secondary specialized institution, and is now studying in higher education, in her fourth year. Upon admission, I received five for the main subject and four for the remaining subjects. But at school I was a C student!”
Olga Kormukhina, famous singer, shared: “I must say that at that time I had two serious problems: smoking (I couldn’t quit smoking, although I really wanted to) and I also liked delicious alcoholic drinks. I, one might say, “got high” on the exquisite liqueurs, rums, wines and could not help myself... So we approached the house, we saw: people gathered around the old man in groups; we joined them. And he runs between people and asks: “Do you drink, smoke? Do you drink, smoke? Do you drink, smoke?” But he doesn’t ask me. I think: “This is my problem. But he doesn’t ask me.” I want to say it, but I can’t. I feel like a demon has shut my mouth. I just feel it naturally. The veins in my neck are bulging, but I can’t say a word. But I feel that if I don’t say it now, I’ll be finished. Just the end. That's all! I strained with all my strength and prayed: “Lord! Help me!" And then she screamed: “Father! I drink and smoke! I hate myself for this!” And he seemed to be waiting for this, ran up to me, crossed his mouth and said: “That’s it. You won’t do it again.” And indeed, it was July 19, 1997, since then I have not taken either alcohol or cigarettes.
One mathematics professor, Russian, came with his English friend, also a mathematics professor, a complete unbeliever. And the Russian prayed very much for him to believe. And the Englishman had the thought: “If this old man shows me a miracle, then I will believe.” They arrived, the priest met them, took them into the cell and immediately, from the first words, said: “What miracle should I show you, son?” He went to the switch and started clicking: “Here there is light, but there is no light. Here there is light, but there is no light. Ha ha ha.” They laughed, and Father Nikolai sent them home: “Go, sons, with God, quietly for now.” The Englishman also laughed: they say, what miracles can there be? After all, he is a scientist. They arrived from the island back to the mainland, and there was a crowd of people, police, and workers dragging some wires. “What happened?” - “So for three days now there has been no light on the islands.” And our scientist immediately turned the boat back.”
Anna Ivanovna Trusova recalled: “I came to the island with my nephew. He defended one person who was attacked by hooligans. As a result, he was unfairly accused. The investigator gave him two articles. We went to Elder Nicholas to ask for his holy prayers. Father did not ask why, why, only I suddenly saw how his eyes changed - I had never seen such eyes on anyone in my life. He went far away, he was not present here among us. I actually trembled at this priest’s gaze. I don’t know how long he prayed like that. Five minutes or more, but only then he took a deep breath and said: “They won’t judge. They will acquit.” So in just a few minutes the elder begged the man.”
“Father, in such a cold!.. Why?” - the mothers were scared. “My name is,” the elder said quietly
Lyudmila Ivanova, church photographer, recalled one incident: “One day Father Nikolai got ready to go somewhere late in the winter evening in a strong snowstorm. “Father, in such a cold!.. Why?” - the mothers were scared. “That’s my name,” the elder said quietly. And, despite the persuasion of the women, he went into the darkness of the night. The wind howled like a fierce beast, the blizzard did not subside. Father did not return for a long time. Run, search - where? All that remained was to pray, trusting in the will of God. Father did not return alone. He brought a frozen man. He got lost in the snowstorm, began to lose strength and even think about death. Out of fear, he prayed to the saint of God, Nicholas the Wonderworker, although he considered himself an unbeliever. Father Nikolai heard.”
Hegumen Roman (Zagrebnev) told how he and his friend came to the elder on the island. The friend, who had no experience communicating with the elders, was confused and did not ask the priest anything. And so, when they were about to leave, Father Nikolai himself stopped the young man: “Tell me, is this really the case? At home you wrote and wrote a charter with questions, put it in your pocket and, without resolving a single question, you left! Is this the case? Now you’ll get into the “Rocket” and sail, but the questions are in your pocket. Come on, get it now. Otherwise, you will swim to Pskov, you accidentally put your hand in your pocket, and your heart will skip a beat. So that it is calm, and there is a need to resolve issues. Understood?!" “My fellow traveler fell at the priest’s feet, tears ran from his eyes, asking for forgiveness and patience to resolve the written questions.”
Emilian Lashin recalled: “The man with whom I had to go to the island of Zalita had recently been released from prison. He lost his mother early, and his stepmother treated him and his sister badly, and they both began to steal, and this continued until he was imprisoned. He was imprisoned two or three times and when he came out he was already very sick with tuberculosis. He had no job, no money, no registration, no housing, and there was no way to get a job in a hospital. Then they decided to go to Father Nikolai. It was in September, at the end of the month - a difficult time for consumptives. I remember that on that day the priest had a lot of different people... And my “ward” stood outside the gate by a large stone and did not dare (or was no longer able) to enter. Father barely glanced at him and immediately called him by name, went out the gate and talked for a long, long time about something with this man. And then he blessed him three times and said loudly: “Everything will be fine.” Needless to say, immediately upon our return this man was taken to the best clinic, as if suddenly forgetting about all the obstacles and arguments that the same people had found just a few days ago. He spent more than six months in this clinic, completely cured of his terrible illness. During this time, registration was obtained, and miraculously, funds were always available for medicines, which cost a lot of money.”
Alexey Belov, famous musician, said: “We witnessed such an incident. One day a terrible storm arose on the island and suddenly calmed down instantly. And when we approached the priest’s cell, his cell attendant said that there was a tornado, the priest came out, crossed himself, and everything fell apart. And then it turned out that he saved the boy from death. This boy went out fishing on a large boat, and during a tornado he could have died, crashed on this boat.
Father actually saved people from death more than once. This was the case with our daughter. In infancy, she had a very difficult time withstanding high fever and began to have convulsions. And then one day the convulsions were so strong that her tongue stuck and asphyxia began, she was already starting to turn blue. Then I shouted to myself: “Father Nikolai, help!” And the tongue returned to its place, she began to breathe evenly.
The monks we met on Mount Athos had photographs of the elder. Everyone respected him very much. When we were at the evening service in Hilandar, in the Serbian monastery, the confessor took my confession. I decided to give him a photo of Father Nikolai, since I took a whole bunch with me to give to people. He took the photo, looked and said: “Father Nikolai!” Then I learned that the confessors of some Athonite monasteries, including Father Tikhon from Hilandar, came to the island to visit Father Nicholas. It was amazing to me. After all, the Holy Mountain has been the center of monastic experience for more than a thousand years. We can say that this is an “institute of eldership”; many elders, including modern ones, have grown up here. And so from Mount Athos the monks traveled to some distant island in Russia to see the saint.”
Hieromonk (now abbot) Nestor (Kumysh), the spiritual child of the elder, shared: “My diaconate was also predicted by him. Before entering the seminary, I, as usual, came to the island, because then I already traveled regularly, I could no longer live without it. I talked with the elder and decided everything that needed to be done. At parting, he tells me: “Soon you will be a deacon.” "When?" - I ask. “Next summer,” answered the elder. With that he left. But I’m perplexed in my soul: what kind of diaconate, when I haven’t even entered the seminary yet? Maybe he was joking, father? In fact, everything turned out according to his word. As a graduate of a university, I was enrolled in the seminary straight into the second grade... Upon completion of the second grade, I was offered to move to the fourth, bypassing the third. Without giving any answer, I went out of town to visit relatives until September of the next school year. And at the beginning of July, they unexpectedly called from the diocesan administration with a demand to immediately appear in the city to pass the exams and undergo confession before the consecration.
At full speed, my engine jammed and the car became uncontrollable
For the successful progress of restoration work on the temple where I served, the benefactor who carried out its restoration gave me a car. “Sell it immediately,” the elder categorically demanded of me when I told him about this. But I didn’t listen and decided to do it after the restoration work was completed... At full speed, my engine jammed and the car became uncontrollable. After two or three terrible minutes I found myself in a ditch with all four wheels up. By the grace of God, everything turned out well, and I escaped with a fright. But since then I did not dare to violate or somehow alter the word spoken by the elder.
I had one sin that caused me a lot of grief and worry. Periodically, I suffered from relapses of gloomy irritability and short temper. It is difficult for a Christian to live with this, since nothing poisons the existence of those around him so much and nothing humiliates human dignity more than the loss of self-control. But the fight against this common disease is not easy. And then one day, upon arriving on the island, I turned to the elder with a rather stupid question, which was also not without hidden vanity. I asked Father Nikolai what special thing I could do to please God more. Without looking at me, the elder answered: “Don’t make a fuss.” Wow, how this word hurt me! I jumped away from the priest as if I had been doused with boiling water. His words hit the nail on the head and deeply wounded my pride. But what to do? For our healing, sometimes we need not sweet pills, but bitter medicine, and Father Nikolai resolutely used them where necessary. Subsequently - as I believe, not without the priest’s prayer - I discovered the main cause of the illness that tormented me and was freed from it.”
Archpriest Valerian Krechetov shared: “Father kept repeating: “Everything is fine, yes, everything is fine. How happy we are that we are in the Church, that we receive communion...” The elder was asked about Russia, and he answered: “Russia did not die. Oh, how good it is for us. Glory to You, Lord. The Lord does not leave us."
Priest Alexy Likhachev recalled the last days of the elder’s life and the last meeting with him: “And here I am with the most dear person. Again, as in the first meeting, I sit at your feet. Only the priest... was already different. He diminished, as the Lord once did. He was just like a child. He kissed my hand: you are a priest, and I am no one anymore. When he gave him modest shrines as a gift, the priest asked childishly: “What is this? Cross?" And he cried tenderly. I brought him some cotton wool dipped in myrrh from the icon of the Martyr Tsar. He asked three times what kind of cotton wool it was. I asked him to put a cross on the book with his poems. "Here? Here?" – he asked until I pointed my finger. In obedience to me, the priest tried for about five minutes to draw this cross with his weak hand, his hand was shaking... I also began to cry. All the spiritual things that I knew and expected were no longer there. It wasn't FOREVER. It was clearly felt that the humanity in the priest was already leaving. Outwardly, this was indicated by the unnatural pallor of the face: not a speck of blood! His flesh was held together only by the Spirit - for our sake, by his love and the mercy of God. And only the elder answered all the questions. I answered, closing my eyes and praying, and only in those seconds did I recognize “my father.” Even his tone became firm and authoritative.”
Archpriest Boris Nikolaev remembered : “When the priest was lying in the coffin, his right hand was so warm and alive that the thought crept into my head whether we were burying a living person. The fact is that Father Nikolai was close to the heavenly world. The righteous in special moments, especially after Communion of the Holy Mysteries of Christ, cease to feel the difference between the heavenly world and the visible world, and can temporarily move into another world. Father Valerian often gave the priest communion in recent years and several times noticed that the elder seemed to be dying. The breathing stopped, but the pulse continued to beat. After some time, Father Nikolai came out of his cell to the alarmed Father Valerian and his cell attendants and asked with a smile: “Well, what are you here for?”
"Do not Cry! Now Father Nikolai is praying for us at the Throne of Heaven.”
Priest (now Archpriest) Alexy Nikolin recalled the funeral of the elder: “There were 40 serving priests, two bishops: Archbishop of Pskov and Velikoluksky Eusebius and Nikon, retired Bishop of Yekaterinburg... First the priesthood was forgiven, then the laity went. The monks of the Pskov-Pechersky Monastery arrived, Archimandrite Tikhon (Shevkunov) ... came with his choir. The choir of the Sretensky Monastery sang the funeral service... When the funeral service was over, they lifted the coffin, carried it around the temple with the canon “Wave of the Sea” and carried it to the cemetery.”
Archimandrite John (Peasant) consoled the mourners: “Don’t cry! Now Father Nikolai is praying for us at the Throne of Heaven.”
Through the prayers of the saints, our fathers, Lord Jesus Christ, our God, have mercy on us!
In our country there is an island called Zelit, which is located on Lake Pskov. For forty years the rector was Blessed Nikolai Guryanov. Believers from all over the country came to him for help and wise advice.
What is eldership?
Eldership is the spiritual management of Orthodox people by elders. These are mostly people of clergy, but there are cases when lay people also spoke.
These people are selected by the Almighty. They have the ability to look into the future and see through any person. Thanks to this gift, chosen people can help you with any advice and spiritual guidance.
Church Choir Director's Family
Nikolai Guryanov was born in 1909 in the family of the regent of the temple choir. Nikolai was not the only child in the family; he also had three brothers. All brothers had a talent for music.
However, their musical abilities were unable to develop as all three of them were destined to die during the First World War. Nikolai’s father also did not live to old age; he died in 1914. Guryanov’s support and support was his mother Ekaterina, who lived a long life.
Failed students
Under the Soviet Union, Immaculate studied at a pedagogical college. Then he entered the institute, but he was expelled from it after he spoke out so that one of the churches that was located in their city would not be closed. Nikolai was very upset that he was expelled from the institute. After this incident, the GPU authorities began to monitor him.
In order not to die of hunger, Guryanov began teaching private lessons in biology, mathematics and other subjects in which he had sufficient knowledge. However, its main outlet was the temple. He served as a psalm-reader in many Leningrad churches.
Years of imprisonment and work in Tosno
For their devotion to the church, most clergy were imprisoned and sent to camps. Nicholas, like many others, was arrested for preaching the Christian faith. For two months he was in Kresty prison awaiting his sentence. After a couple of months, he was sent to the Syktyvkar camp. There he had to work day and night on the construction of the railway. One day during construction, he became disabled because he was injured in two lower extremities at once.
After serving five years in prison, Nikolai returned to Leningrad. He lived in the Tosnensky district. Without a teaching diploma and despite the fact that he had served time in prison, he was hired to work at a small school. He was a good teacher and worked in this educational institution until the first day of the war.
When the war began, due to the fact that he was disabled, he was not on the mobilization lists. He went to serve as a psalm-reader in the temple.
Acceptance of the priesthood and service in Baltic churches
During the period of occupation in the country, Nicholas decided to devote himself to the Almighty. In 1942, he took a vow of celibacy. At the end of the theological courses, the immaculate one went to serve in the Holy Trinity Church in Riga.
For the parishioners of the monastery, he was an example of true Orthodox existence. He could attract people to the sacred rites, performing all the required acts with inspiration and grace. Without being a recluse, Elder Nicholas was a true ascetic, adhering to Christian norms both in prayer and in his relationships with the people.
A prediction that determined future life
People who knew Nicholas told the story that one day he went to an unknown elder and he told the blessed one where he needed to go in the near future for further worship of the Almighty.
This was the island of Talabsk. It was in this area that he spent all his remaining years serving the Lord.
Difficulties of the first years
Nikolai faced a lot of difficulties upon arriving in a new area. At that time, in all corners of the country, the media were telling about the imminent victory over obscurantism. For this reason, having settled with their mother in a small village on the island, they encountered distrustful glances in their direction.
But very soon his good-naturedness, complacency, and most importantly, friendliness towards the people destroyed this haze of mistrust that had initially formed. The temple in which the elder was supposed to serve was then in very poor condition, and, not having the slightest help from the diocesan authorities, the priest had to personally find resources for its revival. With his own hands, he laid out the walls brick by brick, renewed the roof, painted and performed all other required work, and when sacred ceremonies began in the rebuilt church, he personally baked the prosphora.
Life in a fishing village
However, in addition to his temple duties, he constantly helped his fellow villagers. Most of the men in this village were engaged in fishing, for this reason the fishermen spent a lot of time away from their native walls. The elder, without remorse, helped women chop wood, bring water, and look after children and the elderly. With his good deeds, he gained the respect and trust of his fellow villagers.
During the first few years, the elder had to conduct services in an empty church. Despite the fact that people treated him very well, they refused to come to the temple. For a long time, in small steps, it was possible to convey the Word of God to people before the church was full of people for the service.
A miracle revealed through the prayer of a righteous man
In the 1960s, the persecution of the church intensified. One day a woman reported on Nikolai. A commissioner came to him and began to speak unflatteringly to him and said that he would come at dawn and take him to prison. The Immaculate One said prayers to the Almighty throughout the night.
Many people consider this phenomenon a miracle, and some say that it was a coincidence, but in the morning an incredible storm began on the lake, although this has never happened at this time of year. And for several days no one could get to the island. When the weather improved, the authorities forgot about Nikolai and never touched him again.
The beginning of elder ministry
The prophecies of the immaculate gained unprecedented popularity during the seventies. People came to him for help even from the most remote parts of the country.
He always addressed people who came to him for help by name, even though he didn’t know them at all. Nikolai guided them on the right path, informed them about the dangers that they would have to live through, gave people advice and much more. The Immaculate One healed diseases with prayers for which even doctors were powerless.
Wise mentor and teacher
However, the main thing the elder helped with was arranging people’s lives on Orthodox principles. Nikolai had the gift of seeing a person “through and through.” And even if a person had some kind of sin hidden in his soul, he could very loyally, without humiliation, tell about it and direct him on the right path. Many people knew about this Divine gift of his, and for this reason, crowds of people came to Zalit Island every day for help.
Nicholas was considered the only person in the country who had foresight. His ability to see what was hidden from the eyes of ordinary people was developed to such an extent that in the 90s he more than once came to the aid of both private individuals and municipal authorities in searching for people who had disappeared.
Universal recognition
During perestroika, attitudes towards religion changed, and clergy could conduct services without fear. In this regard, Guryanov gained even greater universal recognition. A huge number of people began to arrive on the island for his help.
The elder gained the greatest popularity after Father John Krestyankin told the whole country about the abilities of Nikolai Guryanov. He recommended Father Nicholas as the owner of God's Grace, which endowed him with the talents of foresight, prudence and complacency.
In the nineties, the prophecies of Elder Nicholas about the Russian Federation became very popular. He predicted what awaits the country after Yeltsin leaves the main post and much more.
Elder Nikolai Guryanov: predictions about the future of Russia
In his prediction about the future of Russia, Nikolai Guryanov said that B.N. Yeltsin would be replaced in power by the Orthodox Tsar. Many asked the question when this would happen, the elder answered that it would happen in the near future and many would live to see this time. There is not even a shadow of doubt in the correctness of his texts; we emphasize that V.V. Putin became the head of state after B.N. Yeltsin left his post. Vladimir Putin is to a great extent the type of Orthodox sovereign rather than an oppressor of religion, which is probably what the old man had in mind.
More than once Elder Nikolai said that there would be persecutions that were assigned to the Russian church. Maybe this would have happened, but because of the constant prayers of the elders of the Russian Federation, the Lord had mercy and took away all the troubles that Russia had seen for seventy years.
Instructions of Elder Nikolai Guryanov
In addition to the predictions described above in the article, Elder Nikolai earned popularity for the teachings that he imparted to the people who came to him for good advice and support. Almost everything he declared was preserved in the records made by his lovers who visited the island of Zalit.
Old man Nikolai Guryanov first of all taught to live and offer prayer to the Lord in such a way as if you were destined to die the next day, and, having appeared before God, give Him an answer in your own actions. This, the elder declared, would undoubtedly help cleanse the soul of impurities and prepare oneself for the transition to infinity. In addition, Nikolai taught us to be passionate about everything that is around us, since all this is nothing more than the creation of God. He demanded that people who did not believe in the Lord be treated without disapproval, with pity, and regularly offer prayer to God for their liberation from this evil darkness. His listeners received many other smart and necessary instructions from him.
Posthumous veneration of Elder Nicholas
The elder died on August 24, 2002. On the day when he was buried on the island of Zalit, a huge number of Orthodox people came to see him off on his last journey. However, even though many years have passed since that time, the number of Christians who venerate Elder Nicholas has not diminished.
It is no wonder that with his entire life he won the goodwill and memory of thousands of his own fans, the simple servant of the Lord Nikola Guryanov. The island, which has been a home for the past 40 years of its existence, is today both his monument and a place where religious Christians come for help.
It is too early to talk about the role in the life of today’s Church that was assigned by the Providence of God to Father Nicholas, who labored on the island of Zalit for more than forty years. Too little time has passed to evaluate his activities. But now we can say with all certainty that it was given to our Church at one of the most crucial moments of Her existence.
Of course, when characterizing the activities of this ascetic, one can be completely satisfied with an indication of the general tradition; within the framework of the office, from ancient times the elder’s service to an Orthodox person took place. It includes the spiritual nourishment of the flock, strengthening their religiosity, maintaining their zeal for pleasing God, maintaining in the human soul warmth and love for God and His commandments, proclaiming the Divine will to those who seek it, healing the moral shortcomings of people, caring for moral growth the soul of a Christian, the necessary spiritual support for those who are in sorrow or illness... In a word, an elder is one who, having achieved dispassion through personal feat, spiritually nourishes the church people and shapes their faith, fulfills a high and significant mission. At the present time of the greatest spiritual impoverishment and deep darkness of the spirit of modern society, eldership in itself is an invaluable gift to a suffering person who strives in today’s world to remain faithful to the Gospel Truth. And only those rarest chosen ones of God are called to him who are capable of making their lives an unceasing martyrdom. Therefore, the elder of our time, by the very fact of his existence, by virtue of his activity, deserves deep veneration and preservation of the memory of him by the entire Church of Christ, the entire people of God. The appearance of Father Nicholas can be considered a phenomenon of Russian religious life at the end of the 20th century. What makes it unique?
He was born on May 26, 1910 in the Samolva churchyard, Gdov district, St. Petersburg province, in the family of a private landowner. In 1926, he graduated from the Gatchina Pedagogical School, and in 1929 received an incomplete pedagogical education at the Leningrad Institute, from which he was expelled for speaking out at a meeting against the closure of one of the nearby churches. After this, he was repressed and spent seven years in prison in Syktyvkar. After leaving prison, Nikolai worked as a teacher in schools in the Tosnensky district, since he was denied registration in Leningrad. During the war, he was not mobilized due to illness in his legs, which he injured with sleepers while working in the camp. After the Gdovsky district was occupied by German troops, Nikolai, along with other residents, was driven away by the Germans to the Baltic states. Here he becomes a student at the Vilna Seminary, opened in 1942. After studying there for two semesters, he was ordained to the priesthood by Exarch Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky) at the Riga Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ and then served in various parishes in the Baltic states. In 1949 - 1951, Father Nikolai studied at the correspondence sector of the Leningrad Seminary, and in 1951 he was enrolled in the first year of the academy, but after studying there for one year in absentia, he did not continue his studies. In 1958 he ended up on the island of Zalit, where he spent the remaining forty-four years of his life. In this list of facts from his biography, we will not find either a long stay in the monastery or long-term care from an experienced confessor. Consequently, those grace-filled gifts that he contained within himself were formed in him under the direct guidance of God. In the history of the Church there were such ascetics who achieved spiritual success without visible leaders. These include Saints Paul of Thebes, Anthony the Great, Mary of Egypt and others. These people, according to Rev. Paisiy Velichkovsky, “miraculously, according to the special vision of God, they were deliberately called to such a life that befits the perfect and dispassionate alone and angelic strength requires.”
However, this is not the only thing surprising about the phenomenon of the Zalitsky elder, and perhaps not even that much. He was formed and developed as an ascetic of extraordinary strength, not only without the necessary leader, “miraculously, according to the special vision of God,” but also during the most tragic period in the history of our Church, at that moment when an unprecedented campaign to liquidate it was launched in the country. By 1937, almost all Russian monasteries were destroyed, monks and nuns were shot or exiled to camps, and what survived was placed under the strictest control of the special services. By these actions of the authorities, the tradition of monastic activity was forcibly suppressed. Any secret attempts to preserve the way of monastic life under a totalitarian regime turned out to be doomed. And at this time of rampant horrors of the atheistic system, which cut down the centuries-old tree of Russian Orthodoxy at the very root, in a country where the remnants of surviving religiosity were mercilessly uprooted, God’s providence nurtured... an elder - a personality of unprecedented magnitude and exceptional fortitude. For what and for whom? All this was unknown to anyone at that time and constituted the secret of God.
It is interesting that what the Zalitsky elder possessed at that moment when everyone suddenly learned about him and started talking about him - dispassion, love, insight, edification - was achieved by him long before he went out to the people. The Pukhtitsa abbess Varvara, who has headed the famous monastery for more than thirty years, told the author of these lines in one of her conversations that when she was a nun of the Vilna Holy Spirit Monastery, Father Nikolai once said to her during a meal after a festive service: “Mother, how they will match you!” “What are you saying, father,” she answered, “after all, I have taken monastic vows and made a vow to the Lord.” But Father Nikolai repeated his words, as if he had not heard the objection: “How will they marry you, mother! Then don’t refuse.” After some time, the Vilna nun became the abbess of Pyukhtitsa and then realized what kind of matchmaking was being discussed at the festive table. But until the time set by God, the elder remained in a hidden place and in obscurity.
The time of “finding” the elder, when he opened the doors of his wretched cell to all those in need, came with the fall of the Soviet regime. This was the year not only of the proclamation of “democratic freedoms”, but also the year of the beginning of the second baptism of Rus'. From that moment on, the Russian Church began to absorb a huge number of converts. A rapid and tremendous growth began in newly opened parishes, theological and Sunday schools, and revived monasteries. The appearance of cities and villages was everywhere decorated with gold eight-pointed crosses. Shops with religious literature, workshops for church utensils, and periodicals not only of dioceses, but even of individual parishes appeared. Charitable institutions of the Church opened and pilgrimage services began.
All these gratifying and soul-gratifying phenomena could not, of course, cancel the laws of any development. The process of growth is always difficult in itself, contains many internal contradictions and always causes the action of an opposing force. It was not easy for the newborn flock that appeared in the Church to affirm in themselves the beginnings of a new life. People were too crippled by the previous decades of godlessness. The task of Christian growth, which in itself requires considerable internal tension, constancy and patience from a person, was immeasurably complicated by another fatal circumstance: the uncontrolled disintegration and disintegration of Russian reality that had begun. All the newly baked “bread” of the Russian Church, which found itself in very unfavorable conditions for further growth, required leaven of a very special strength to maintain its spirit. And, as we think, it was given to him by the Lord, the invisible Head of the Church, in the person of the elder Archpriest Nicholas. This is indicated by the elder’s unusual location - the island of Zalit, and the exceptional gift of insight that dwelt in him, and the extraordinary edification of his words, clothed in an extremely laconic form, reaching to the most hidden depths of the soul and causing radical changes in it. Truly, he was the “leaven” on which Russian Orthodox religiosity sprouted, is surging, and will continue to germinate, the Moses who led the “new Israel” to the “Promised Land.” He was the spiritual force that penetrated not only the souls of people who were drawn to Christ, but also yesterday’s communists and today’s liberals, and even forced them to revere God. Near him, all of newly baptized Russia, which had an idea of righteousness, at best, from books, received a clear, tangible idea of what Orthodox holiness is.
Why did people go to him? He didn't seem to say anything special. But from his wondrous and unexpected in its simplicity of instructions there was a breath of some kind of higher, heavenly wisdom, and in them a person, despite all the plainness and outward inexpressiveness of the elder’s words, unmistakably recognized the will of God, saw spiritually, freed himself from the captivity of ideas acquired by life, began to to see the path of his life in a different light, suddenly realized his untruth before God, himself, and other people. Those who survived this left the island with a feeling of deepest gratitude to the elder for the revelation they had experienced, as a result of which new strengths were discovered in them for further life in God. At the same time, it was endlessly amazing that to everyone, regardless of his age, profession, social status, disposition, character, moral level, he said something that concerned the innermost essence of his life.
His wonderful insight was obvious to everyone who turned to him. When I came to see him for the first time (it was in 1985, when I, as a student at the Pedagogical Institute, was doing an internship at school), he unexpectedly asked me from the threshold of his house: “Have you learned how to write the particles “not” and “neither”? “?”, - thereby letting me know that he knows me even without my explanation. Then, inviting me into the house, seating me at the table and placing a plate of strawberries with sugar in front of me, he continued: “So you are our philologist. Have you read Dostoevsky?”
He clearly saw the past, present and future life of his children, their internal structure. But how carefully he handled the knowledge about man that the Lord entrusted to him as His faithful servant! Knowing the whole truth about a person, he did not allow a single hint that could hurt or hurt his pride. In what a soft form did he clothe his edifications! “Take it easy,” he greeted my acquaintance with this advice, who had not even had time to say two words, who had adopted a somewhat harsh manner of treating his wife. This happened often and with many: having arrived with one purpose, a person left with that revelation about himself and with that lesson that he did not expect to hear and receive.
Love, forbearance and long-suffering towards one's neighbor were the main points of his instructions. The servant of God 3. came to the priest with her sadness: her daughter-in-law was unfaithful to her husband. Father Nikolai, seeing her in the crowd of people who had arrived, invited her to his house, sat her on a chair and then, after a pause, told her: “Don’t divorce them, otherwise you will suffer in hell.” The woman, unable to bear it, burst into tears and then for a long time kept in her soul the lesson of love taught to her on the island. Subsequently, life in her son’s family improved.
Father himself was merciful and condescending to the repentant people who came to him. One visitor, standing near the fence of the elder’s house and, from the shame that tormented him, did not dare not only turn to the elder, but even raise his eyes to him, heard the quiet voice of Father Nikolai. “Go and call him,” he said to his cell attendant. She invited the newcomer to the elder, who anointed him with oil and kept saying: “The mercy of God is with you, the mercy of God is with you...” And his oppressive state melted and disappeared in this ray of father’s love. However, the elder could meet those who did not have repentance in a different way. “Don’t come to me again,” he told one pilgrim. It was scary to hear such words from the great righteous man.
Fulfilling the blessing given by the elder required self-denial and self-sacrifice from the person asking, a willingness to go against himself and his desires. An acquaintance of mine, having received a prestigious appointment from the ruling bishop to a parish located in the center of the city, went to the island for a blessing. However, Father Nikolai ordered the priest to go to another place: to a remote village, where there was a huge church, desecrated and damaged during the years of persecution, requiring large capital investments, where there was no housing and where the entire parish consisted of five old women. But if a person found the strength to follow what the elder told him, then later, over the years, he received enormous spiritual benefit from this. Violation of this blessing always resulted in grave consequences for the questioner, which he later bitterly regretted. There were also those among those who came who, having received a specific blessing, then changed their minds and again pestered the elder with a request to bless their “new option.” “Live as you wish,” the priest once answered one of these petitioners.
Father was a great lover of simplicity. “Where it’s simple, there are a hundred angels, but where it’s sophisticated, there’s not a single one,” he repeated the St.’s favorite saying. Ambrose of Optina. One day he taught a whole crowd of people an expressive lesson in simplicity, without saying a single word. When he came out to all those who had arrived and crowded around his porch, the people trembled at the appearance of the elder. Then a slight impatience ran through the crowd. Everyone wanted to quickly talk about their own things; each, without noticing his neighbor, considered his own to be the most important and significant. But the elder was silent. At this time, a local fisherman of about fifty walked past the gate, immersed in his everyday and simple thoughts. Father suddenly called him by name. The fisherman stopped, took off his headdress and went to Father Nikolai. The elder blessed the fisherman, on whose face a good-natured smile shone. After that, the fisherman pulled his hat on his head and headed towards the gate. This silent scene lasted no more than two minutes. But many understood its meaning. The elder seemed to be saying to those gathered: “Find simplicity in your attitude towards yourself, and you will find blessings.”
Many experienced the enormous power of Father Nikolai’s accusatory words. He knew how to speak uncomplicatedly and dispassionately, but at the same time with amazing accuracy and depth, so that his word penetrated into the most hidden and secluded places of the human soul. I remember one time I was going to see him. My old seminary acquaintance S., a willful and stubborn man who did not lead an impeccable life in all respects, found out about this. “Ask him about my future,” S. asked me. And the elder pointed out his future to him, “And S, tell me,” the priest said to me at the end of the meeting, hinting at the “darkened” side of his life, “that he must answer to God.” will". When I later reproduced these words of the elder over the phone, they caused S, an absolutely “unsentimental” person, to momentarily lose the power of speech. There was silence on the telephone receiver. Only the light crackling background of the device could be heard. It seemed that the person at the other end of the line had completely disappeared. Feeling embarrassed that I had accidentally learned someone else’s secret, I interrupted this endlessly prolonged silence by resuming the conversation. I remember something else too. One woman brought a high-ranking official from Moscow to Father Nicholas on the island in the hope that the elder’s blessing would help him move even higher. “Bless him, father,” she asked, leading her “protégé” to Father Nikolai. The elder looked not at him, but as if through him, and without long prefaces or circumlocutions he suddenly said: “But this is a thief.” The humbled and ashamed official, who had forgotten what remorse of conscience was over the years and had become accustomed to looking at life from top to bottom from his work chair, left the elder’s cell in a depressed and confused state.
The elder had a subtle sense of humor and sometimes put his denunciations in a rather peculiar form. One day a gentleman came to him, who had a passion for tasty, varied and plentiful food. “Come to me at six o’clock in the evening,” Father Nikolai told him and after a pause he unexpectedly added, “you and I... will eat.” At six o'clock the gentleman stood near the door of the elder's cell, from behind which came the smell of fried potatoes. Knocking on the door, the visitor said loudly: “Father, I have come.” After some time, the old man’s voice was heard from behind the closed door: “I’m not waiting for anyone.” After standing for a while, the discouraged gentleman went outside the fence of the house.
No one knows for certain what feats Father Nikolai performed on the island. He hid it from everyone, didn’t let anyone get close to him, and took care of himself, except for the last ten years, when he could no longer do this. Lately it has been very difficult for him to bear his weakness. Seeing how it was not only difficult for the elder to speak, but even to sit, how he was straining his last strength, I somehow sympathetically told him: “Father, you should lie down...” Father Nikolai, without raising his bowed head, answered: “Only lazy people lie down.” Another time, in response to the same sympathetic proposal to rest, coming from another person, he remarked: “Rest is a sin.” From these meager remarks one can partly predict the extent of his physical feat.
Father was a man of the deepest faith and did not doubt for a second the divine protection extended over every believer and over the entire Church as a whole. “Everything will be as you need,” he often told fearful people, as if saying that no circumstances have power over a Christian if he has genuine, undoubting faith. The elder did not have even the smallest part of that painful hysteria with which many in the Church are seized and besotted today. This hysteria, generated by our unbelief, fills us with empty fear and forces us to energetically fight any chimeras, but not the true enemies of our salvation. To one young man’s question: “Will there be a war?” the priest gave an astonishing answer. He said: “Not only should you ask about this, but you shouldn’t even think about it.” Thinking about this answer, you involuntarily remember the Gospel: “When the Son of Man comes, will he bring faith to the earth?”
He was the same age as the century and survived all the terrible cataclysms of Russian and world history of the 20th century: the October Revolution, the Civil War, collectivization, repressions of the Stalin era, the Second World War, Khrushchev’s persecutions... A stormy and cruel time that broke more than one fate and brought enormous changes into the consciousness of people, could not influence the ideals of his soul: despite the rapid whirlpool of history, which he, as a man of his time, was captured by, these ideals remained unshakable by any external force and, perhaps, as a result of his experience, they grew even deeper into the recesses of his God-loving soul. His inner “cage,” built on the foundation of the Gospel commandments, withstood all blows from the outside, turned out to be stronger than all the horrors of the time and rose immeasurably above this age. In this sense, his amazing life can be an example for all those who think that in the conditions of the apocalyptic end there is no way to remain faithful to God in everything and to the end.
On August 24, 2002, Elder Nikolai completed his high, exceptional mission and left us for eternal rest. God alone knows what incredible, inhuman tension this life was filled with, for which He destined for a special role - to testify the truth about Christ to people excommunicated from God and His Church, at the very end of the 20th century, terrible in its historical events. Many are afraid of a future without a righteous man. However, without fear of falling into error, we can say the following: great is the people who, even in apostasy reality, give birth to people who, in their spiritual scale, resemble the ascetics of the first centuries of Christianity. And it cannot be that a people, disfigured beyond recognition by the cruel “experiments” of the 20th century and yet not losing the ability to give birth to such people, and most importantly, to learn their spiritual lessons, does not have its own special purpose in the future. part 1, the remaining 12 parts are on YouTube with the same name.
(2002-08-24 ) (93 years old)Nikolai Alekseevich Guryanov(May 24, village of Chudskie Zahody, St. Petersburg province - August 24, Zalit, Pskov region) - archpriest. One of the most revered elders of the Russian Orthodox Church of the late XX - early XXI centuries.
Encyclopedic YouTube
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✪ “Where it is simple, there are a hundred Angels” Elder Nikolai
✪ About the prayer “Lord, have mercy.”
✪ MONK'S CELL. TRIO "YABLONKA"
Subtitles
Biography
Family and childhood
Born into a peasant family. Father, Alexey Ivanovich Guryanov, was the regent of the church choir, died in. The elder brother, Mikhail Alekseevich Guryanov, taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory; younger brothers, Peter and Anatoly, also had musical abilities. All three brothers died in the war. Mother, Ekaterina Stepanovna Guryanova, helped her son in his labors for many years, died on May 23, and was buried in the cemetery of Zalit Island.
Since childhood, Nikolai served at the altar in the Church of the Archangel Michael. As a child, Metropolitan Benjamin (Kazan) visited the parish. Father Nikolai recalled this event like this: “I was still just a boy. Vladyka served, and I held the staff for him. Then he hugged me, kissed me and said: “How happy you are to be with the Lord...”.”
Teacher, prisoner, priest
He graduated from the Gatchina Pedagogical College, studied at the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute, from where he was expelled for speaking out against the closure of one of the churches [ ] . B - served as a psalm-reader in Tosno, earning money as a tutor in mathematics, physics and biology. Then he was a psalm-reader in the St. Nicholas Church in the village of Remda, Seredkinsky district, Leningrad (now Pskov) region. He was arrested, was in the Leningrad prison "Kresty", served his sentence in a camp in Syktyvkar, Komi Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic [ ] . After his release, he was unable to obtain a residence permit in Leningrad and taught in rural schools in the Tosnensky district of the Leningrad region.
Ministry in Lithuania
"Talab Elder"
From 1958 he served in the Pskov diocese and was appointed rector of the Church of St. Nicholas on the island of Talabsk (Zalita) on Lake Pskov, appeared to him continuously until his death. B was awarded the miter and the right to serve with the Royal Doors open to the “Cherubim.” He was awarded the right to serve the liturgy with the Royal Doors open until the “Our Father” - the highest church distinction for an archpriest (excluding the extremely rare rank of protopresbyter). For many years, Fr. Orthodox believers from different regions of the country came to Nicholas for advice. The Zalitsky priest had a reputation as a wise old man. He was called the “Talabsky” or “Zalitsky” (after the former name of the island, which was renamed in Soviet times in memory of the Bolshevik activist Zalit) elder.
The island of Orthodoxy was the name given to the small island of Talabsk (Zalita), barely visible on a large-scale map, washed by the waters of Lake Pskov. Here, to this tiny part of the land, for many years ships and boats of carriers brought pilgrims from all over the Orthodox world. The route never changed: the mainland - the island - the house of Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov... But it was here, in the cell, that the island of Orthodoxy actually began, it began with him, the Zalitsky elder Father Nikolai. He was this fertile island; an island standing unshakably in the midst of the raging sea of life; an island and at the same time a ship, taking the most convenient route to a blissful eternity.
Hieromonk Nestor (Kumysh) remembered Fr. Nicolae:
He clearly saw the past, present and future life of his children, their internal structure. But how carefully he handled the knowledge about man that the Lord entrusted to him as His faithful servant! Knowing the whole truth about a person, he did not allow a single hint that could hurt or hurt his pride. In what a soft form did he clothe his edifications! “Take it easy,” he greeted my acquaintance with this advice, who had not even had time to say two words, who had adopted a somewhat harsh manner of treating his wife. This happened often and with many: having arrived with one purpose, a person left with that revelation about himself and with that lesson that he did not expect to hear and receive.
There is a story that Fr. Nikolai was asked: “Thousands of people came to you during your life, you peered carefully into their souls. Tell me, what worries you most in the souls of modern people - what sin, what passion? What is the most dangerous for us now? To this he answered: “Unbelief,” and to the clarifying question - “Even among Christians” - he answered: “Yes, even among Orthodox Christians. To whom the Church is not a Mother, God is not a Father.” According to Fr. Nicholas, a believer must have a loving attitude towards everything that surrounds him.
At the funeral Fr. Nicholas on the island of Talabsk (Zalit) more than three thousand Orthodox believers took part. Many admirers visit the elder’s grave. The Society of Devotees of the Memory of the Righteous Nicholas of Pskovezersk (Nikolai Guryanov) was established.
Singer Olga Kormukhina did not sail alone to Zalit Island to visit her father Nikolai Guryanov in 1998. On the eve, she met Alexei Belov, the leader of the Gorky Park group, and he asked to take him to the elder.I already knew that there was such an elder, I knew that there were several elders, but this is The elder.
Indeed, everyone said, “Of all the elders, this is the most extraordinary.”
When we were driving, I admonished Lesha like this, saying: “Keep in mind, elder, they are coming to him to find out the will of God, their path. What if he tells you, Leshka, to go to a monastery?” He says: “I’m ready!”, I think “Oh, really!” Ask something else that you’re not ready for!” That's how it happened.
The two of them went into Father Nikolai’s cell.
Well, I saw Seraphim of Sarov. This is what I imagined from what I read.
Suddenly he looks like this and says:
Is your wife?
Your husband?
And you get married!
As they rushed in different directions, the priest laughed.
Olga and Alexey got married a few months later. A year later their daughter was born. On Zalita, Kormukhina and Belov now have their own home and family paradise. After all, they are convinced that a saint, Father Nikolai Guryanov, lived here.
When you come to the airport, there is a place where everyone is forced to take off their shoes and go through a scanner like this. You understand that you cannot hide any iron thing, everything will be shown on the screen. This is how the soul suggests that his gaze, his father’s, is looking not from the earth, but from the sky at you. He stands on the ground, but looks at you from the sky. And everything is open.
They brought a person in a blanket, sometimes heavy, dying. You could say they brought him to bless him for his death, to pray for his afterlife. And the man walked back with his own feet. This was not the main thing, this was not what was striking. It was amazing how people transformed. How in one day a person could completely change internally.
The meeting with the elder changed Olga herself and her whole life. When she gives concerts in Pskov, flowers from fans are brought to the island, to the grave of her confessor.
We called the priest “Walking the Gospel.” And everyone we didn’t talk to, everyone had the same impression, when you first saw it, there was one thought: “So this is all true! That’s all that the Gospel writes - it’s all true!”
And indeed, as the Lord says: “You will do as I do, and more and more than me.”
May God's mercy protect you all for many many years to come. I ask for holy prayers and pray for me, a sinner.
Everyone who lives on Lake Pskov-Chuyskoye has their own incredible story from Zalit Island.
He leaves for service from his cell. He goes out, the pigeons rise, sit on his head, on his shoulders, on his arms. And this whole flock flies from his cell to here. He comes here to the porch, they fly off him, sit on the porch and wait for him to serve. He will serve - the same system, this whole flock on his head, on his shoulders, on his arms, and with him to his cell. It was a miracle.
A little guy told us: “Father has gone crazy!”, I say what? And he:
“I’m going,” he says, “and the priest:
Wait, say hi to your mom.
I speak:
What mother, she died. What hello?
He then died 3 days later.
The fishermen of Zalit Island are lucky to live next to a miracle. Those who needed it got here by motorboat in storms and on thin ice. VGIK graduate Georgy Sheptunov first visited the extraordinary old man back in the mid-80s.
He predicted to me that I would become a monk when I simply had not yet thought about it.
The aspiring screenwriter was just getting ready to get married, and the elder’s words about monasticism only made him laugh. But, after a couple of years, the scenario of his own life only confirmed the rightness of Father Nikolai.
Father Nikolai was such a worker of Christ and a man of prayer. Just as the Lord often spoke in parables to earthly people, so Father Nikolai also very often spoke in parables and some kind of rhyme. Sometimes with some jokes that you only understand later.
Farewell to my age, like yesterday,
My life has flown by like smoke
And the doors of death are terribly heavy,
Not too far from me.
Olga Kormukhina, on the contrary, asked for blessings for monastic tonsure. But her father Nikolai did not order her to leave the stage.
He comes straight out of his cell and “do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, si” and shows it to me. I sang “fa, sol, la, si, do.” He stroked me as gently as my mother had never stroked me, and said:
What kind of singer you will be! Oh, what a singer you will be!
Rock musician Alexey Belov first came to Zalit as a successful emigrant. Together with his group "Gorky Park", he made a career in America.
Our house hung right above the cliff. And opposite, across the ravine, was the house of the Madonna.
After meeting the elder, he never returned to Hollywood.
I saw a man who, probably in the most important matter of life, had achieved perfection. And I wanted to live there. Where are such people born? What was the point of staying in Hollywood, after all? And I have lived in this place for more than 10 years, and I have not seen anything new or interesting for myself there. And here the whole Universe opened up.
Together with Olga Kormukhina, whom Father Nikolai named him as his wife, they became frequent guests on the island.
We went to the elder all the time, constantly. We could probably go to see him twice a week. Well, he wanted to, because next to him there was such grace, as if, well, Christ was in his bosom.
For a rock star couple, the elder served as a guiding light in their spiritual ascent.
Your own strength is not enough. It’s the same as if a person wants to climb Everest on his own, and he will refuse the services of a guide. I think that he will die very quickly, probably not even reaching the fourth part of the journey. And the spiritual path is much more difficult and dangerous than climbing Everest.
And 10 years after the death of the local miracle worker, pilgrims visit the island of Zalit. They do not disturb the silence of measured village life. And once in the 90s, at the peak of the elder’s popularity, hundreds of visitors crowded around his house.
Happy holiday, my precious ones. May God's mercy protect you all for many many years to come. Save you, Lord. I'll anoint you with ointment.
Here, in the courtyard, along with answers to unsolvable questions, pilgrims received from the priest a charge of divine love and human warmth.
My precious ones, you use what is needed in bliss. The truth given to you, which is necessary for salvation.
At the same time, Father Nikolai often acted like a fool, joked, and even gave out slaps.
He always told us, “You are not grieving. God's mercy always runs ahead of us. Just pray to God and don’t sin. And God's mercy always runs ahead of us. And then we hobble after her,” and began to show how we hobble.
He was not such a holy fool as, for example, St. Basil the Blessed. When he saw that people wouldn’t listen to him anyway, or, in any case, didn’t want to hear him, but wanted to get the answer they needed, well, he often dressed his answers in such light foolishness. Didn't take it seriously. He didn’t waste any energy or time, but pretended to be a bit of a fool.
Peace to the Angel, faithful mentor, and Guardian. You are on your way. Help you, Lord. Just walk carefully, it’s on the sea. Go, there is no one to bury it.
The crowds of sufferers did not come here in vain. It seemed that nothing was impossible for the elder to pray.
They celebrated his anniversary, I don’t remember now, he was probably 80 years old then. And, behold, our Lord brought him a reward. And while driving, there was a very strong wind, a big wave and it was impossible to get out. He called the island, our old age. Go to the priest, they say, we are going to him, to congratulate him, to reward him. Let him pray for good weather. So, he prayed, everything calmed down, the lake, they arrived. Yes, and the sun came out. Everything was done, which means they left. We reached Pskov and got off. The wind began, and such a storm.
Elena Abramicheva can always be found in the church where Father Nikolai served. Today she is the only free and trouble-free guide on the island.
Our elder went to church for 40 years. As they say, he even flew. And we all skipped after him to receive blessings, consolation, answers to questions.
Unlike most of the local residents, Elena is not a native islander. Once upon a time, having learned about a unique priest, she came to him from St. Petersburg for advice.
He walks through the church, towards me, so he comes out, and speaks to me so loudly, for the whole church, the acoustics here are good, he says: “Sinner, harlot, slap me on the forehead. I blushed, I think it’s not me. And he tells me, “I’ve been married for so many years and never got married.”
Struck by the elder’s insight and severity, Elena began to take a closer look at him.
Near the house, he stands there talking to people, and I stand and think6 the priest is very old, he will probably die soon. Where then to look for this? And just as I thought this, he stops talking with those people, turns to me, waves his hand and says: “I’ll live, I’ll live, you know!”
Elena suddenly left everything, her prestigious job as a photo artist, her two sons, her city life, to settle here forever, in a fishing village on the island.
I had everything well, my own photo workshop, equipment, everything was preserved. And I have a lot of experience, but I already realized that that’s it, I’m a prisoner. I am a prisoner of his love, but free and happy.
Lyudmila Azarkina also moved to the island from St. Petersburg. Her acquaintance with the elder also began with an ordinary miracle.
He kicked me in the chest like that and said: “Where is the cross?” On the train, the chain broke and I put the cross in my pocket. And the priest, without seeing him, saw all this, so to speak, through my clothes and said: “Don’t wear a cross like that.”
For the last 8 years, Lyudmila has been collecting and recording memories of her father Nikola Guryanov. The first volume, 600 pages, has already been published. The second one is now being prepared. Having become the elder’s biographer, she was amazed at how many trials he had suffered from his youth.
He spent three years in camps during the construction of the railway in the Arctic.
His charge was “counter-revolutionary activity,” which, of course, the priest never engaged in. He simply confessed his faith in front of people. An iron beam fell on his foot during construction and he crawled. He went to work, told one mother, she said:
Why were you crawling? Couldn't you lie down in the medical unit, somewhere?
And he says:
No, they wouldn't give me any stew.
In the German-occupied Baltic states, in 1942, he took holy orders and served in parishes. And then he returned to his homeland, risking being arrested again.
The Orthodox faith always saved him. He served people so much that it was simply incredible to catch him somewhere in other matters.
Father Nikolai lived on Zalit Island for more than 40 years. And even for the builders of communism, he was always the main authority.
Father Nikolai, in fact, corresponded with many people. He had acquaintances with such people as Kosygin, for example,
Elections began in the region. Until he blesses us, we did not start the elections without him. The man always sat and waited for Father Nikolai to come and vote first.
Local residents loved the active priest very much, because it was he who greened the entire island of Zalit.
This is all that is planted, this is all he has. Here and here and in that cemetery - it’s all him. The hunger was acute.
He himself made censers, lamps and all kinds of liturgical utensils.
He often made candlesticks and samovars. You see how it was nailed down, with love. And this is probably a part from a chandelier. You see, everything is soldered, everything is done by hand.
And most importantly, he always prayed for the inhabitants of the island, for the fishermen who went fishing in any bad weather, and knew everyone by name.
I remember how amazing he served the liturgy. He had boxes with memorials, and in a cold church, often alone, he commemorated all those inhabitants of the island whom he baptized and performed funeral services. These were simply memorial boxes. This went on for many hours. He stood and remembered them.
You're on the porch, don't drink vodka. The water doesn’t like vodka - there are fishermen here, they are all connected with vodka, because it’s cold and the work is hard. So, he will talk to the person, you know, he doesn’t drink, yes!
In the late 80s, Mother Georgiy Shchukina, then still a simple nun, received a guest, dear Father Nikolai, at the Pyukhtetsky Monastery. She had lived there for two decades and had no intention of leaving Estonia. And several of her nun sisters were just preparing to move to the Jerusalem monastery.
Sisters, here is a group of these Jerusalem ones, say:
Father, what about us, they send us there, but Mother Superior is not there! How is it without your mother?
And he acted a little like a fool, and even with his finger:
What are you saying, what are you saying! How is there no abbess? - and I go there, open one room, a cell, - there is Pyukhtetskaya, there is Abbess Pyukhtetskaya! And you say no to the abbess! - that’s what she says.
And she says:
So no, father, there is a Pyukhtetska!
It will be so, it will be,” and he points at me from behind, I can’t see it, “Georgiyushka, Georgiyushka!”
So the elder predicted to Mother Georgia that she would become the abbess of the Gorninsky Monastery in the Holy Land, several years before this appointment.
A month before I was appointed here, he sent me an envelope. And it was written “Abbot Georgiy” when none of this happened. That’s what I imagined, well, I think the priest, acting like a fool, came up with something there. And a month later, His Holiness calls me: “Now, Mother George, I need to work at the Mountain Monastery in Jerusalem.” My phone almost dropped.
I met the priest in a cinema, that is, somewhere in the mid-80s, already at the end of Soviet power. Suddenly, a film called “Temple” was released. And one story was dedicated to the priest. I somehow immediately fell in love with him.
“Would you like to have a drink? Please! Drink, drink! Don’t be shy, but it’s already cold.”
A researcher at the historical library, Leonid Grilekhis, first became a regular at the island cell, and then, under the influence of the elder, he himself took holy orders.
“I was simply created there by an Angel. Simplicity. And where it’s tricky, there’s not one.”
When you return, you are sailing on a boat, and suddenly you feel that you seem to be the one and not the one. That something new and bright has appeared in you, as if someone cleaned you from the inside. Here. And this was, of course, the biggest miracle of all.
It’s surprising that the island also became the place of Father Leonid’s ministry. This is the name of the village near Moscow where his temple stands. An elder once predicted his appointment to this parish.
I then served in Podolsk. And so, he himself turned to me and said: “And I tell you that you will serve on the island,” - well, then for me the island was like the island of Zalit. Well. Now, as it turns out, I have been abbot in the village of Ostrov for 21 years.
“Lord Jesus Christ, son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner...”
The feature film “The Island” was released in the mid-2000s. The image of the holy fool, performed by Pyotr Mamonov, is complemented by spiritual chants. Few people know that they belong to the pen of Father Nikolai Guryanov.
"Lord have mercy! Lord, forgive me! Help me, God, on my path!
Father Nikolai composed poetry and music, sang and accompanied himself. The harmonium in the old man's cell invariably amazed the guests.
This is how Sergei Miroshnichenko, a famous documentary filmmaker, saw him for the first time. On Zalita he chose nature. The village council did not give us permission to film without the permission of Father Nikolai.
You know, guys, we don’t understand anything about your movie business. Come here, Father Nikolai is here. You talk to him, and then come back to us.
The director remembered that conversation with the elder forever. Living as a hermit in a lost land, the priest knew better than many about what was happening in the capital and in the country.
You know, you have such a director there, Andrei Arsenievich Tarkovsky, he is now making a very serious philosophical film about how modern people cannot believe in anything. About the lack of faith within a person, which leads humanity to destruction.
Then, six months later, there was a premiere at VGIK, the first showing of “Stalker,” and when I watched it, I immediately remembered that film.
“Where did you get the idea that this miracle really exists? Who told you that wishes really come true here?”
Zalitsky Nikolai the Wonderworker revived faith in man, called him to love and never tired of reminding him of the main thing - the salvation of the soul. He often showed clearly, on an icon, where to strive.
“What happiness we have with you. Look what awaits us. This is where, not here.”
Although, even the icon could not display more than what people saw in Father Nicholas himself. Shining heights of spirit and living righteousness.
“How good it is for us, glory to you, Lord! Heavenly Father does not leave us!”
Well, how can you tell God? How can you express faith in words? And father, it was the incarnation, it was the monk. What does it mean? This is eminently like God!
Just as they once did to the priest’s house, today pilgrims rush to his grave. Without waiting for official canonization, believers turn to Father Nikolai Guryanov in prayer as to a holy elder.
The elder said to thank God for everything. Even in the darkest moments of your life, do not tire of thanking God! He expects this from you. He put it in his heart. Now, you want it, but you’ll never get rid of it. Because when you follow this path, you receive such unearthly joy and grace that nothing can compare. And this is not some kind of, you know, temporary joy, or some kind of influx, you know, some kind of temporary feeling. And this is a feeling that is with you all the time. It can be quieter, like fire, quieter, brighter, and it is with you all the time.
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