Antony (Nozdrin) of Balta

Venerable Confessor Anthony of Balta (Nozdrin, in the world Aleksei, 1876-1960) was a schema-⁠archimandrite and confessor of the St Theodosius Monastery in Balta. He was glorified locally in the Balta diocese by decision of the Synod of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of 17 August 2021, and the service of glorification was held on 1 October 2022; he is commemorated on 9 (22) August, the day of his repose.

He was born on 17 March 1876 in the village of Khokhlivka, Chernigov province, into a well-⁠off peasant family, and received at baptism the name Aleksei. He finished three grades and worked the land. At thirty he entered the newly opened Protection and St Theodosius Monastery at Balta, and, having a fine ear and voice, bore the obedience of cantor in the choir. In 1909 he was tonsured a monk with the name Anthony, after Saint Anthony of the Caves, and ordained hierodeacon, and three years later hieromonk. In October 1921 he was appointed superior of the Exaltation of the Cross skete of the monastery, in the village of Lupolovo, where he zealously resisted the Renovationists.

On 10 May 1927 he was arrested and sent without trial for three years of free exile in the Urals, in the Obdorsk district, then for another three years "with restricted residence" at Belgorod. On 15 May 1933 he was released and settled at Khmilnyk in the Vinnytsia region, where he earned his living as a carpenter and so passed through the time of new persecutions, the war and the occupation. From 1941 he served at the church of the Nativity of the Mother of God in Tsarynivka. In June 1946, a seventy-⁠year-⁠old monk, he returned to his own monastery at Balta, where he was tonsured into the great schema. From then until his death he was confessor of the brethren. From 1949 he also guided the nuns of the Saint Archangel Michael Convent in Odesa.

He joined unceasing prayer of the mind, love of the church and of the services, and care for the brethren and the faithful, all tempered by modesty, discernment and meekness. Not only the faithful honoured him, but unbelievers respected him too. He fell asleep on 22 August 1960 and was buried in the town cemetery.

The Synod numbered him among the locally venerated saints of the Balta diocese on 17 August 2021, with commemoration on 9 (22) August. On 1 October 2022, at the monastery in Balta, Metropolitan Anthony of Boryspil led, with the blessing of the Primate, the rite of glorification, and the faithful venerated the relics and icon of the venerable confessor.