Michael Nikologorsky

Holy Hieromartyr Michael Nikologorsky, a priest, was born in 1883 in the village of Grebnevo, Shchelkovo volost, Bogorodsk district of Moscow province, to the psalm-⁠reader Mikhail Nikologorsky, who served at the church of Saint Nicholas in Grebnevo. After the theological school, from 1902 he was reader at the church of Saint John the Forerunner in the village of Fryanovo, Aksenovo volost. In 1917 he was ordained a deacon for this church, and in 1921 a priest. He served in it until his arrest.

In 1937, after the secret order for the start of mass arrests had been given, the agent of the Shchelkovo NKVD office questioned witnesses who could give evidence about the priest. A resident of Fryanovo said that Father Michael, speaking of life under Soviet power, had said that at first he feared that under it there would be few Orthodox and they would not go to church, but it turned out the opposite, that the Orthodox go to church and not all have gone mad, and soon all would come to their senses, because Soviet power is a passing phenomenon, like a bonfire: while it is dry it burns, and when it gets wet it goes out. The witness also said that in 1931-1932, when the authorities wanted to close the church, the priest gathered the faithful in the church and formed from them teams who went through the villages to collect signatures so that the church should not be closed. A deacon who had given up his rank, Mikhail Tikhomirov, of the church of the Forerunner, was called as a witness; he said that he knew him well, since Nikologorsky had been reader at the church in Fryanovo and he the deacon, that he had renounced his rank in 1918 while Nikologorsky had stayed to serve, and that Nikologorsky's political views were anti-⁠Soviet. The chairwoman of the village council, who lived next door to Father Michael, said that in September 1937 he had held a gathering at his house, to which fervent believers and singers of the church choir had come and sung various church prayers and songs. At the end Nikologorsky, addressing those present, had said, "Pray more. Above all, do not forget God."

Father Michael was arrested on 5 December 1937 and questioned at once. Each time he answered that he had carried on no anti-⁠Soviet activity, and had held no counter-⁠revolutionary conversation in September 1937. The inquiry ended, and he was taken to the Taganka prison in Moscow. On 7 December 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years in a labour camp. He was sent to general labour in the camp at the White Sea-⁠Baltic Canal and did not live long. The priest Michael Nikologorsky died in captivity on 2 March 1938 and was buried in an unknown grave.

He is commemorated on 2 March, the day of his death, in the new style (a movable day), with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church (a movable day), on 3 June with the Synaxis of the Saints of Karelia, on 5 September with the Synaxis of the Saints of Moscow, and on 1 November with the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Karelian Land.