Nectarius of Kazan

Venerable Nectarius of Kazan (of Zastolbye), together with his father, Venerable Jonah, is counted among the saints of Kazan. In the world they were named Ioann and Nestor Zastolsky. When the holy hierarch Gury († 1563) set out for the newly founded diocese of Kazan, the boyar Ioann Zastolsky went with him. Under the spiritual guidance of Saint Gury, Ioann led a virtuous and pious life. He feared sin, loved justice and was strictly honest. In the fear of God Ioann brought up his son, Nestor. The meek youth was an ascetic from childhood: he wore a hair shirt and kept the fast. He liked to pray in church. With his father's consent Nestor received monastic tonsure with the name Nectarius. He died young. Nestor's father, Ioann, was tonsured a monk with the name Jonah. Before his death he left an order to be buried beside Saint Gury, by whose grave Nectarius had been buried.

At the opening of the relics of the holy hierarchs Gury and Barsanuphius in 1595, the incorrupt bodies and garments of the monks Jonah and Nectarius were found and left beneath the floor in the chapel of the Kazan Transfiguration monastery (a chapel raised by Jonah over the grave of Saint Gury). The saints are mentioned in the service to Saint Gury: "Two monks who struggled well for God, Jonah and Nectarius, one the begetter of the other, served you faithfully in the world, and after your death held unwavering faith in you and built a stone house over your grave. In it these saints themselves were buried near you, honoured by God with great incorruption. Pray with them, holy Gury, to Christ God to grant us peace and great mercy." Nectarius is commemorated on 18 July, a movable day, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Tver, and on 17 October, with the Synaxis of the Saints of Kazan, in the new style.