Nektary Telyashin

Saint Nectarius (in the world Nikolai Pavlovich Telyashin, 1587-1667) was abbot of the Nilo-⁠Stolobensky Monastery and Archbishop of Siberia and Tobolsk between 1636 and 1640. He was a capable administrator, the disciple of a very strict abbot, and shepherded Siberia through hard times, only to return to the wilderness. He is venerated as a saint in the Russian Church and is commemorated, by the old calendar, on 15 January, 28 May and 10 June, in the synaxis of Siberian saints.

Youth

He was born in the summer of 1587 in the patriarchal settlement of Ostashkov, in a peasant family. At twelve he was given to be raised by the abbot of the Nilova Hermitage, Hieromonk Herman. In a letter-⁠memoir about his youth at Nilova he recalls the want, the wounds, hunger and thirst, nakedness and bare feet, the grass and leaves they ate in place of bread, and the beatings, twice a day for two years, even on the day of the Resurrection. His guide, Saint Herman († 1614), crushed his disciple's body to save his soul, and he recalled it without bitterness and thought of God's mercy. In the monastery he learned reading, writing, church singing and the order of services. In 1601 he was tonsured a monk with the name Nectarius, and in 1613 he was ordained hieromonk. After Herman's death he was elected abbot and proved a good administrator: he enlarged the lands, built farm buildings and, in 1622, a three-⁠domed stone church of the Protection of the Mother of God. He read and copied books and took part in the common labours like the other monks. In 1620 Metropolitan Macarius of Novgorod raised him to abbot. He met at Novgorod the voivode Ivan Katyrev-⁠Rostovsky, the tsar's brother-⁠in-⁠law, and became known in Moscow, being godfather at baptism to Tsarevich Alexis Mikhailovich.

Archbishop of Tobolsk

On 7 February 1636 Patriarch Joasaph I, at the wish of Tsar Michael Feodorovich, consecrated him and raised him to Archbishop of Siberia and Tobolsk. He reached the diocese on 1 April 1636 and led it for four years. After two years he asked the tsar to let him return to Nilova, because of the difficulties of Siberia: widespread paganism, low moral level, drunkenness, lack of food and of priests. He tried to fight them: he asked that the voivode's dues for the bishop's house, paid in vodka, be replaced by honey, and wrote to Moscow asking to replenish grain stocks. In 1637 the glorification of the Abalak icon of the Mother of God took place, one of the most venerated in Siberia. In May 1639, old and ill, he wrote to the tsar and Prince Katyrev asking to be allowed back to the wilderness, and the request was granted. On 6 January 1640 he served the Liturgy of Theophany, parted from his flock and on 7 January left for Moscow. In his time the deacon of the bishop's house, Savva Esipov, composed the Esipov Chronicle on Yermak's expedition.

Last years

In the spring of 1640 he reached Nilo-⁠Stolobenskaya and, until 1647, did not take up the abbacy again, being counsellor to Abbot Dorotheus. On 24 November 1647 he received the monastery again, with the title of builder, until death. Tsar Alexis Mikhailovich gave the monastery many privileges, among them tax-⁠free fishing on Lake Ilmen. In 1665 a fire destroyed the buildings and Nectarius began the rebuilding. In 1667 he went to Moscow, fell ill and died, having received the schema, on 25 January 1667. The funeral service was performed at the Chudov Monastery by Patriarch Macarius III of Antioch, who was in Moscow for the trial of Patriarch Nikon, with a council of Russian hierarchs. Fulfilling his wish, the body was sent to Nilova, and the tsar escorted it on foot beyond the city. He was buried there by Archbishop Joasaph of Tver. He left an exhortation to Abbot Dorotheus and the brethren, a few instructions for monks, two eulogies of Saint Nilus and a letter to Prince Katyrev.