Nikephoros Kuchin

Holy Venerable Martyr Nikephoros Kuchin was a hieromonk of the Solovki Monastery and died, killed by robbers together with Archimandrite Benjamin, in a forest cell in April 1928.

Nikephoros and Benjamin

Nikephoros (in the world Nicholas Ivanovich Kuchin) was born in the Solvychegodsk district of the Vologda province. He served in the army and rose to non-⁠commissioned officer. After leaving the service he entered Solovki in 1909, and in 1913 Archimandrite Ioannicius tonsured him with the name Nikephoros. He finished five classes at the brotherhood school, had an obedience in the room of linens and belongings, was ordained hieromonk and became the closest helper of Archimandrite Benjamin in the time of persecution.

Benjamin, born on 4 January 1868 in the village of Evsevievskaya, in the Shenkursk district of the Arkhangelsk province, to the peasants Basil and Pelagia Kononov, received the name Basil at baptism. His parents took him several times to Solovki, and the desire to serve the Lord grew strong in him. He entered the monastery as a labourer in 1893 and as a novice in 1897, ran the bakery and kept the monastery shop. He was tonsured a monk on 12 June 1903 by Archimandrite Ioannicius (Yusov), with the name Benjamin, ordained hierodeacon in 1905 and hieromonk in 1908. In 1910 he was named confessor of the monastery, in 1912 abbot of the Anthony-⁠Siya Monastery, and in the same year he was raised to archimandrite.

Abbot of Solovki

The monastery had been shaken for four years by the discontent of some brethren against Archimandrite Ioannicius, who was retired by the Holy Synod in 1917. On 4 October 1917, of 247 ballots, 238 elected Benjamin abbot. A fire in the night of 7 to 8 December 1917 he regarded as a trial permitted by God for the brethren's sins against their former abbot, and he called the brothers to peace and forgiveness. After the Bolshevik decree separating the Church from the state, Benjamin ordered the precious vessels hidden in the wall and under the porch of the Transfiguration Cathedral and above the altar of the church of Saint Nicholas; his helper in this work was the hieromonk Nikephoros.

In 1920 the Red Army entered Arkhangelsk, and special commissions began taking provisions from the islands. Benjamin asked in writing, on 20 June, that a reserve remain for the 430 brethren, but the request was ignored. Some monks themselves pointed out the hiding places, and a new unrest rose against the abbot. At the end of 1920 Archimandrite Benjamin and the hieromonk Nikephoros were arrested on the charge of hiding valuables and keeping weapons, and sent to cut timber at Kholmogory.

Hermit life and death

After serving their term, in 1922, the two settled at the Solovki metochion in Arkhangelsk, then with a pharmacist, and in the summer of 1926, on the advice of the novice Stephen Antonov, they went to the village of Chasovenskoye and made themselves a cell in the forest, forty versts from the nearest village. They had a small hut, a vegetable garden and an ice cellar, and lived on vegetables and fish from Lake Volkozero. Stephen brought them what they needed twice a year. They lived there almost two years in prayer and labour.

In 1927 a Komsomol member, Ivanov, who had become a forest ranger, learned the way to the cell and resolved to kill and rob them, believing he would go unpunished because monastics had been placed outside the law. He spent a night with them, then in the spring of 1928 he urged the thief Yarygin to join him. On the evening of 17 April, the Tuesday of Bright Week, they reached Volkozero. The cell was lit, for the monks were keeping the Paschal service. After the light went out, the killers fired through the window at the beds. Then, climbing to the loft, they took some belongings, doused the walls with kerosene and set fire, and cries were heard again from the cell, for the two priest-⁠monks were still alive. On 9 June 1928 Stephen found only the burned cell and two skeletons. The killers were arrested and sentenced to ten and eight years.

Father Nikephoros is remembered on 17 April, on 7 February (a movable day) in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs, on 23 August in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs of Solovki, and on 1 November in the Synaxis of the Saints of the Archangelsk Metropolis, in the new style.