Nikolai Guryanov

Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov (1909-2002) was a priest on the island of Zalit (Talabsk) in Lake Pskov and one of the most revered spiritual elders of Russia at the end of the twentieth century. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.

He was born on 24 May 1909 in the village of Chudskie Zakhody, in the Pskov region, into a peasant family. His father, Alexei, was a choir regent and died in 1914; his three brothers died in the war. From childhood he served in the altar of the church of the Archangel Michael. He graduated from the teachers' college in Gatchina and began studies at the Pedagogical Institute in Leningrad, from which he was expelled for speaking out against the closing of a church. Between 1929 and 1931 he was a reader at Tosno and then at Remda; he was arrested, held in the Kresty prison and in a camp at Syktyvkar, and after release was refused residence in Leningrad and taught in village schools.

During the war, in occupied territory, he was ordained deacon on 8 February 1942 by Metropolitan Sergei Voskresensky and priest on 15 February. He served briefly at the Holy Trinity convent in Riga and at the Holy Spirit monastery in Vilnius, where he was sacristan and typikarios. From 1943 to 1958 he was the pastor of the parish of Saint Nicholas at Gegobrosty in Lithuania, a small and poor community of about a hundred and fifty people, which he put in order and restored from ruin; Archbishop Alexy of Vilnius left a very warm testimonial about him. In 1951 he graduated from the Vilnius seminary and went on studying by correspondence at the Leningrad Academy. He was raised to archpriest in 1956.

From 1958 he was priest of the church of Saint Nicholas on the island of Talabsk (called Zalit in Soviet times) in Lake Pskov, where he stayed without interruption until his death. In 1988 he was granted the mitre and the right to serve with the Royal Doors open until the Cherubic Hymn, and in 1992 until the Lord's Prayer, the highest distinction for an archpriest. For decades believers from all over the country and abroad came to him for counsel; he was called "the elder of Talabsk" or "the elder of Zalit". Those who knew him describe him as gentle, gifted with insight into souls, yet careful not to hurt anyone. Asked what was the most dangerous passion of the age, he answered: unbelief, even among Orthodox Christians. It is told that a sailor who escaped from the nuclear submarine Komsomolets later recognised in him the old man who had appeared to him in the freezing waters. A skete in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan was founded with his blessing, and he served as the model for the central character of the film "The Island."

He reposed in the Lord on 24 August 2002 on the island of Zalit. More than three thousand believers came to his funeral. His grave is visited by pilgrims, and a society that keeps his memory calls him "the righteous Nikolai of Lake Pskov".