Nikolay Ryurikov

Holy Hieromartyr Nikolay Ryurikov (Nikolay Vladimirovich Ryurikov) was a priest of the Russian Orthodox Church, born on 5 April 1884 in the village of Oselki, in the Makaryev district, Nizhny Novgorod province, into a priest's family, and died on 18 June 1943 in the Lokchimlag camp, in the Komi Republic. He was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia on 6 October 2006, on the presentation of the diocese of Yoshkar-⁠Ola. He is remembered on 5 June, old calendar (18 June), the day of his death.

Family and service

He was the son of the priest Vladimir Alexandrovich Ryurikov and his wife, Maria Grigoryevna. The Ryurikov family belonged to the clerical estate: his grandfather, Alexander Petrovich, was also a priest and was well educated. In 1905 he finished the Nizhny Novgorod seminary and began to teach the Law of God at the zemstvo school of Oselki, in 1906 and 1907 at the parish school of the neighbouring village of Lyapuny, then at parish schools of the diocese: at Pavlovo (1907 and 1908) and at the Transfiguration school at the cemetery church in Kanavino (between 1908 and 1910). On 15 September 1910 Bishop Joachim (Levitsky) appointed him second priest at the Makaryev Zheltovodsky convent, and the ordination was performed on 22 October 1910 by Bishop Gennady (Tuberozov) of Balakhna, vicar of the diocese. On 23 August 1911 Father Nikolay was moved to the Trinity cathedral in Gorbatov, and on 6 September 1917 he was appointed its rector.

Between 1911 and 1917 he taught the Law of God at the girls' school, the two-⁠class school, the boys' parish school and the boys' gymnasium of Gorbatov. From 1915 he was treasurer of the local branch of the diocesan school council. From 3 February 1916 he was clerk of the Gorbatov section of the Society for the Care of Refugees. He received the epigonation (1912), the skufia (1916) and the kamilavka (1919), as well as a medal for the twenty-⁠fifth year of the parish schools (1911) and marks and medals for the three hundred years of the Romanov dynasty (1913). He corresponded with the bishop of Lyskovo, Alexander (Shchukin).

Persecution

Like all the servants of the Church, in the 1920s he was deprived of the right to vote. On 29 July 1927 he was arrested by the Nizhny Novgorod OGPU, on the charge of counter-⁠revolutionary agitation against Soviet power. A priest, a deacon and a psalm-⁠reader who served with him at the cathedral gave testimony against him. He was held in the inner prison of the OGPU at Nizhny Novgorod, was interrogated on 29 July and on 8 and 9 August 1927 and denied the charges. By decision of the Special Council of 4 November 1927 he was sentenced to three years of exile, which he served, together with his wife, Olga Georgievna, in the Priangarsk district, Kansk region, in Eastern Siberia. After his release he was for three years an administrative exile, at Kozmodemyansk. From January 1934 he served at the church of the Vladimir icon of the Mother of God in the village of Vladimirskoye and on 7 April 1934 received from the state the official registration of this parish. In 1936 he received the palitsa.

On 29 September 1937 he was arrested, on the charge of counter-⁠revolutionary agitation, and imprisoned in the Kozmodemyansk jail. At the single interrogation, on 30 September 1937, he did not admit guilt. On 8 October 1937 the NKVD troika sentenced him to ten years. On 25 October 1937 he arrived at Lokchimlag, in the Komi Republic. He died on 18 June 1943 in the Pezmog infirmary of the camp, of heart paralysis, and was buried in the unknown grave "5 G" in the cemetery there. In 1910 he had married a priest's daughter, Olga Georgievna Lavrova, and they had four children, three daughters and a son. On 6 October 2006, by decision of His Holiness the Patriarch and the Holy Synod, on the presentation of the diocese of Yoshkar-⁠Ola, Nikolay Ryurikov was numbered among the new martyrs and confessors of Russia.