Niphont Vyblov

Holy Venerable Martyr Niphont Vyblov was a hieromonk in a village of the Saratov province, and he died in the prison of Syzran on 30 August 1931 after being arrested by the OGPU.

Early years

He was born in 1882 in the town of Yeysk, to a poor peasant, Gregory Vyblov. At ten he was sent to the two-⁠class village school, which he finished in 1894, and afterwards he helped his father on the farm. His father died when he was seventeen, and he kept the household with his younger brother. In 1913 he went to the village of Podlesnoye, in the Khvalynsk district, to the hieromonk Anthony (Vinnikov), a well-⁠known missionary there who led a missionary school. Confirmed in his decision to take a new path, he entered the men's monastery in Khvalynsk, where he was tonsured with the name Niphont and ordained hieromonk. In 1925 the bishop of Volsk assigned him to the church in the village of Berezovy Khutor, where he served until the day of his arrest.

Arrest and death

On 28 December 1930 the local OGPU office, which aimed to close every church in the district, sent two militiamen to arrest him. They found him at the service, and word of the arrest had spread through the whole village. After the Liturgy Father Niphont conducted a funeral service and accompanied the coffin to the cemetery. At home, he and the hieromonk Anthony, his spiritual father, who was visiting, were searched and made to climb onto a cart. About forty people, mostly women, had gathered and demanded the release of the pastors. The militiamen drew their weapons, took down the names of the most vocal and sent for reinforcements, so that the believers withdrew and the priests were taken to the prison in Syzran.

The OGPU could not bring any concrete charge. One investigator wrote only that he must have had ties with the kulaks, since bread and milk were brought to him. At interrogation the hieromonk Niphont did not admit guilt and said that he had known Anthony from youth, at the Khvalynsk monastery, and went to him to confess. He departed to the Lord on 30 August 1931, at about half past nine in the morning, in the Syzran prison.

He is remembered on 7 February (a movable day), in the Synaxis of the New Martyrs and Confessors of the Russian Church, and in the synaxes of the saints of Ivanovo, Samara and Saratov, in the new style.