On the Pskov lake there is an island named Zalita. For four decades, the rector of the church of St. Nicholas located on it was the now deceased Archpriest Father Nikolai Guryanov. By his service to God and people, he gained fame as a wise and perspicacious elder, to whom Orthodox believers from all over the country came for advice and help.
What is eldership?
In Russian Orthodoxy, a special form of service to God, called eldership, has been rooted since ancient times. This is a type of activity that includes the spiritual guidance of believers, carried out by God's chosen people - the elders. They, as a rule, are persons of the clergy, but the history of the church knows examples when lay people also acted in this role. Moreover, the very concept of an elder does not imply an age characteristic, but spiritual Grace sent down by God to carry this feat.
People, chosen by the Lord for such a high service, are often endowed with the ability to contemplate the future of the world with an inner eye, and see the mental warehouse of each individual person. This gives them an amazing opportunityaccurately give everyone who turns to them for help and spiritual guidance, the only true advice.
Church Choir Director's Family
The future Elder Nikolai Guryanov, whose predictions about the future of Russia became famous these days, was born in 1909 in the family of the regent of the church choir, who lived in the village of Chudskiye Zakhody, St. Petersburg province, Alexei Ivanovich Guryanov. Nikolai had three brothers who inherited musical abilities from their father, the eldest of whom Mikhail even taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
But their talent was not destined to develop - they all died during the First World War. The head of the family, the father of Nikolai Alekseevich, passed away in 1914, and only his mother, Ekaterina Stepanovna, was granted longevity by the Lord. She lived until 1969, helping her son carry out his pastoral ministry.
Failed students
Already in the years of Soviet power, Nikolai graduated from the Pedagogical College and then entered the Leningrad Pedagogical Institute. But he was soon expelled, as he found the courage to publicly speak out against the closure of one of the city's churches. This happened at the end of the twenties, and the whole country was covered by another anti-religious campaign. By his desperate act, he could not stop the machine of atheistic obscurantism, but he lost the opportunity to continue his studies and fell into the field of view of the GPU authorities.
To earn a living, Nikolai was forced to give private lessons in biology, physics and mathematics, as he had sufficient training in these subjects. But the main thing forthe church remained. From 1928 to 1931 he served as a reader in various churches in Leningrad and the region.
Years of imprisonment and work in Tosno
The policy of persecuting the church, pursued by the communists, meant primarily repression against its ministers, many of whom ended up in prisons and camps. Nikolai Guryanov was no exception. He was arrested for religious propaganda and spent several months awaiting trial in the infamous Leningrad prison Crosses, and then was sent to the Syktyvkar camp, which in those years was one of the elements of the vast Gulag archipelago. There, while working on the construction of the railway, he received a severe injury in both legs, which made him an invalid for life.
After serving five years behind bars and returning to Leningrad, the repressed cleric could not get a city registration and settled in the Tosnensky district. Fortunately, there was an acute shortage of teaching staff, and Guryanov was hired in a rural school, despite a criminal record and lack of a diploma. He worked as a teacher until the start of the war.
When general mobilization was announced in the country, Nikolai was not taken into the army because of his disability. They didn’t even give him the opportunity to work in the rear - a recent criminal record made him an outcast. When the front approached Leningrad, Nikolai found himself in the occupied territory, where, as in previous years, he served as a psalmist in one of the churches.
Accepting the priesthood and serving in churches in the B altics
During the years of occupation Guryanov finallydecided to dedicate his life to the service of God. In early February 1942 he was ordained a deacon, and a week later he was ordained to the priesthood. He took this dignity celibate, that is, he took a vow of celibacy until the end of his days. The Sacrament over him was also performed by Metropolitan Sergius (Voskresensky), who found himself in the occupation. After graduating from theological courses in the same year, Nikolai Guryanov (the elder) was sent to Riga, where he served as a priest in the Holy Trinity Monastery for women, and then for some time worked as an usher in the Vilnius Holy Spirit Monastery.
From 1943 to 1958, the period of his ministry in Lithuania in the Orthodox Church of the village of Gegobrosta lasts. In the same place, Father Nikolai is elevated to the rank of archpriest. The memoirs of one of his parishioners have been preserved, in which she writes that Father Nikolai was always distinguished by extraordinary inner kindness and friendliness, rare even for people of the clergy.
He knew how to involve people in worship, performing all the prescribed actions with inspiration and beauty. For the parishioners of the church where the priest served, he was a model of a truly Christian life. Not being a monk, Father Nikolai was a true ascetic, following Christian norms both in prayer and in dealing with people.
The prediction that determined the future of life
Nikolay Guryanov knew how to combine his ministry in the parish with his studies. During his stay in Lithuania, he graduated from the Vilna Seminary in 1951, and then continued his studies at the correspondence department of the Leningrad Theological Academy.
According to the recollections of people who knew him closely, having already completed his education, in 1958 Father Nikolai visiteda certain old man, whose name remained unknown, and he revealed to him the place that the Lord intended for the future service, and where he was supposed to arrive as soon as possible.
It was the island of Talabsk on Lake Pskov, which received the name of the prominent communist Zilat in the Soviet period. Having submitted an application to the diocesan administration and received a favorable response, Father Nikolai arrived at the indicated place, where he spent the next forty years in unceasing service until his death.
Difficulties of the early years
It's hard to even imagine all the difficulties that the newly arrived priest faced in the new place. It was a period when the country was engulfed by Khrushchev's anti-religious campaigns, and the media did not stop trumpeting about the imminent victory over obscurantism - that is how they called the faith underlying the entire history of our Motherland. Therefore, when Nikolai Guryanov (the elder) arrived on the island and settled with his mother on the outskirts of the village, he was greeted with suspicious looks.
However, very soon his gentleness, meekness, and, most importantly, goodwill towards people erased this veil of alienation that arose at the beginning. The church in which he was to serve was then in a dilapidated state, and, having not the slightest support from the diocesan authorities, the priest had to find funds to restore it himself. With his own hands, he laid bricks, re-roofed, painted and did all the other necessary work, and when services began in the renovated building, he baked prosphora himself.
Life in the fishingvillage
But, besides fulfilling his church duties, Father Nikolai spent a lot of time helping everyone he could give it to. Since the male population of the village was a fishing artel, and their families did not see their breadwinners for a long time, Father Nikolai did not hesitate to help women with the housework, he could look after the children or sit with the sick and the elderly. Thus, the future elder Nikolai Guryanov won the trust, and then the love of his fellow villagers.
The biography of this man in the future is inseparable from the island where by God's will he was destined to accomplish his feat, and where by his labors tens and hundreds of people were returned to the bosom of the church, torn away from it by the godless authorities. It was a hard road. In the first years of his stay on the island, the priest had to serve in an empty church. The inhabitants of the village loved him, respected him, but did not go to church. Bit by bit, we had to carry the Word of God into the minds of these people before this good seed sprouted.
A miracle manifested through the prayer of a righteous man
During that period, and these were the sixties, the persecution of the church especially intensified, under pressure from the authorities, one of the residents of the village wrote a denunciation to the priest. The commissioner who arrived was rude and rude to the priest, and in the end announced that he would pick him up the next day. Father Nikolai Guryanov (the elder) packed his things and spent the whole night in prayer.
What happened then, some consider it a miracle, others consider it a coincidence, but only in the morning a real storm arose on a quiet lake at this time of the year, and for three days the island was cut off from the mainland. Whenthe elements calmed down, the authorities somehow forgot about the priest and henceforth did not touch.
Beginning of the Senior Service
In the seventies, Elder Nikolai Guryanov, whose predictions amazingly came true, gained unusually wide popularity. People from all over the country came to him, and he did not know a moment of peace. Everyone was impressed by the outward manifestation of those gifts that the Lord had bestowed upon him in abundance.
For example, addressing complete strangers, he unmistakably called their names, pointed out their long-forgotten sins that he could not know about, warned of the dangers that threatened them, gave instructions on how to avoid them, and committed There are many other things that cannot be rationally explained. It is also impossible to count the people to whom he restored he alth, begging God for healing, sometimes even in cases where medicine was powerless.
A wise mentor and teacher
But the main thing that consisted of his ministry was the help that the priest provided to people who wanted to change their lives, arranging it on truly Christian principles. Without indulging in general discussions and avoiding unnecessary words, he was able to give a person specific instructions that apply to him personally.
At the same time, seeing the inner world of everyone with whom he had to communicate, and seeing a lot that is stored in the hidden corners of the soul and carefully hidden from others, the elder knew how to talk about it with extraordinary tact, without causing moral injury to a person, but especially without humiliating his dignity. About thisside of his gift, many who visited the island of Zalita testify.
Elder Nikolai Guryanov was, in the opinion of many of his admirers, perhaps the only truly perspicacious elder in the whole country. His ability to see what was hidden from the eyes of ordinary people was so developed that in the nineties he repeatedly helped both private individuals and government agencies in the search for missing people.
General recognition
During the period of perestroika, when the policy of the state towards the church changed radically, the elders of Russia also received greater freedom in their ministry. Nikolai Guryanov was one of those whose names were then often mentioned by the media. This, of course, increased the number of his admirers who came to the island, and often stayed there for a long time.
Nikolai Guryanov (the elder) acquired special authority after another of our most famous ascetics, Father John Krestyankin, who then labored in the Pskov-Caves Monastery, announced about him to the whole country. He described Father Nicholas as the bearer of God's Grace, endowing him with the gifts of insight, wisdom and meekness.
Then, in the late nineties, Elder Nikolai Guryanov's predictions about Russia became public knowledge. They were made in response to a question from one of the visitors, who wished to know what awaits the country after the end of B. N. Yeltsin. The elder was taciturn, and what he said, apparently, is fraught with a meaning that we, today's inhabitants of Russia, cannot fully understand.
Elder Nikolai Guryanov: predictions about the future of Russia
To the question of who will replace the then President B. N. Yeltsin, he replied that he would be a military man, and he turned out to be right, since the current head of state really has a military rank. But the meaning of his further words remains a mystery to us, and it is difficult to understand what Elder Nikolai Guryanov had in mind. The predictions he made that day about the future of Russia predicted a future rule for the country, which he likened to that of the Communists. According to him, the church will again be persecuted, but this will not last long.
The elder ended on a very optimistic note, predicting the coming of the Orthodox Tsar to our world. When asked when this would happen, he said that most of those present would live to see that day. This is the answer given by the elder Nikolai Guryanov about the future of Russia. Without allowing even a shadow of doubt about the validity of his words, we note, nevertheless, that V. V. Putin, who led the country after B. N. Yeltsin left the presidency, is more consistent with the image of an Orthodox tsar than a persecutor of faith, perhaps it was his meant the old man.
During the years of his reign, the church was fully revived after decades of atheism that dominated the country and was the main principle of state ideology. What, then, was the elder talking about? We can only guess about this.
It has been suggested more than once that Nikolai Guryanov (the elder), whose prophecies are so open todaybewilderment, he really saw in those days the new persecutions prepared for the Russian church. It is possible that the course of historical events would have led to this. But, through the prayers of the zealots of the faith, one of whom was, undoubtedly, Father Nikolai himself, the Lord showed great mercy, delivering Russia from the troubles that she had experienced for seven decades. As a result, the elder's prophecies came true, but the Lord, in His inexpressible love for mankind, delivered us from a repetition of the nightmare that swept the country in the 20th century.
Instructions of Elder Nikolai Guryanov
In addition to the prophecies mentioned above, Father Nikolai gained fame with the instructions that he gave to people who turned to him for advice and help. Much of what he said was preserved in the notes made by his admirers who came to Zalit Island.
Elder Nikolai Guryanov first of all taught to live and pray to God as if tomorrow you were destined to die, and, having appeared before the Lord, give Him an answer in your deeds. This, he said, will help cleanse the soul of filth, prepare oneself for the transition to eternity. In addition, Father Nikolai taught us to treat everything that surrounds us with love, because all this is nothing but God's creation. He called for unbelieving people to be treated without judgment, with pity, to constantly pray to God to deliver them from this diabolical obscuration. Visitors received many other wise and useful instructions from him.
Posthumous veneration of Elder Nicholas
Like many formerly deceased elders, Archpriest Nikolai Guryanov, after his death, which followedAugust 24, 2002, began to be revered by many in our country as a saint, whose canonization is only a matter of time. On the day of his funeral, more than three thousand people gathered on the island of Zalita, who wanted to pay their last debt to his memory. And although many years have passed since then, the number of admirers of the elder has not decreased.
In this regard, I recall the words uttered by another famous representative of the Russian elders, the Reverend Father Nectarius, uttered by him shortly before the closure of Optina Hermitage by the Bolsheviks. He taught not to be afraid of anything in this earthly life and always pray to the deceased elders, since, standing before the Throne of God, they pray for us, and the Lord will heed their words. Just like those elders, Father Nikolai Guryanov in the Kingdom of Heaven intercedes with the Almighty for those whom he left in this perishable world.
It is not surprising that the humble servant of God, Archpriest Father Nikolai Guryanov (elder), earned the love and memory of hundreds of thousands of his admirers throughout his life. The island, which was his home for the last forty years of his life, today has become both his monument and the place where Orthodox believers come to worship him.
Shortly after the death of the elder, they established a society of zealots for his memory, whose members are already working today to glorify Father Nicholas as a saint. None of the members of the society doubts that this event will take place sooner or later, and even today they call him none other than St. Nicholas of Pskovoezersky.
