Nikolay Guryanov, elder: predictions and biography

On the Pskov lake there is an island bearing the name of Zelit. For four decades, the rector of the church of St. Nicholas, located on it, was now the deceased archpriest Father Nikolai Guryanov. Through his service to God and people, he gained the glory of a wise and perspicacious old man, to whom Orthodox believers from all over the country gathered for advice and help.

What is old age?

In the Russian Orthodoxy, a special form of service to God, called eldership, has taken root since ancient times. This is a kind of activity that includes the spiritual guidance of believers, carried out by God-chosen people - the elders. They, as a rule, are persons of a spiritual rank, but the history of the church knows examples when in this role laymen also acted. And the very concept of the elder does not presuppose an age characteristic, but spiritual Grace, sent down by God for carrying this feat.

People who are chosen by the Lord for such a high ministry are often endowed with the ability to contemplate the future of the world with an inner gaze , and to see the soulful storehouse of each individual person. This gives them an opportunity with surprising accuracy to give all who turn to them for help and spiritual instruction, the only true advice.

The family of the choir director

The future elder Nikolai Guryanov, whose predictions of the future of Russia have become famous nowadays, was born in 1909 in the family of the regent of the church choir, who lived in the village of Chudskiye Zachody of St. Petersburg Gubernia Alexei Ivanovich Guryanov. Nikolai had three brothers who inherited musical abilities from their father, the oldest of whom Mikhail even taught at the St. Petersburg Conservatory.

But their talent was not destined to develop - all of them were lost during the First World War. The head of the family - the father of Nikolai Alekseevich died in 1914, and only his mother Catherine Stepanovna the Lord sent down longevity. She lived until 1969, helping her son carry his pastoral ministry.

Unsuccessful 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 speak publicly against the closure of one of the city's temples. This happened in the late twenties, and the whole country was captured by another anti-religious campaign. With 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 bodies.

In order to earn his living, Nikolai was forced to give private lessons in biology, physics and mathematics, as in these subjects he had sufficient training. But the main thing for him was the church. From 1928 to 1931 he served as a psalmist in various temples of Leningrad and the region.

Years of imprisonment and work in Tosno

The policy of persecuting the church, conducted by the Communists, presupposed primarily repression in the attitude of its ministers, many of whom found themselves in prisons and camps. Nikolai Guryanov was no exception. He was arrested for religious propaganda and, awaiting trial, spent several months in the notorious Leningrad prison of Kresty, and then was sent to the Syktyvkar camp, which at that time was one of the elements of the boundless archipelago of the Gulag. There, working on the construction of the railway, he received a serious injury of both legs, which made him disabled for life.

After serving five years in jail and returning to Leningrad, the repressed cleric could not obtain a city residence permit and settled in the Tosno District. Fortunately, there was a sharp shortage of teaching staff, and Guryanov was recruited into a rural school, despite his conviction and lack of a diploma. He worked as a teacher until the outbreak of the war.

When the country was declared a general mobilization, Nicholas was not taken into the army because of his disability. They did not even give the chance to work in the rear - a recent conviction made him an outcast. When the front approached Leningrad, Nicholas found himself in the occupied territory, where, as in previous years, he served as a psalmist in a church.

Acceptance of the priesthood and ministry in the temples of the Baltic States

During the years of occupation, Guryanov finally decided to devote his life to serving God. In early February 1942, he was ordained deacon, and a week later as priest. This he took celibacy, that is, he vowed celibacy for the rest of his days. The sacrament over him was also performed by Metropolitan Sergius (Resurrection), who was in the occupation. After graduating theological courses in the same year, Nikolai Guryanov (elder) was sent to Riga, where he served as a priest in the Holy Trinity convent, and then spent some time as a charterer of the Vilnius Holy Spirit Monastery.

From 1943 to 1958, the period of his service in Lithuania in the Orthodox church of the village of Gegobrosty lasts. There, Father Nicholas is elevated to the rank of archpriest. There are memories of one of his parishioners, in which she writes that Nikolai's father was always distinguished by extraordinary inner kindness and affability, rare even for people of spiritual rank.

He was able to involve people in worship, carrying out all the prescribed actions in an inspired and beautiful way. For parishioners of the church, where the priest served, he was a model of a truly Christian life. Not being a monk, Father Nicholas was a true ascetic, following Christian norms both in prayer and in relation to people.

Prediction, which determined the further life

Nikolay Guryanov was able to combine ministry in the parish with 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 reminiscences of people who knew him, having completed his education, in 1958 Father Nikolai visited an old man whose name remained unknown, and he opened to him the place the Lord intended for future ministry and where he was to arrive in the soonest time.

It was the island of Talabsk on the Pskov lake, which received the name of a prominent Communist Zilat in the Soviet period. After submitting the application to the diocesan administration and receiving a favorable response, Father Nicholas arrived at the indicated place, where he spent the next forty years in his unceasing service until his death.

Difficulties of the first years

It is difficult even to imagine all the difficulties encountered in the new place by the arriving priest. This was a period when the country was embraced by Khrushchev's anti-religious campaigns, and the media did not cease to trumpet about the imminent victory over obscurantism, as they called the faith underlying the entire history of our Motherland. So when Nikolai Guryanov (the elder) arrived on the island and settled with his mother on the outskirts of the village, he was met with suspicious looks.

However, very soon his mildness, meekness, and most importantly, benevolence towards people erased this alienation pattern, which appeared at first. 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 the means for its restoration himself. With his hands he laid bricks, repaired the roof, painted and performed all the other necessary works, and when worship services began in the renovated room, the prosophora itself.

Life in a fishing village

But, in addition to fulfilling his church duties, Father Nicholas devoted much time to helping everyone he could help her. Since the male population of the village was a fishing cooperative, and their families did not see their breadwinners for a long time, Father Nikolai did not shy away from helping women in the household, he could look after children or sit with sick and old people. Thus, the future elder Nikolai Guryanov gained trust, and then the fellow villager's love.

The biography of this person is further inseparable from the island, where God's will was destined to accomplish his feat, and where by his works were returned to the bosom of the church tens and hundreds of people, torn from her by godless authority. It was a difficult journey. In the first years of stay on the island, the father had to serve in an empty church. Residents of the village loved him, respected him, but they did not go to church. By bit, the Word of God had to be carried into the minds of these people, before this good grain yielded its sprouts.

Miracle revealed by the prayer of the righteous man

At that time, and these were the sixties, the persecution of the church especially intensified, under the pressure of the authorities, one of the villagers wrote a denunciation on the priest. The commissioner arrived rude and rude to the priest, and in the end stated that he would take it the next day. Father Nikolay Guryanov (elder) collected the things and spent the whole night in prayer.

What happened then, some consider a miracle, others - a coincidence, but only in the morning at a quiet in this time of the year the lake got up a real storm, and for three days the island was cut off from the mainland. When the element had subsided, the authorities about the priest somehow forgot and did not touch again.

The beginning of the old ministry

In the seventies, Elder Nikolai Guryanov, whose predictions were surprisingly realized, acquired extraordinary wide popularity. People from all over the country came to him, and he did not know a moment of peace. At all, the external manifestation of those gifts that were abundantly revealed to him by the Lord made an indelible impression.

For example, addressing completely unfamiliar people, he unmistakably called their names, pointed to the long-forgotten sins they could not know about, warned about the dangers they threatened, instructed how to avoid them, and did many more things that Can not be rationally explained. It is also impossible to count people to whom he returned health, begging for God to heal, sometimes even when medicine was powerless.

A wise teacher and teacher

But most importantly, what was his ministry, this is the help that the father gave to people who wanted to change their lives, arranging it on a truly Christian basis. Not getting into general discussions and avoiding unnecessary words, he was able to give the person a specific instruction relating to him personally.

At the same time, seeing the inner world of everyone with whom he had to communicate and seeing much that is stored in the hidden corners of the soul and carefully disappears from those around him, the elder knew how to talk about it with an unusual tact, without causing a person moral trauma, and even less humiliating His dignity. This side of his gift is witnessed by many who visited Zalit Island.

Elder Nikolai Guryanov was, in the opinion of many of his admirers, almost the only one to the whole country, a truly perspicacious old man. His ability to see the ordinary people hidden from the eyes was so developed that in the nineties he often helped both private individuals and government agencies to search for people who had disappeared.

Universal recognition

In the period of perestroika, when the state's policy towards the church changed radically, the elders of Russia received greater freedom in their service. 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 who often stayed there for a long time.

The special authority of Nikolai Guryanov (the elder) acquired after the whole of the country about him, said our other famous ascetic father John Krestyankin, who then struggled in the Pskov-Pechersky monastery. He described Father Nicholas as the bearer of God's Grace, endowing him with gifts of vision, wisdom and meekness.

At the same time, in the late nineties, the predictions of the elder Nikolai Guryanov about Russia became public. They sounded in response to a question from one of the visitors, who wished to know what was waiting for the country after the end of B.N. Yeltsin. The Elder was not very taciturn, and what he said seemed to contain a meaning that we, the current inhabitants of Russia, are not given to fully understand.

Elder Nikolai Guryanov: predictions about the future of Russia

To the question of who will replace President BN, then in power. Yeltsin, he replied that it would be a military man, and was right, since the current head of state does have a military rank. But the meaning of his further words remains a mystery to us, and it is difficult to understand what the elder Nikolai Guryanov meant. Predictions about the future of Russia, made by him on that day, predicted the future government, which he likened to the power of the Communists. According to him, the church will again be subjected to persecution, but it will not last long.

The old man finished on a very optimistic note, predicting the arrival of the Orthodox Tsar in our world. When asked about when this will happen, he said that most of those present will live to that day. This is the answer that the elder Nikolai Guryanov gave about the future of Russia. While avoiding the shadow of doubt about the fairness of his words, let us note, however, that Vladimir Putin, who headed the country after leaving Boris Yeltsin's post, is more in line with the image of the Orthodox Tsar than the persecutor of faith, Had in mind the elder.

During the years of his reign, the church was fully revived after decades of atheism, which dominated the country and was the main principle of state ideology. What, then, did the old man say? We can only guess about this.

It has been repeatedly suggested that Nikolai Guryanov (the elder), whose prophecies cause so open bewilderment today, really saw in those days new persecution prepared for the Russian church. It is possible that this would have led to the course of historical events. But, according to the prayers of the zealots, one of whom was, undoubtedly, Father Nikolay himself, the Lord showed great mercy, saving Russia from the troubles that she experienced for seven decades. As a result of the prophecy of the old man came true, but the Lord, according to his ineffable philanthropy, saved us from repeating the nightmare that swept the country in the 20th century.

The Instructions of the Elder Nikolai Guryanov

In addition to the prophecies mentioned above, Father Nicholas gained fame by the instructions that he gave to people who turned to him for advice and help. Much of what he said was preserved in the records made by his admirers who came to the island Zalit.

The elder Nikolai Guryanov first taught to live and pray to God as if he were destined to die tomorrow, and, having presented himself to the Lord, to give Him the answer in his deeds. This, he said, will help cleanse the soul from filth, prepare itself for the transition into eternity. In addition, Father Nicholas taught to love with love everything that surrounds us, because all this is nothing but the creation of God. He appealed to unbelieving people to treat without condemnation, with pity, constantly praying to God for deliverance from this devilish defilement. Many of the wise and useful teachings received from him visitors.

Posthumous veneration of the elder Nikolai

Like many formerly departed elders, Protopriest Nikolai Guryanov, after his demise, which followed on August 24, 2002, became revered by many in our country as a saint, the canonization of which is only a matter of time. On the day of his funeral more than three thousand people came to Zalit Island, who wanted to pay the last debt to his memory. And although the number of admirers of the Elder has not decreased since many years.

In this regard, the words spoken by another famous representative of the Russian elders, the Reverend Father Nektar, recalled by him shortly before the Bolsheviks' closure of Optina desert were recalled. He taught nothing in this earthly life not to be afraid and always pray to the deceased aged people, because, before the throne of God, they pray for us, and the Lord will listen to their words. Just like those elders, Father Nikolai Guryanov in the Kingdom of Heaven intercedes with the Most High for those left behind in this perishable world.

It is not surprising that the humble servant of God, Archpriest Father Nikolai Guryanov (elder), deserved the whole of his life with the love and memory of hundreds of thousands of his admirers. The island, which has been its home for the last forty years of its life, today has become both its monument and the place where Orthodox believers come to worship it.

Soon 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 in the saints' face. That this event will sooner or later take place, none of the members of the society doubts, and already today it is referred to as the Monk Nikolai Pskovoyozersky.