Saint Nikon the Confessor

St. Nikon of Optina (Nikolai Belyaev, 1888–1931), the last disciple of the great elders and the spiritual son of St. Barsanuphius and St. Nektary, kept the Optina eldership and liturgical life alive at Kozelsk after the monastery’s closure. Arrested and exiled to the far north, he died of tuberculosis in exile in 1931 — the confessor of the last days of Optina.

Tradition: Russian Orthodox (Optina synaxis glorified 1996 local / 2000 general)

Nikolai Belyaev, Disciple of the Last Elders

St. Nikon was born Nikolai Mitrofanovich Belyaev on 26 September 1888 in Moscow, of a merchant family; educated and thoughtful, he came to Optina as a young man in 1907 with his brother, drawn to the monastic life, and placed himself under the elders of the skete (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn i eyo vremya, Jordanville, 1970, on Nikon Belyaev; “Venerable Confessor Nikon of Optina,” OrthoChristian.com, following the Optina record; “Nikon (Beliaev) the Confessor of Optina,” St. John the Baptist Cathedral). His spiritual father was St. Barsanuphius, then skete superior, under whom the young Nikolai was formed in the last years of Optina’s glory; he kept a diary of Barsanuphius’s counsels that is a valuable record of the eldership in its final flowering (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Nikon as Barsanuphius’s disciple and diarist; see St. Joseph and St. Barsanuphius). Tonsured with the name Nikon and later ordained, he became, after Barsanuphius’s removal, a spiritual son also of St. Nektary, and so stood in the direct line of the last elders (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970).

Guarding Optina’s Life after the Closure

When Optina was nationalized and suppressed, Nikon did not flee. In the confused years of the artel and the early closure he remained at or near the monastery, and when the community was finally scattered he settled across the river at Kozelsk, where he became the rallying point of the Optina remnant: gathering the faithful around the parish church, hearing confessions, directing souls, and continuing the confessional eldership of Optina in the town after the skete had been silenced (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Nikon’s ministry at Kozelsk after the closure; “Venerable Confessor Nikon of Optina,” OrthoChristian.com). St. Nektary, from his own exile, is said to have pointed his spiritual children to Nikon, so that Nikon carried the eldership of the last elders forward into the years of terror (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Nektary directing souls to Nikon). For a few years, through Nikon, Optina’s spiritual life continued in exile from Optina itself — the eldership in the catacombs (see The Eldership under Persecution).

Arrest, Exile, and Death

This could not last. Nikon was arrested in the wave of repression against the surviving clergy and monastics in the late 1920s; the accounts place his arrest in 1927, followed by imprisonment and then exile to the far north (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970, on Nikon’s arrest and exile; “Nikon (Beliaev) the Confessor of Optina,” St. John the Baptist Cathedral). He was sent to the Arkhangelsk region and, in August 1930, transferred from Arkhangelsk to Pinega, in the far north, where he lived in extreme poverty and hardship, already ill with the tuberculosis that would kill him (the transfer from Arkhangelsk to Pinega on 3/16 August 1930 is recorded in the Life; “Nikon (Beliaev) the Confessor of Optina,” St. John the Baptist Cathedral). Even in exile he continued to care for those around him and to write letters of spiritual counsel, bearing his sufferings with the patience the Optina elders had taught.

St. Nikon died in exile on 25 June 1931 (Old Style), at the age of forty-three; the accounts relate that in his last hours, too weak to speak, he was given Communion and the prayers for the departing soul were read over him by another exiled priest (the circumstances of his death are recorded in the Life; “Nikon (Beliaev) the Confessor of Optina,” St. John the Baptist Cathedral; Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970). He is venerated as a confessor (ispovednik) — one who suffered for Christ and died of his sufferings without being executed — and his feast is kept on 25 June (the Optina record and the Synaxis of the Elders). Because he died in the far north, his relics were not among those uncovered at Optina in 1998 (see Glorification and Veneration).

The Confessor of the Last Days

St. Nikon holds a unique place in the lineage: he is the youngest of the glorified elders and the one in whom the two ages of Optina — the golden eldership and the age of the martyrs — most directly meet. He learned the eldership at the feet of Barsanuphius and Nektary in the last years of the old Optina, and he carried it, at the cost of his life, into the new age of persecution; his diary preserves the counsels of the elders, and his own witness became one of the counsels. In him the Optina tradition of self-emptying obedience found its natural fulfillment in the confession of Christ under a persecuting state, and it is right that he is numbered both among the Optina elders and among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia (Kontzevitch, Optina Pustyn, 1970; see The New Martyrs of Russia and Glorification and Veneration).

See Also

References

  • Kontzevitch, I. M. Optina Pustyn’ i eyo vremya. Jordanville, NY: Holy Trinity Monastery, 1970. (Nikon Belyaev as disciple of Barsanuphius and Nektary; his diary of Barsanuphius’s counsels; his ministry at Kozelsk after the closure; his arrest, exile, and death.)
  • “Venerable Confessor Nikon of Optina.” OrthoChristian.com, following the Optina record. (The life, the arrest of 1927, the exile, and the death in 1931.)
  • “Nikon (Beliaev) the Confessor of Optina.” Russian Orthodox Cathedral of St. John the Baptist (Washington, DC), following the Optina Life — used to locate the birth (26 September 1888, Moscow), the transfer from Arkhangelsk to Pinega (August 1930), and the death (25 June 1931), cross-checked against Kontzevitch.
  • The Synaxis of the Optina Elders and the Optina record — for the feast (25 June).