Bishop Nicholas (Karpov) of London passed away on this day in 1912. The future Bishop Nicholas was born in 1891 into an Old Believer family that accepted the priesthood. However, as an infant, he was baptized by his grandmother rather than by a priest, because she did not expect him to survive. She also made a vow on behalf of her grandson that if he lived, he would become an Orthodox Christian. This is exactly what happened. In 1913, Ivan (his baptismal name) graduated from Tobolsk Seminary. He enrolled in Moscow Theological Academy, where Holy New Martyr Archbishop Fedor (Pozdeevskii) of Volokolamsk tonsured him a monk in November of the same year. Upon graduating in 1915, Fr. Nicholas joined a monastery of Our Lady of the Sign in Oboyan, Kursk region. In 1919, he was among the monastics and clergy who, along with Archbishop Feofan of Kursk, followed the Kursk Root Icon into exile. The Russian Holy Trinity Church in Belgrade became a home for the Kursk Root Icon until it was taken to the west in 1944. Archimandrite Nicholas became a clergyman of the Serbian Orthodox Church and an instructor of the seminary in Bitola in Macedonia, which until 1912 had been a part of the Ottoman Empire. St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco and the future Archimandrite Kiprian (Kern) also taught there. In 1928, Fr. Nicholas was appointed to Holy Dormition parish in London, which at this point had been already divided into groups of “Evlogians” and “Karlovites” for two years (the first being named after Metropolitan Evlogii of Western Europe, and the second after Sremski Karlovci in Serbia, where the headquarters of the Russian Church Abroad were located). In 1929, Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitskii), the First Hierarch of the Russian Church Abroad, Archbishop Seraphim (Lukianov) of Western Europe, Archbishop Feofan of Kursk, and Bishop Tikhon (Liashchenko) of Berlin performed the episcopal consecration of Archimandrite Nicholas as Bishop of London (the first Orthodox bishop with this title since the great schism of 1054). This was still the time of great hopes for the conversation of Anglicans to Orthodoxy, and in his sermon addressed to the newly installed bishop, Metropolitan Anthony said, “The Lord made it your lot to begin your archpastoral service in the country of a people which has many enlightened sons who heartily love our people and our faith. I became convinced of the latter after staying for several days in the newly founded Anglican Nashdom Abbey. There, I observed with consolation the deep and ardent piety of the young monks and became convinced that for them prayer was not just an accepted ceremony, but a fervent cry of the soul, fervently striving for God and for spiritual purification. The very establishment of Anglican monasteries in recent years convinces us of the same thing, while in other countries, even Orthodox ones, monasteries and monasticism are rapidly declining. Direct your special pastoral attention to those souls, mainly young, in the Anglican Church who would like to become more closely and intimately acquainted with the Orthodox faith and the Orthodox Church. Place them in your pastoral heart and pray to God for the salvation of both your Russians and the English who are approaching the Orthodox Church, so that you too can say, to the extent of God’s gifts: “I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.”’ In 1932, the new Bishop Nicholas went to Serbia to take part in the Council of Bishops there. He contracted appendicitis and died. He was buried at Iveron Chapel in Belgrade’s New Cemetery. Relevant Links: Michael Woerl, “Bishop Nikolai (Karpov, d. October 1932) of London,” Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. Andrei Psarev, “‘The Soul and Heart of A Faithful Englishman is not Limited by Utilitarian Goals and Plans’: the Relations of Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitskii with the Anglican Church,” Historical Studies of the Russian Church Abroad. Metropolitan Anthony (Khrapovitskii), To the Russian Old Believer Refugees in London and Cities and Towns Abroad. |
