Today, the Russian Church celebrates the memory of Holy New Martyr Archpriest Nikolai Benevolenskii. St. Nikolai belonged to the class of "the Russian Levites." He was born in 1877 into a Moscow priest's family. St. Schema-Monk Alexis of Zosima Hermitage, who was invited to take a lot out at the election of Patriarch Tikhon in 1917, was St. Nikolai's uncle. In 1896, Nikolai graduated from Moscow Theological Academy and wanted to dedicate himself fully to Christ and become a monk. The future new martyrs, Bishop Arsenii (Standitskii) and Metropolitan Vladimir (Bogoiavlenskii), blessed this intention, but Nikolai stepped back. In 1909, he married Agniia, the daughter of another Muscovite priest. The same year, he was ordained a priest. Fr. Nikolai would help his needy parishioners with his funds and never took money from them. In 1918, a family of a worker moved into Fr. Nikolai's apartment. In 1930, the worker succeeded in a courtroom, expelling Fr. Nikolai as an ideological enemy. The council of the parish where Fr. Nikolai served refused to provide him with a place to live. Thus, Fr. Nikolai and the family moved to Sergiev Posad (then Zagorsk). Fr. Nikolai was having a hard time adapting to Soviet realities. His Matushka constantly asked her husband to refrain from preaching (it was so easy for listeners to misinterpret, misunderstand, or simply change his words). At the same time, when Fr. Nikolai was not sure whether he should trust people who came for him to give "the last rite" with Holy Gifts, Agniia told him: "You have no right to refuse! What are you afraid of with Holy Gifts? The Lord will protect you!" In 1939, the Dean of Mozhaisk Archpriest Theodore Kazanskii was appointed the rector of the Ascension church in Posad, where Fr. Nikolai served. Fr. Theodore was a secret agent of the Soviet Internal Police (NKVD). In his reports, Kazanskii provided information which was used against Fr. Nikolai. In August 1939, NKVD summoned Fr. Nikolai for "a talk." As a result of the moral pressure, Fr. Nikolai signed a document identifying him as an informer with an assigned codename. However, at the next meeting, Fr. Nikolai renounced this decision and refused to report on counterrevolutionary-minded Christians. To escape from conversations with his rector, Archpriest Theodore Kazanskii, who continued building Fr. Nikolai's dossier, Fr. Nikolai moved to Prophet Elijah's Church, not realizing that the rector of this Church was also a secret informer. On January 11, 1940, Fr. Nikolai was arrested. An informer was planted in his cell in Tagansk prison in Moscow. During interrogation, Fr. Nikolai openly expressed his disagreement with Soviet anti-religious policy. In June of 1940, Fr. Nikolai was sentenced to five years in "a correctional facility" in Kazakhstan. Similarly, as expressed in one of the stichera of the ROCOR's service to the New Martyrs, Fr. Nikolai, in his letters from GULAG, voiced concern for his wife and children who were left alone. Needless to say that he missed them dearly. On May 16, 1941, he passed away from cardiac decompensation and was buried in a mass grave. Holy New Martyr of Christ Nikolai, pray to God for us! | 
