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| Fr. Nicholas Piskanovsky with his family |
Archpriest Nicholas Akimovich Piskanovsky was born in 1887 in the village of Stepanovka, Kobrin uyezd, Grodno province in the family of a clergyman. In 1901 he finished his studies at a theological seminary. Then he became a priest in Grodno province. In August, 1914 he was appointed to the village of Ivanovka, Kherson province. In 1922 he moved to the city of Alexandria, Kherson province, where he settled together with his relative, the future Hieromartyr Anthony (Kotovich). The
future Hieromartyr Igumen Barsanuphius was there at the same time.
future Hieromartyr Igumen Barsanuphius was there at the same time.
When renovationism appeared, he was almost the only priest in the whole district who resisted the heresy. Then he was appointed rector of the Dormition cathedral in Alexandria, but after a few months there was arrested, in 1923, and sentenced to three years’ exile in Poltava. In 1927 he was arrested again in Poltava, and sentenced to two years’ exile in Kursk. Wherever he went he acquired the general respect and love of the believers. He had a very pious family that was beloved by all.
Finally, in 1928, he was transferred to Voronezh, where he joined the Catacomb Church and signed the protest letter of Bishop (Saint) Alexis (Buy) to Metropolitan Sergius dated January 9/22, 1928. On May 10, 1928 he was arrested for being “a supporter of Bishop Alexis Buy and an active participant in anti-Soviet agitation”. On July 9 he was indicted, and on August 31 he was sentenced, in accordance with article 58-10, to three years on Solovki.
Fr. Nicholas was on the main island of Solovki, in the fourth department, and became the spiritual father of all the confessing, anti-sergianist clergy there. Academician Likhachev, who was with him on Solovki, writes:
"Fr. Nicholas Piskanovksy was another radiant person. He had a different character. One could
never have called him happy, but always, even in the most difficult circumstances, he radiated inner calm. I don't remember him laughing or smiling, but meeting him was always somehow consoling. And not only for myself. I remember him telling my friend, who had been tormented for a year by an absence of letters from relatives, that he should endure a little and that a letter would come soon, very soon. I was not present at this incident, and so I cannot cite the exact words of Fr. Nicholas, but a letter arrived the next day. I asked Fr. Nicholas how he knew about the letter. And Fr. Nicholas replied that he did not know, the words just slipped out somehow. But there were very many such 'slippings out'.
never have called him happy, but always, even in the most difficult circumstances, he radiated inner calm. I don't remember him laughing or smiling, but meeting him was always somehow consoling. And not only for myself. I remember him telling my friend, who had been tormented for a year by an absence of letters from relatives, that he should endure a little and that a letter would come soon, very soon. I was not present at this incident, and so I cannot cite the exact words of Fr. Nicholas, but a letter arrived the next day. I asked Fr. Nicholas how he knew about the letter. And Fr. Nicholas replied that he did not know, the words just slipped out somehow. But there were very many such 'slippings out'.
The cemetery church of St. Onuphrius belonged to the 'specials' - monks who had concluded a labour
agreement with the camp, and was sergianist. The clergy of the sixth company did not form part of it. Fr. Nicholas had an antimins, and he would celebrate the Liturgy in a whisper in the sixth ('priestly') company. The stories that almost twenty bishops served in the monastery church are not true. In my time prisoners were allowed to visit the church beyond the boundaries of the Kremlin no more than twice a year after being registered first. I don't know how it was before the schism in the Orthodox Church - perhaps the rules for visits were different.
agreement with the camp, and was sergianist. The clergy of the sixth company did not form part of it. Fr. Nicholas had an antimins, and he would celebrate the Liturgy in a whisper in the sixth ('priestly') company. The stories that almost twenty bishops served in the monastery church are not true. In my time prisoners were allowed to visit the church beyond the boundaries of the Kremlin no more than twice a year after being registered first. I don't know how it was before the schism in the Orthodox Church - perhaps the rules for visits were different.
Fr. Nicholas knew that his wife had also been arrested, and was very worried about his children. He was worried that they would be taken into a children's home and brought up as atheists! And once, when they took him out of the camp, he was standing in a men's queue in Kemperpunkt for hot water. From the opposite direction a women's queue went to the same tap. When Fr. Nicholas came up to the tap, he saw his wife at the tap. While the prisoners shielded them (it was strictly forbidden for men to talk with women), Fr. Nicholas learned the joyful news that his children had been taken in by believers whom they knew. I have corresponded with Fr. Nicholas' daughter to this day, although I have never seen her.
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| Fr. Nicholas Piskanovsky |
Fr. Nicholas' life was sheer torment, perhaps even martyrdom. Fr. Nicholas was exhausted by preceding arrests and exiles, he was weak [he had tuberculosis and a weak heart] and worked for a time in a net-weaving workshop. Occasionally, he invited us young people to his barracks, when he got a 'fish' - the notable Solovki herring, for the sake of which a certain number of monk-fishermen
were retained in the monastery.
were retained in the monastery.
I recently received from batyushka's daughter a short life, written in a simple and factual way. It is strikingly similar in its recounting of facts and its style to the life of Protopriest Avvakum." Fr. Nicholas’ term ended in May, 1931, but it was extended for another five months of forced labour. On October 12 he was released, but was immediately exiled against for three years and was sent under convoy to do tree-felling in the village of Kekhty, near Arkhangelsk. On April 21, 1932, his adolescent daughter, Xenia Nikolayevna Piskanovskaya (born 1915 in Brest-Litovsk, Grodno province) appealed to the Political Red Cross on her father’s behalf: “I most humbly ask you to intercede for my father... My father has suffered since childhood from a defect of the heart, and in prison his health is constantly getting worse... Already for a long time father is not able to sleep at night... If he continues in this state, his heart will not hold out for long... From all my heart I beseech you to intercede for my father, so that they let him out to live in freedom in a populated spot where there is medical help, and where I could live with my father…”
In 1932 Fr. Nicholas died in exile in Kotlas from tuberculosis. According to one source*, however, as late as 1934 Fr. Nicholas was secretary of Archbishop (Saint) Seraphim of Uglich during his exile in Arkhangelsk.
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| St. Macarius, Archbishop of Yekaterinoslav |
*Thus it was that St. Macarius, Archbishop of Yekaterinoslav revealed: "... I condemn the existing church tendencies (renovationists-sergianists) because they recognize Soviet power, and there are also canonical differences between us and them. As a follower of the True Orthodox Church I have waged and will continue to wage war with these tendencies. For a whole series of years I, together
with other hierarchs, have been an ideologue of the True Orthodox Church. In 1934, through the priest [Nicholas] Piskanovsky, who was serving a term of exile in Archangelsk, I received a written order from Archbishop Seraphim (Samoilovich) of Uglich. In this order Seraphim, in spite of the fact that he is in exile, sees himself as the deputy of the patriarchal locum tenens and offered that I undertake the leadership of dioceses. Similar epistles were sent to metropolitans and bishops who stand on the platform of the True Orthodox Church... He suggested that I accept the Dnepropetrovsk diocese, which I administered before my arrest in 1927. Later, that is, soon after the arrest of Seraphim (Samoilovich), Piskanovsky offered that I take on the leadership of the Vyatka diocese and groups of the True Orthodox Church in the Ivanovo industrial area (IIA) [this territorial administrative formation had been created at the end of the 1920s and included territories of the Yaroslavl, Kostroma and Vladimir provinces]."