Christ is among us. Letter to the Orthodox of Yaransk.
I greet you too, gracious brothers in Christ, the anti-Sergian Bishop Nektary, driven away from his flock and incarcerated on a separated Caspian cranny, languishing in bitter labours and imprisoned, with Christ’s love for the world, I bless you in absentia: “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit”.
Now, it has been 11 years since I have been banned from my flock, which His Holiness Patriarch Tikhon blessed me in 1924 to shepherd, and where I was only able to serve for 3 months and 20 days: from the 5th of January to the 20th of April 1925. Afterwards came arrests, home detention, labour camps, banishments and the other ordeals of a persecuted individual.
In my See, either one or another ungodly Bishop of Sergius sprang up. The enemies of the Holy Orthodox Church attempted in everyway to stop the mention of Bishop Nektary within the boundaries of Yaransk. It’s not enough for them to have denied me freedom and imprisoned me; they have besmirched my name countless times. Despite their efforts, there are Orthodox of Yaransk that haven’t left their canonical Bishop: that pray for him and through their love, provide him, in his separated Caspian cranny, with letters and parcels. This prompts me to write several words of edification for the commonweal.
As soon as the Sergian Synod appeared, the now reposed, His Eminence Victor, standing guard over Orthodoxy, raised the cry: “Orthodox Christians, do not recognise Metropolitan Sergius and his Synod”. This Church administration is not canonical: it was imposed on the Holy Church by representatives of the proletarian dictatorship (OGPU) <...> so that Metropolitan Sergius and his unholy Bishops would stop harping about canonicity. [Words are written by hand.]
These are akin to an individual that has severed a person’s head, who begins to justify his action by stating that the head is whole: neither eyes, ears, nose nor hairs were damaged. No wonder the reposed Starets Matthew gave a prophetic warning to the faithful of Yaransk, saying: “The first renovationism will be easily identified: there was the court case against the Patriarch, the New Calendar, a married Episcopate, twice-married priests. However, the second Church deviation will be very difficult to recognise and discern”. Now, we see that nearly all of the Church faithful have followed Metropolitan Sergius, quietly recognising the Church Administration that has been imposed upon it by the OGPU. Only a few lone and small groups of Orthodox Christians in Petrograd, Serpukhov, and mainly in the Vyatka Dioceses – including the Yaransk Diocese, didn’t acknowledge Metropolitan Sergius and terminated church communion with his clergy.
In 1928, when the great enthusiast and zealot of Orthodoxy, the now reposed Bishop Victor, was bidding me farewell on the Islands of Solovki, he spoke enthusiastically that should I – an Anti-Sergianist Bishop – appear in Kazan, Orthodox Christians would come to me from everywhere for church communion and guidance. However, unfortunately his words were not justified. Their zeal had cooled, and on the contrary, I was forced to be on serious alert so that the Yaransk parishes <which> had departed <earlier> from Metropolitan Sergius, thanks to the pastoral influence of the now reposed Archpriest John Fokin and the layperson Nestor Yakovlevich Mosunov (a zealot of Orthodoxy), didn’t begin to follow Sergius.
Living in Kazan in 1929, I could barely do anything in resolving the Orthodox issue and endured church loneliness, grieved spiritually and suffered the town’s despoliation with regard to Nikita. And now the situation is even worse with our position "in relation to" Metropolitan Sergius. It’s very sad: in 1934, Vladyka Victor died in a distant exile. I, who had served 6 years of my second term in camps and domzaks, was given 10 years of imprisonment at the trial, counting the term from June 10, 1936. At the trial, I openly declared that I was a anti-Sergian Tikhonite Bishop, who had nothing in common with those Sergian bishops, "who" managed to get along with the OGPU and the NKVD and now sit quietly in their Sees.
I regard everything that is now occurring in the USSR as a brilliant preparation for the coming of the Antichrist kingdom into the world in the person of the Soviet regime. But also, I see something else: its own system of torture – even the annihilation of people, like in Kuban and the Ukraine in 1933 – is permitted and sent by God as punishment for the Russian people.
I expected the extreme measure of punishment for myself – the firing squad: but the Lord, apparently, disliked my blood.
I am more spiritually killed by the strife and discord that torment the believers of our anti-Sergian orientation. Here, whatever the head, there are individuals with separate beliefs: patentees – without patents, registered and those with no temple, those with passports – and those without documents or simply without priests; consequently, I cannot recognise who is from my parish, from my flock. They call one another graceless and threaten neglect. And what can be said of the clergy: what happens is that the flock leads the pastors and not the opposite. Some of these priests deserve a direct expulsion from their parishes. Some of the priests are speculating about antichrist, even though he hasn’t appeared as yet; knowing this weak chord of the faithful and living on feeble rights, they agitate everywhere that Bishop Nektary has went astray etc…
These include the agitator Sergiy Sukhorukov, Nikita, the weeper Peter Terehov, the fanatic Nikifor and Ivanushka, who preach illogically about the Antichrist, and who are aided by Natalia Komarov, and Maria Yegoshina – these know nothing about the subject. An especially large honour is given by the believers to the hypocrites, drifters, swindlers, clandestine NKVD agents, well-versed in ingratiating themselves with the peasantry, presenting themselves as advisers and zealots, like, for example, Ivan Pavlovich. I foresaw this whole gloomy picture back in 1929. I recorded all of it in a letter and sent it to the Yaransites through my priest John, for distribution to Father John Mamayev in the village of Dyshenko. But this brother, a cunning fellow, a specialist swindler, withheld, and then destroyed my letter without showing it to anyone.
What can we expect in the future? It’s possible that with the new Government Constitution there will be somewhat of a relief for the Church situation. With regard to myself, while the Soviet authorities exist, I am sentenced to my loss of freedom, and that’s why I have prepared myself to die in confinement for my Church convictions. It may be that as a result, the Russian Church history will mention that during the days of the Revolution, not all Bishops turned out to be OGPU Church administrators, headed by the contaminated Sergius, but that there were those that preferred to rot in camps and exiles for upholding the canonical freedom of Christ’s Holy Orthodox Church. I continually grieve for my flock. However, I cannot help it with regard to its Church ignorance and hypocrisy, except to sigh and weep before God. My grief is no less than for the repose of the pious toiler and torch of Orthodoxy - Nikita. May he repose in Heaven. In conclusion, I would like to present a scenario from the life of John the Chrysostom.
Bitter and directed toward a remote banishment; separated from his beloved flock in Constantinople and physically exhausted, he stopped to rest at a camp in a township of Koman, on the grounds of the church of Saint Basilicus the Martyr.
During the night, this Martryr appeared to him and said: “Be brave, brother John, tomorrow we will be together”. The following day of the 14th of September, during the feast day of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Saint John reposed, having uttered the words: “Glory to God for everything”.
I very much ask and beseech that this letter be copied several times and distributed among the faithful of our belief. Do this for Christ’s sake – for your holy obedience. I cannot express my love any greater for my flock than this.
Save yourselves, brothers, and let us beseech our Christ so that we are not handed down into the place of suffering because of our sins, but that He commit us to a place of living light. Amen.
1936, 8th July, day of Kazan Mother of God.
Archbishop Nektary.
The inscription on the printout: "This letter from Bishop Nektarios of Yaransky (Trezvinsky) was received in a handwritten copy."
<> - apparently missed during rewriting.
(The above text has been kindly translated by Seraphim Larin.)