.jpg) |
| Archimandrite Nektary (Chernobyl) of Eleon |
"As a young boy, still before the Revolution, I had a terrible dream: the south-west part of the sky was illumined by a bloody, glowing sunset, like a fire, and on this bloody sky was written in huge, shining letters the word, 'THE END.'
At that time I did not attribute any particular meaning to this dream. But I never forgot it. It was so vivid and stunning that my entire life afterwards was colored by the presentiment that this dream would definitely be fulfilled.
And so it did. It began in 1917, and with each passing year it became increasingly evident that the world was coming to an end. In the beginning old Russia was destroyed, the Tsar was overthrown, the antitheistic regime came to power, and then began the annihilation of thousands of innocent people and the persecution of Christians on an unprecedented scale. Churches were blown up, monasteries were closed and blasphemously turned into the most disreputable places. All this was seen as the coming to power of the beast of the apocalypse.
In recent years we see that the power of this beast is beginning to spread over the whole world. The process of apostasy, begun several centuries ago, is today approaching its final stage. We are entering the age of the apocalypse.
And now the meaning of the dream I had so many years ago has finally become clear to me."
(Archimandrite Nektary Chernobyl of Eleon)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Archimandrite Nektary (in the world Peter Mikhailovich Chernobyl) was born in 1905 in the village of Ustimovka, Kremenchug district, Poltava province. His childhood and youth were spent in the district town of Alexandria, Kherson province, where he helped his father with garden work and in the greenhouses. He gradually mastered the work of a watchmaker and learned shoemaking and carpentry. After graduating from school, he entered the teachers' seminary, but later left it.
With the coming to power of the Bolsheviks, the believers of Alexandria experienced terror from the Chekists, recalled Father Nektary. This "terror" was associated with the reform movement in the Russian Church, called "Renovationism", which took shape in May of 1922 on the initiative of the authorities and with their active assistance.
In the spring of 1924, Peter was arrested for the first time. The authorities accused him of participating in a "rebellion against the Soviet government". According to Soviet records he and his spiritual Father St. Barsanuphius (Yurchenko) believed that "Soviet power should be considered as the power of the Antichrist, and therefore no believer should be loyal to the authorities."
After the apostatic declaration of Metropolitan Sergius in 1927 Peter joined the Catacomb Church. He was close to, besides his spiritual Father, the famous Confessors: Fr. Nicholas Piskanovsky, St. Onouphry (Gagaliuk), Archimandrite Anthony (Zheretienko) and later with St. Nicholas (Zagorovsky).
 |
| Fr. Nicholas Piskanovsky of blessed memory |
Recalling his young years, Father Nektarios wrote that his "desire to fulfill the canons of the Church at all costs, and his desire for the Truth, led him away from both Renovationism and Sergianism, and led to the Catacomb Church." Due to his Orthodox convictions he was, over the coming years arrested many times - being imprisoned for his Faith.
Apart from what he saw and heard, he had to endure torments himself. Thus he writes that in his cell was a sentry who allowed none of the prisoners to sit or sleep at night. Some of the prisoners went out of their mind from sleeplessness, and were ready to sign anything to stop the torments (if they understood what they were doing when they signed).
Peter was taken several times from the torture cell to interrogations. The interrogator would swear at him and shout: “You’ll stand there until the Second Coming! But look, here’s a better idea: we’ll hang you upside down! And they you’ll sign!” He took out a revolver, put it straight to Peter’s face and threatened to shoot. Then he beat him with the handle of the gun.
But Peter still refused to sign. He spent four or five days in the “standing chamber”. Then they gave him a rest for several days and again led him into the chamber. This time he had to stand without sleeping for eleven days. Then he was hurled into the basement, where the interrogator came with his revolver and said: “This is your last place. Now we’ll sit down and decide your fate. Tomorrow you’ll be shot.”
It was February, very cold, and the basement was full of snow, but Peter was so weak and so wanted to sleep that he fell on the snow and fell asleep. The next day he was taken to the district court in Poltava. However, the trial was still in the future. The interrogations continued. As a rule, they took place at night. Once during a nightly session the interrogator said to him:
“In your Scriptures it is written: ‘You must be obedient to every authority’. Why then do you not submit to Soviet power?”
I was silent. Then the interrogator put the question directly: “Do you agree with the world-view of Soviet power?”
“No,” I replied, “I do not agree.”
“Let us suppose that,” said the interrogator, “I understand: you are against the civil authorities. But why are you against the Church? Why do you not recognize the lawful Metropolitan Sergius?” And, without waiting for my reply, he replied himself: “Because you do not need the Church, but politics! And counter-revolution! Therefore you have chosen for yourselves as instructors such counter-revolutionaries as Metropolitan [Saint - editor] Joseph of Petrograd, and [Saint - editor] Demetrius of Gdov, and other most evil enemies of Soviet power…”
.jpg) |
| St. Joseph of Petrograd (on the left) and St. Demetrius of Gdov (on the right) |
Peter soon afterwards escaped the Soviet hell and spent his life as a member of the ROCOR. He later became a monk and priest and spent timeat Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY, and on Mount Athos, before reposing in the Holy Land after spending many decades there.
He reposed in the year 2000. May we sinners have his holy prayers!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It is written concerning Archimandrite Nektary of Eleon - who is called, by some, the last true Elder of the Russian Church Abroad:
"Everywhere and at all times he remained devoted to Tsarist Russia. The Russian autocracy was for him the only lawful and God-established power. All later governments in Russia after the overthrow of the Tsar on March 2, 1917 – whether the February-democratic government, the Bolshevik, or another – were enemies of God. He used to say that every republic and even every constitutional monarchy was clearing the path to the coming of the Antichrist.
By contrast with certain Russian emigres, he was not deceived when, in the expression of Fr. Constantine (Zaitsev) [of Jordanville], ‘the communists put church gloves on their nails’.
Later, Fr. Nektary ‘did not swallow the bait’ of the perestroika NEP. ‘No,’ said Fr. Nektary, ‘”perestroika” is a great trap of the dark powers. They are preparing something new, something more terrible. Russia is on the threshold of the Antichrist.’
But in the last few years he more and more often began to say that, in spite of the clear signs of the end, and in spite of the fact that the rulers of Russia have already entered into the world government, the regeneration of Russia, according to the forecasts of St. Seraphim of Sarov, St. John of Kronstadt and Bishop Theophan of Poltava, is still possible, albeit for a short time…"
He was an opponent of the Moscow Patriarchate referring to, in writing, the "moscow patriarchate", and the "patriarch of moscow and all russia" using lower case letters as opposed to capital letters.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
.jpg) |
| Archimandrite Nektary (Chernobyl) of Eleon |
The following is his Last Will and Testament:
"Dear Brothers and Sisters of the Russian Land! Warriors of Christ! “Seek ye first of all the Kingdom of God and His righteousness,” Jesus Christ tells us."
In 1917 the Russian land proclaimed a Judas-call to “freedom, equality and brotherhood”, which was thought up only in order to seize power over the Russian people, and, having seized it, to begin its annihilation.
Warning about this, the holy father John of Kronstadt often tried to persuade everybody that Russia can exist and flourish only in the presence of monarchical power, and that a republic will lead it to the Antichrist. Bishops Theophan the Recluse and Ignaty (Brianchaninov) also spoke about this.
In the present tragic situation that has been created in the homeland, the main thing is to live without compromise in accordance with our Orthodox faith and pray to God for the re-establishment of a true monarchical power, which is of God, while the other systems are from the devil, who can do only evil.
May the holy Blessing of God be on all those who will walk along this path of the righteousness of God.
(Holy Ascension Monastery, Eleon, Jerusalem, 1999)