Nikon (Vorobyov)

Igumen Nikon (secular name Nikolaj Nikolajewitsch Vorobjow , Russian: Николай Николаевич Воробьёв ; born May 4, 1894 , village Mikschino, Beschezk Ujezd, Tver Governorate ; † September 7, 1963 , Gschatsk , Smolensk Oblast and Orthodox ) was a Russian monk

Life

The Russian starez Igumen Nikon came from a large peasant family in the Beschezk district in the Tver governorate . The gifted young man initially wanted to become a psychiatrist, but preferred a genuine devotion to God and began a secluded life studying the gospel and the Church Fathers . He lived in solitude for over 10 years. For a spiritual person in Stalin's time it was not difficult to get into one of the almost 500 forced labor and penal camps - these together had an area the size of Western Europe - so it happened to Igumen Nikon on the day of his priestly ordination in March 1933. He was arrested and sentenced to four years in Siberia . He did not comment on his suffering in the GULAG , as he always took the lowest path. Even after his release, he was subject to slander by envious brothers because he was a gifted preacher. In exile, in today's city of Gagarin, west of Moscow, he developed into a sought-after confessor and star, because he had found his "original humility" in these last few years. In his will of August 13, 1962, he exhorts his relatives to make every effort to save souls until they die.

In his case, Igumen is more of an honorary title; because he was never the head of the monastery .

literature

• Igumen Nikon: letters from a Russian star to his spiritual children. With a foreword by Tatiana Goritschewa . Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 1988, ISBN 3-451-20846-6 .

Web links

• Literature by and about Nikon in the catalog of the German National Library