the holy new martyrs of eastern russia - Coptic Orthodox teaching

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Fr. Nicholas, his humble servant, who carried out the sacraments in
accordance with the needs of the spiritual children of the clairvoyant elder.
In 1920 Fr. Nicholas met the future Bishop of Saratov Benjamin (Milov) and
amazed him by his clairvoyance. He foretold the name he would receive in
monasticism and told him to go to the Danilov monastery, the future
stronghold of the Catacomb Church, giving him the following prayer rule:
“As a monk, apply yourself to the Jesus prayer: 300 Jesus prayers and 300
Mother of Gods. My elder was Fr. Adrian, a man of lofty spiritual life. He so
loved the Jesus prayer that he heard nothing worldly and did not enter into
vain conversations. If someone would start talking about something vain in
his presence, he would incline his head and go to sleep. But immediately
someone started talking about something important, he would wake up from
his supposed sleep and display the most profound wisdom. The Lord
consoles monks in many ways. I will tell a story about myself. When I was
being tonsured, a dove separated from the hand of the person who was
handing me the cross and flew into my mouth. For a whole year after this I
felt great sweetness in my heart.”
When the first closures, defilements and destructions of the churches of
Saratov were taking place, Fr. Nicholas comforted his flock with the following
prophetic words: “The time is not far distant when the Christians everywhere
will spend their last money on restoring and rebuilding the churches of
God…”
In 1920 Fr. Nicholas was raised to the rank of archimandrite. In 1922, as
many priests were being arrested and there was no bishop in Saratov,
Archimandrite Nicholas was elected to the rank of bishop by an assembly of
laymen at the Cross church in the Hierarchical house, and he was secretly
consecrated to the episcopate in the St. Nicholas church of the skete by
Bishops Job (Rogozhin), the former superior of the Saviour-Transfiguration
women’s monastery, and Barlaam (Pikalov). According to one source,
Archbishop Andrew of Ufa participated in this consecration.
As a faithful son of the Mother Church, Vladyka Nicholas did not accept
renovationism. In all probability he was the only bishop in Saratov in this
period (September, 1922), and fulfilled the duties of temporary administrator
of the Saratov diocese. The news of his consecration was brought with great
difficulty to Patriarch Tikhon when he was under house arrest. On March 17,
1923 he appointed Vladyka Nicholas bishop of Atkar, a vicariate of the
Saratov diocese, specially creating this new vicar-see in the centre of the city
of Atkar.
Vladyka Nicholas served in this see until 1925, when he retired because of
ill health. Bishop Nicholas lived in a monastic skete in Saratov, and was for
two years in reclusion. During this time he not only prayed but also worked,
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