Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanovsky

Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanovsky was born in 1869 in the village of Lipetsk, Ananyevsky district, Kherson province (now Odessa region), in the family of Protopriest Alexander and Maria Iosifovna Romanovsky.

In 1889, he graduated from the Odessa Theological Seminary, and in 1890, he married the daughter of a priest, Daria Gukovich.

On November 4, 1890, he was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Memnon (Vishnevsky) of Elisavetgrad and appointed to the Church of Saint Nicholas in the village of Kaspero-Nikolaevka, Kherson district.

In 1891, he founded parish schools in Kaspero-Nikolaevka and Novo-Birzulovka, and in 1892, in the village of Mikhailovka.

On December 28, 1895, he was appointed the third priest at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” (Novo-Kupetskaya) in Nikolaev, where he served for more than ten years until 1907. Simultaneously, he served as a law teacher at the Nikolaev Marian Women's Gymnasium for over 15 years (until 1918) and as an inspector of parish and Sunday schools.

During World War I, he organized a hospital for the wounded in Nikolaev through parishioner donations.

On January 19, 1916, he was appointed chairman of the Nikolaev branch of the Committee for Refugee Relief. From 1916 to 1917, he actively organized collections for refugee aid and helped establish summer schools for their children.

In 1922, while fulfilling his priestly duties during Holy Week and on Easter, Father Nikolai visited a penal prison and contracted typhus, but the Lord extended his life.

Father Nikolai did everything possible to prevent the closure of the church. The Romanovsky home was always full of children (Father Nikolai himself had eight). People of all backgrounds—workers and intellectuals alike—visited their home. Rarely did anyone leave without being seated at the table by Matron Daria. Father Nikolai was a well-known and respected figure in Nikolaev, which irritated the Soviet authorities, who pursued an aggressive anti-religious policy. The NKVD and GPU summoned him multiple times, advising and demanding that he cease his preaching activities and offered him to retire.

In 1931, Father Nikolai was arrested along with his son Antony. Their home was searched, and part of their property was confiscated. At that time, Matron Daria was already paralyzed, and they even took the mattress from under her bed during the search.

On August 15, 1931, the Special Collegium of the Odessa Regional Court sentenced him under Article 54, paragraphs 4, 10, and 11 of the Criminal Code of the Ukrainian SSR to eight years of forced labor. He was sent to KarLag (Karaganda region) to serve his sentence. His family appealed to the Supreme Court of the Ukrainian SSR for a review, but the Presidium upheld the original sentence. Despite the prison doctor's report on Father Nikolai's poor health, no leniency was granted. The only relief came through occasional letters, visits, and care packages allowed by the camp administration.

Anticipating his demise, in one of his last letters in late 1935, N.A. Romanovsky wrote to his wife: "My Guardian Angel throughout my many years of labor! What can I say to you in my farewell message? I bow to you and ask for forgiveness for the great sorrow I have caused you in your old age, although unwillingly. I dreamed of a different outcome, but the ways of the Lord are inscrutable. Do not grieve, my Angel, even now. Remember that the Merciful Provider has given us the invaluable treasure of our good children, and now you alone possess this wealth. Do not be sad about me, but rejoice that the Lord has granted me the honor to bear such a cross of suffering. I bear this cross without complaint, praying earnestly: Punish me here, O Lord, and have mercy on me in eternity.

Do not mourn that we may have been separated here until the end of our earthly journey, but pray that the Lord will grant me to be where you will be, my gentle Guardian Angel. My sinfulness troubles me, but I believe that your prayers, which visibly protected me on earth, will also bring me peace in eternity. Remember me often in your prayers, both now, during my sufferings, and especially when my sufferings end far from our dear ones. If possible, request that my burial be conducted in absentia. In your life, find comfort in the well-being of our children. If your strength allows, live with each of them a little so as not to burden any one of them. I am confident that our dear children will do everything possible to comfort your old age. I fervently pray to the Almighty for your and their well-being. I kiss you warmly, my dear. Farewell and forgive me! Your ever-loving, buried alive, Nikolai."

To provide some small measure of assistance to his father, his younger son Viktor went to Kazakhstan, where he found work as a foreman on the construction sites of New Karaganda.

In October 1937, correspondence and visits ceased. In response to family inquiries, they were told: "The prisoners have been transferred to another camp; we have no information about them."

On October 7, 1937, N.A. Romanovsky was arrested by the UNKVD of the Karaganda region on charges that "while serving his sentence in KarLag, Romanovsky N.A., as part of a group of former priests, participated in the organization of the 'True Orthodox Church,' a movement that did not recognize Soviet authority or the church administration within the USSR, considering only the Eastern patriarchs to be truly orthodox. This movement was led by Metropolitan Anthony Khrapovitsky, who was abroad. One of the group's tasks was to attract 'Renovationists' from among the imprisoned believers and clergy to their side."

During interrogations, Protopriest Nikolai Romanovsky "did not agree with the charges, did not admit guilt, although he did not deny attending meetings of former priests."

On November 20, 1937, the troika of the UNKVD for the Karaganda region sentenced Protopriest Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanovsky to the highest measure of punishment—execution. The sentence was carried out immediately. According to PTSGU database information, his son Antony was executed with him. The burial place is unknown.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Karaganda Regional Court dated November 28, 1957, the decision of the UNKVD troika for the Karaganda region from October 20, 1937, regarding Protopriest Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanovsky was annulled, and the case was closed due to the lack of evidence of a crime.

Protopriest Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanovsky was posthumously rehabilitated. For 35 years, his family was unaware of this decree. Only in the early 1990s, after seeking help from the Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate's Holy Synod and the Ukrainian "Memorial" society, they received a "Certificate of Rehabilitation" dated March 7, 1992, indicating the date of rehabilitation of the victims of political repression by the Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine—April 17, 1991, based on documents from the Karaganda Regional Court.

He was canonized in August 2000 by the Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.