Nikolai Vladimirovich Benevolensky

Born in 1877 in Moscow to a working-class family.

In 1902, he graduated from the Moscow Theological Academy and served in the Church of St. Nicholas in Novaya Sloboda, Moscow, until 1929.

In 1930, Father Nikolai's family, classified as "deprived" (lishentsy), was expelled from their apartment in Moscow. His family members had to move to the city of Sergiev Posad (Zagorsk) and wandered through various temporary shelters.

Until 1933, Father Nikolai served in the Church of the Intercession of the Holy Theotokos on Zemlyanka in Moscow. He then joined his family and served in the Church of the Ascension of the Lord in Zagorsk, Moscow Region, from 1933 to September 1939.
From September 1939 to January 10, 1940, he served in the Church of Elijah in Zagorsk.

On January 11, 1940, he was arrested. In their empty room (the family was impoverished), a search was conducted, and then Father Nikolai was taken to the local NKVD and subsequently placed in a solitary confinement cell in Taganka Prison. On February 28, 1940, he was transferred from Taganka Prison to Butyrka Prison, to cell No. 230.

On April 13, 1940, he was moved to a general cell. On June 3, 1940, for "anti-Soviet agitation," he was sentenced by the NKVD troika of the Moscow Region to five years of corrective labor camps.

He arrived at KarLag, at the Karabas station, on July 12, 1940.

On August 2, 1940, he was sent to the Spassk Division of KarLag (now the village of Spassk in the Karaganda Region).

He passed away on May 16, 1941, in the Spassk Division of the Karaganda Camp. According to his rehabilitation certificate, he died from heart failure in the village of Spassk.

He was buried in an unmarked grave.

He was canonized as a saint among the New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia for veneration by the whole Church in August 2000 at the Jubilee Bishops' Council of the Russian Orthodox Church.