Father Nikolai

65-year-old Father Nikolai, priest at the tiny parish of Stepankovo outside Murom, is the oldest and one of the most respected churchmen in the Vladimir Diocese. Stricken with arthritis, he asked his former pupil, 21-year-old Father Mikhail, head of Murom’s Religious Educational Center and the youngest priest in Vladimir Diocese, to tell his story.

Born in Karacharovo, outside Murom, in 1931, the cheerful and diminutive Nikolai Stroikov grew up with his aunt, a nun forced to flee her convent during the repressions, and her stories of convent life.

In his youth, Nikolai could have become a monk, a risky business in those days, but possible in theory. In childhood, though, he had a greater desire, to become a soldier. This he did with finesse, and having reached the middle ranks of the officer corps, he retired and followed another calling, the priesthood.