“Today is a sad day for me personally: a year ago my own brother, the professor, Archpriest Nikolai, died in St. Petersburg,” he said in a sermon after the liturgy.
He remembered his brother as a “very gifted, capable” man and as a preacher who meant a lot in Leningrad.
“The Lord gave him the power of a bright and convincing word, and he, when he was rector of the Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior, gathered many people for his sermons,” the patriarch said. -He spoke sincerely, from the heart, not peppering his word with some abstruse quotes, but from an interior, intimate life experience; and sometimes, by publicly repenting of his sins, he helped people realize his own sins. For this, Father Nikolai was loved by his parishioners.
