On the day commemorating the Forty Martyrs of Sebaste who found martyrdom in the Sebastia Lake, the memory of Metropolitan Nukolay (Kutepov) was prayerfully commemorated in the Savior Old Fair Cathedral in Nizhny Novgorod.

Metropolitan Georgiy of Nizhny Novgorod and Arzamas presided at the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. Hegumenia Sergia, the abbess of the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery prayed at the service.

At monastic tonsure, Vladyka Nikolay of blessed memory received the name of one of the forty martyrs of Sebaste commemorated today, and so it’s his name day today.

Metropolitan Nikolay pioneered the restoration of spiritual life in the lands of Nizhny Novgorod following the era of militant atheism. For almost quarter of a century, between 1977 till 2001, he headed the Gorky, later Nizhny Novgorod, Diocese. During his tenure, monastic life was restored in the Seraphim-Diveyevo monastery and in 1991, the relics of Venerable Seraphim of Sarov returned to the Fourth Lot of the Mother of God.

Vladyka Nikolay reposed in the Lord on June 21, 2001 and was buried behind the altar of the Savior Old Fair Cathedral. In 2002, a chapel was erected above his grave. At the end of the liturgy, Metropolitan Georgiy served litya to the Vladyka of blessed memory in the crypt today.