Bishop Nicetas Of Nizhne-Tagilsk

Bishop Nicetas, in the world Theodore Petrovich Delektorsky, was born on December 22, 1876. He was a priest from 1898. From 1897 to 1908 he was a teacher of the Law of God in the lower educational institutions. In 1897 he finished his studies at the Vladimir theological seminary, and in 1915 - at the Moscow Theological Academy. He led a choir in the Academy. In 1914 he wrote a hymn for the centenial anniversary of the Academy. From 1915 to 1916 he was assistant secretary to the Council and Administration of the Academy. In 1917 he was appointed rector of the SS. Peter and Paul cathedral in Perm. >From 1921 he was rector of the cathedral of the Nativity of Christ in the Alexandrov, Vladimir province.

On April 29 / May 5, 1924 he was consecrated Bishop of Bugulma by Archbishop Andrew of Ufa. The co-consecrator(s) is not known. He remained in this see less than a year. He was arrested from the first in Bugulma in 1924 on the accusation of helping the Czechs, and was sent to Moscow in November, 1924. In 1925 he was arrested for the second time in Melekes (Dmitrovgrad, Ulyanovsk province) for "commemorating Patriarch Tikhon". From 1926 he was appointed Bishop of Orekhovo-Zuyevo. On September 3/16, 1927 he became Bishop of Nizhne-Tagilsk, where he remained until August 10/23, 1928. Then he took upon himself the calling of a fool-for-Christ. He was arrested for a third time in Moscow in 1930, and sent to Dneprogasstroj (he was a groom and nightwatchman until 1933).

From 1935 he was living in Orekhovo-Zuyevo, where he was arrested on October 18, 1937 as a person without a fixed occupation or place of residence. He was imprisoned in the Taganka prison in Moscow, and on November 17, 1937 was sentenced by a NKVD troika as "an illegal wandering bishop of the True Orthodox Church and a counter-revolutionary". He was shot in Butovo on November 19, 1937.

(Sources: Sergius Golubtsov, Professura MDA v setyakh Gulaga i CheKa, Moscow, 1999, pp. 22-23; M.E. Gubonin, Akty Svyatejshego Patriarkha Tikhona, Moscow: St. Tikhon's Theological Seminary, 1997, p. 982; Pravoslavnaya Rus', N 14 (1587), July 14/28, 1997, p. 7; Bishop Ambrose (von Sievers), "Episkopat Istinno-Pravoslavnoj Katakombnoj Tserkvi 1922-1997g.", Russkoye Pravoslaviye, N 4(8), 1997, pp. 8-9; I.I. Osipova, "Skvoz' Ogn' Muchenij i Vody Slyoz", Moscow: Serebryanniye Niti, 1998, p. 258)