Nikita (Latushko)

Born in the family of Archpriest Petr Latushko ^[3] . Elder brothers - George and Paul also became priests ^[4] .

On June 24, 1979 he was ordained to the rank of deacon, and on September 12, 1980 - to the rank of priest ^[2] .

On September 6, 1984, by the decision of the Holy Synod, he was appointed Secretary of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem ^[5] .

On July 29, 1986, by the decision of the Holy Synod, he was appointed deputy chief of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem ^[6] .

On July 19, 1988, by the decision of the Holy Synod, he was appointed head of the Russian Spiritual Mission in Jerusalem with the elevation to the rank of archimandrite ^[7] .

On April 26, 1993, by the decision of the Holy Synod, due to the expiration of the business trip, he was relieved of his post of head of the Russian Theological Mission in Jerusalem and placed at the disposal of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II ^[8] .

On November 10, 1993, Patriarch Alexy II signed the “Certificate” to his representative, Archimandrite Nikita (Latushko), who was entrusted with negotiating with the authorities of the Moscow Region , Istra District and the management of the New Jerusalem Museum on the return of the New Jerusalem Monastery ^[9] .

On January 6, 1994, 75 years after the monastery was closed, divine services were resumed in the underground church of Saints Constantine and Helen ^[10] .

On July 18, 1994, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved Archimandrite Nikita as viceroy of the reviving stavropegic New Jerusalem Monastery. At the end of July, the Charter of the Resurrection New Jerusalem Monastery was approved and registered with the Ministry of Justice ^[11] .

The first thing he started with the governorship was to clean up the Voskresensky Cathedral from rubbish - 350 trucks were taken out of it. Then restoration work began ^[12] . Restoration work went sluggishly. Construction debris was removed from the roof of the Resurrection Cathedral , and wooden scaffolds were removed in the rotunda and the Holy Sepulcher was opened, which allowed the cathedral to dry out. Only a few chapels of the majestic cathedral were reposted - the Assumption, Baptist and Archangel, as well as the earthen church of Saints Constantine and Elena and the Church of the Nativity in the refectory. However, the comprehensive restoration of the cathedral did not begin. The monastery complex was not restored ^[13] .

There were also losses: the tiled iconostasis in the lower tier of the bell tower after the dismantling of the protective planking collapsed ^[13] ; On September 3, 2000, the wooden Church of the Epiphany in the Garden of Gethsemane perished in the fire, which belonged, however, to the museum, and not to the monastery. Under Archimandrite Nikita, a full-fledged monastic life did not revive: at the beginning of the 2000s, the monastery consisted of only 3 inhabitants ^[14] . By the mid-2000s, the main services were performed by a few brothers in the Assumption aisle of the cathedral and the church of Saints Constantine and Helena ^[15] .

On May 24, 2005, Archimandrite Nikita met at the monastery participants in the international procession, marking the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the birth of Patriarch Nikon, and served a prayer service ^[13] .

On Christmas night from January 6 to 7, 2007, he received Russian President Vladimir Putin at the New Jerusalem Monastery ^[16] .

On June 23, 2008, by decision of the Holy Synod, he was relieved of his duties as governor of the New Jerusalem Monastery ^[17] .

In the same year, he transferred to the ministry of the St. Petersburg diocese and on September 6, 2008 became rector of the Holy Trinity Church in Vsevolozhsk ^[18]