BELJAJEV, NICOLA JAKOVLEVIĆ. – Russian theologian and polemicist of the 19th century, who died in 1894. He was a professor at the ecclesiastical Academy of Kazan, and later an inspector. B. was chiefly concerned with anti-Catholic and anti-Protestant polemics. His principal work is entitled: Dottrina del cattolicesimo romano sulla soddisfazione offerta a Dio dall'uomo (Kazan 1878).
B.’s shortcoming is that he often confuses the official teaching of the Catholic Church with the opinions of the schools and presents as an expression of Eastern Orthodoxy the particular views of certain Russian theologians of our time.
BIBL.: Tserheunii Viestnih, 1894, pp. 637, 646-48 and 663-664; Enciclopedia teologica ortodossa (in Russian), II, cols. 1277-79. Martino Jugie