September 15: Saint Nikitas the Goth is celebratedtranslated

Today, during the feast of the Cross, the Church honors the memory of the Byzantine Martyrs, Maximos, Nikitas the Goth and their companions, and the New Martyr John the Cretan (†1811). Nikitas, the son of noble and wealthy parents, was taught the Christian faith by bishop Theophilos. He was helped to form a stable and complete personality, with prudence and obedience to the will of God, as experienced through the Gospel. He developed a rich spiritual activity and spread with great zeal and distinction the teaching of the crucified and resurrected Christ.

For virtuous industriousness, he was arrested by the ruler Athanasius, who tried to convert him, betraying the Triune God. Nikitas was not afraid and, filled with the Holy Spirit, confessed that he is a Christian. The ruler was enraged and, in arrogance, ordered him to be tortured in various ways, until a horrible death. But his body was left untouched by the flames, so a Christian took it and kept it in a case, with the awareness that man is sanctified as a psychosomatic entity, because "our body is a church of the soul and the soul is a temple of the Holy Spirit" (Paul of Serbia).

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