Житие преподобного отца нашего Никиты Исповедника

The Monk Nikita came from Caesarea Bithynia 2365 from pious parents. His father, named Philaret, having lost his wife, who went to the Lord on the eighth day after the birth of the youth Nikita, took monastic vows; the boy was raised by his father’s mother, who was still alive at that time. Having reached a conscious age and received book training, the Monk Nikita gave himself to the service of God. At first he served as a sexton in the church, practicing reading Divine books, then he retired to a certain hermit Stephen, a virtuous man; Having received sufficient instruction from him, the Monk Nikita, on his advice, then went to the Midicean monastery, founded by the Monk Nikephoros, who was also its abbot. The latter willingly accepted Nikita, seeing the grace of God in him, and tonsured him to the monastic rank. Here the Monk Nikita, with his exploits of fasting, humility, obedience and his generally virtuous life, soon surpassed all the monks. Less than seven years had passed from the date of his settlement in the monastery, when, according to the conviction of the abbot, he accepted the rank of presbyter, to which he was ordained by His Holiness Tarasius, Patriarch of Constantinople. Then the Monk Nikifor, due to his decrepitude, entrusted to the Monk Nikita, despite his reluctance, the management of the monastery along with seniority. And the Monk Nikita ruled the monastery for good in place of his father Nicephorus, vigilantly shepherding the verbal flock and multiplying it with the example of his virtuous life: many, hearing about his godly life, rejected the world, came to the monastery, seeking the instructions of the Monk Nikita on the path of salvation, and remained in it. By the grace of Christ, within a few years, the number of brothers increased to one hundred. Blessed Athanasius, a wondrous man, truly worthy of veneration, was also here. It is impossible to describe in brief words his virtue and the great love for God that he showed in his renunciation of the world. There was something in him to marvel at even the Angels themselves. Despising this world and its lusts for God, blessed Athanasius secretly left his parents' house for a monastery, wanting to begin his monastic exploits; but his father, having learned about this, hurried with rage to this monastery, took his son, whom he loved very much, took off his monastic attire assigned to novices, and clothed him in light, precious clothes, and then forcibly took him home. “Father,” the boy said to him, “are you really thinking with these expensive clothes to force me to change my intentions, when the whole world is hateful to me?” “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26). His father shut him up in a separate room and tried in every possible way to instill in his soul a love for the world. But he, conquering his filial love and addiction to the vain world with his love for God, took off the worldly clothes in which he was dressed and tore them into small pieces. Seeing this, his father clothed him with others, even more valuable, for he was rich, noble and famous. The youth treated the new clothes as if they were his first. Such an act of blessed Athanasius brought his father into great rage; he mercilessly beat Athanasius naked - and numerous wounds covered his body; His shoulders and spine began to fester from the brutal blows, so the doctors had to treat him and cut off the rotten parts of his body. The youth said: – Even if my father breaks me into pieces, he will not separate me from the love of God (cf. Rom. 8:35) and will not turn me away from my intention. Then the father was touched and after a long cry said to Athanasius: “Go, my child, on the good path you have chosen, and may Christ be your helper and deliverer from every snare of the enemy.” Athanasius returned to his former monastery, took upon himself the full monastic rank and became so humble that one could not notice in him either worldly words, customs, or predilection for acquiring any objects. A meek and humble disposition, a quiet and affectionate word, and the most shabby rags to cover his body distinguished Athanasius; The life of one who received a pampered worldly upbringing as the son of rich parents was imbued with immeasurable severity. Such a virtuous man, who spent many years in monastic labors, was attracted to the Midicean monastery by his love for our venerable father Nikita and the glory of his angelic life; and for both saints, Nikephoros and Nikita, blessed Athanasius was a desirable interlocutor and cohabitant. After some time, Athanasius accepted the position of steward at the monastery, at their request. Exactly one soul and one mind in two bodies, Blessed Athanasius and the Monk Nikita ruled the monastery, instructing the brethren by word and example in every virtue, in perfect pleasing to God: they instilled love in the brethren, taught humility, were vigilant guards of their purity, mental and physical, strengthened the weak and cowardly, strengthened those who stood, and restored those who fell with various instructions and exhortations, and when one of them was a seemingly stern mentor, the other was the most meek and merciful exhorter. Both were loved by everyone, and the brethren accepted their word as coming from the mouth of God. But the two such virtuous mentors did not live together until the end. Several years passed, and the Monk Athanasius reposed in the Lord on the 26th day of October, and addressed the brethren with the following last word: - After my death, you will be completely sure whether I will find, at least to some extent, grace from God. When the Monk Athanasius was buried, on his tomb, from his very chest, a cypress tree grew, by the command of God, the leaves of which completely healed all sorts of ailments. Then the Monk Nikephoros, the creator and first abbot of the Midicean monastery, after many labors and physical illnesses, reposed in the Lord on the 4th day of May. Thus the Monk Nikita became orphaned, having lost his spiritual father, Saint Nicephorus, and his beloved friend, Saint Athanasius; He grieved a lot for both of them, for he loved them very much. His consolation in grief was his firm hope that the departed had received grace and a blessed life from the Lord Christ, Whom they had pleased with their good service from their youth. After the repose of the blessed father Nicephorus, all the brethren asked the Monk Nikita to accept the rank and be called abbot: for while the Monk Nicephorus was alive, Saint Nikita did not accept the title and rank of abbot, although he completely ruled the monastery in place of his father Saint Nicephorus, who had been weak from old age for many years. At the strong requests of the brethren and especially at the convictions of many fathers of other monasteries, he accepted this rank and received the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople, who was the successor of Tarasius. The Monk Nikita added new ones to his previous labors when, with the help of God, he began to rule the monastery as abbot, caring for the salvation of the souls entrusted to him. Glorifying His saint, God gave him the grace to heal ailments and cast out demons. Having marked with a cross one youth, mute from birth, the Monk Nikita returned to him the gift of speech; He healed a monk who had lost his mind with the anointing of holy oil; I saved one of the newly accepted, possessed by a demon, from demonic torment through prayer, and drove away the demon who had turned into a serpent; He freed another, also demon-possessed, from the evil spirit - and miraculously healed many who suffered from fever, fever and other various diseases by the grace of Christ that was in him. So he lived, pleasing God, and reached old age; before the end of his life he showed himself to be a valiant confessor and endured suffering for the veneration of holy icons. In those days, the heresy of iconoclasm had not yet ceased. Condemned by the holy fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 2367, it seemed to be renewed, having again received help from the royal power, from which it began. The first of the Greek iconoclast kings was Leo, the third of those who bore this name, nicknamed the Isaurians 2368; from him the iconoclastic heresy gained strength and multiplied like a harmful disease. He was the first to issue the command to reject icons, and, using his royal power, he led many to wrong thinking; having expelled the orthodox patriarch, Saint Herman, he elevated to the throne the like-minded heretic Anastasius 2369. After the death of this evil king, his son, Constantine Copronymus 2370, ascended the throne, an even stronger persecutor of the Church of God: he not only rejected holy icons, but also forbade the holy saints of God to be called saints, and counted their relics as nothing. Let's say briefly: this king was a Christian only in appearance, but in his soul he was a completely unfaithful Jew. The Most Pure Mother of God, the highest of all creation, the protection and refuge of the whole world, he, accursed, dared to blaspheme, rejecting Her most holy name and Her honorable icons; He forbade even remembering Her intercession to God, by whom the whole world exists. At the reproach of the Mother of God, he showed a bag full of gold coins and asked those present: – Is this bag precious? – As precious as the gold it contains. Having poured gold out of the bag, Kopronymus asked again: – Is the bag valuable now, without gold? - What good is it if there are no coins in it? An empty bag is worth nothing. – So is Mary: while she had Christ in her womb, she was worthy of veneration, but having given birth to Him, she lost this veneration, and is no different from other wives. O most vile lips and most wicked tongue! What blasphemy he dared to level against the most honorable of all heavenly powers and the holiest of all saints, the Mother of the Creator! Is the queen, having given birth to a royal son, no longer worthy of royal honors? Is the mother of a king revered only as long as she carries the king in her womb? Woe to the accursed detractor, who was no different from the detractors - the godless Jews! And not only was the blasphemer himself such, but he also incited others with flattering promises and menacing prohibitions to the same wicked blasphemy, and subjected those who were disobedient and opposed to him to various torments, seas with chains and prolonged hunger, tormenting the body with terrible wounds, beheading with a sword, burning with fire, drowning in the depths of the sea - in a word, in every possible way he inflicted unbearable torment and bitterness. death to the faithful and true servants of Christ. For this, he himself cast out his accursed soul with a terrible death and, as he breathed out, he let out a sorrowful cry: - I am consigned alive to unquenchable fire! And the one who had previously blasphemed the Most Pure Mother of God now commanded to honor Her with hymns - but, completely rejected by God’s mercy, he no longer found joy. When this tormentor died (in disgrace), his son Leo, the fourth of those who bore this name, also an iconoclast heretic, like his father, ascended the throne, but he also soon died. After him, his wife Irina 2371 took over the kingdom with her young son Constantine. She returned peace to the Holy Church by convening the Seventh Ecumenical Council to condemn the iconoclastic heresy. The entire Church of Christ was filled with joy, accepting its original splendor together with the icons and seeing Orthodox kings and bishops on their thrones. After Irina, Nikephoros reigned, then Michael, both Orthodox. Then Leo, nicknamed the Armenian 2372, ascended the throne, the fifth of those who bore this name. Imitating the wicked Leo the Isaurian, who had the same name as him, he, like him, instigated a persecution against the Orthodox and saints, thus renewing and restoring the already condemned iconoclastic heresy. He looked for helpers - like-minded evil-teachers, and found several nobles, of whom two were the most committed to the iconoclastic heresy - John, nicknamed Specta, and Eutychian; from the persons of the priestly rank, he attracted to his side John, nicknamed Grammar, the new Tertullus 2373, a vessel chosen by the devil, and a certain Anthony Sileus; from the monastic rank - Leonty and Zosima, who some time later was convicted of debauchery, punished by cutting off his nose and died shamefully, leaving behind a bad reputation. With them, the king became firmly established in his evil faith, and with their advice they encouraged him to fight, which he had already begun to raise against the Church. Gathering bishops and other clergy from everywhere from his country to Constantinople, Leo called His Holiness Patriarch Nicephorus with the entire Consecrated Cathedral into his chamber, desiring that in front of him and in the presence of all the nobles they would have a debate with the above-mentioned like-minded people of the king and, as yet, secret heretics. First, the king himself led a conversation with the Orthodox; pretending to be Orthodox, he took from his chest the icon of the crucifixion of Christ, which he had on himself, hypocritically bowed his head before it and said to the holy fathers: “For my part, I am no different from you, for I venerate the holy icon, as you can see; but others have appeared who teach differently and say that their path is right. Let them appear here before you, and through questions and answers, let the correct teaching about icons be revealed. If in a dispute they turn out to be more fair, convincing with obvious arguments that their opinion is in agreement with the truth, then you should not only not resist the good deed, but even promote it; if they are defeated by you and exposed in error, then let them stop dispelling the harmful teaching. And then, as before, let the previous teaching about icons remain. And I will be the listener and judge of your mutual debate; for if it is fitting for me to judge lesser things, how much more should I care about the government of the church? I will listen to you, I must listen to the other side as well, and whichever side I am convinced is true will be the one I will follow. But His Holiness the Patriarch and all the bishops with him did not agree to this; they did not want not only to have a debate with the evil heretics, but even to see them, not agreeing that they should appear before them. – This heresy has already been examined and condemned with a curse by the holy fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council; there is no need to consider it any more, and to restore in the Church what has been completely rejected by it. Seeing, however, that the king was very prone to evil and helping heretics, the holy fathers spoke to him boldly. Saint Emilian, Bishop of Cyzicus 2374, said: - King! If the question for which you have called us - consideration of the right faith - is an ecclesiastical question, then it is appropriate to discuss it, according to custom, in the holy church, and not in the royal chamber. “But I am also a son of the church and I will listen to you as a mediator and reconciliator, so that, having considered the arguments of both sides, I will learn the very truth.” Saint Michael, Bishop of Sinada, answered him: – If you are a mediator and conciliator, then why are you not doing what is appropriate for a mediator and conciliator? You gather those who oppose the teachings of the Church, keep them in your chamber, and give them the courage to fearlessly teach everyone to adhere to evil dogmas! And the Orthodox, fearing your formidable prohibitions, do not even dare to say anything in the corners in defense of Orthodoxy. This is a sign not of mediation and reconciliation, but of persecution and torment. “For my part,” answered the king, “I reason, as I said, the same way as you; but since it has come to my attention that there is doubt regarding the veneration of icons, it is appropriate for me not to hush it up, but to try to find out the truth. What is the reason that you do not want to talk with your opponents? Obviously, the fact is that you are ignorant and do not have the evidence from the Divine Scripture with which you could defend your wisdom. Then Saint Theophylact, Bishop of Nicomedia, said: – Christ, whose icon you now have before your eyes, is a witness that we have countless proofs of our Orthodox faith, affirming the pious veneration of holy icons; but no one listens to us, and it is difficult for us to have any success in the fight against the sovereign hand, against the force that imposes a ban on us. Then Saint Peter, Bishop of Nicaea, addressed the king: - How do you invite us to have a debate with those whom you help and with whom you yourself attack us? Or do you not know that even if you brought the Manichaeans 2375 here and wanted to help them, then under your protection they would easily prevail over us. An even bolder speech was made by Saint Euthymius, Bishop of Sardia. - Listen, king! For more than eight hundred years now, Christ our Lord, who descended to earth, has been depicted in iconography everywhere in churches and revered in His image. Who is so proud that he would dare to change or abolish the tradition that has been preserved in the churches for so many years and has come down to our time through the holy Apostles, martyrs and divinely inspired fathers? The Apostle says: “Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold to the traditions which you were taught either by our word or by our letter” (2 Thess. 2:15). And again: “even if we or an angel from heaven preached to you a gospel other than what we preached to you, let him be accursed” (Gal. 1:8). Therefore, during the pious reign of Irina and Constantine, the Ecumenical Council was assembled against the first heretical iconoclasts, and the Son of God Himself marked that council with His finger; whoever dares to violate or destroy any of the resolutions of that council will be damned. Although these words aroused terrible anger in the king, he listened patiently, hypocritically pretending to be meek. Saint Theodore, a zealous church teacher and abbot of the Studite monastery, also dared to speak fearlessly: - King! Do not destroy the church order that is organized for the good. The holy Apostle Paul says: God gave in the church “ordained some apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some shepherds and teachers, for the perfection of the saints” (Eph. 4:11-12), but the apostle did not add kings here. You, Tsar, have been entrusted with the management of worldly affairs, the state and military forces, take care of them, and leave church government, according to the teachings of the Apostles, to shepherds and teachers. If you do not do this, then know that even if an Angel from heaven brought a teaching contrary to our right faith, we will not listen to him, and especially not to you, a mortal man. Then the king became very angry and, considering the words of the holy fathers as blasphemy and an insult to himself, he revealed his inner rage, which he had hitherto hidden under feigned meekness. Having removed the entire Consecrated Council from the chamber with dishonor and insults, he then unjustly dethroned the righteous shepherd, His Holiness Patriarch Nicephorus, and did the same with other Orthodox bishops, and sent them all away for imprisonment in various countries and places, as well as the Monk Theodore the Studite. He elevated to the patriarchal throne of Constantinople one of his advisers, the layman Theodotus, nicknamed Cassiter, a heretic by faith, a man of sinful life, who, as if to heal his illness (he said that he had a stomach illness), but in fact, for the sake of sin, he kept a certain slave who was engaged in the art of medicine. Also on other thrones, the tsar, after expelling the Orthodox, installed his evil false bishops and threw out the holy icons from the holy churches. And the same persecution began again against the Orthodox for the veneration of icons, which had happened before under Leo the Isaurian and his son Copronymus. The heretical king Leo the Armenian and the like-minded false patriarch Theodotus convened their lawless gathering in Constantinople and, themselves under an oath, cursed the Orthodox, Divine and blessed holy fathers, and handed over those who disagreed with this unrighteous gathering to various torments and death. When the heretical gathering ended, the king called to him the abbots from the main monasteries, and among them was our Divine Father Nikita, about whom we are telling. At first, with flattering speeches, he persuaded them to his evil faith, and then, seeing that they did not submit to his will, he imprisoned them in various prisons, each separately, and thought: what to do with them next? And the Monk Nikita was in a stinking prison for many days. This stinking imprisonment itself was no small torment for the saint; in addition, every day various people came to him, disorderly and shameless in character and speech, unworthy even of the name of humanity. With blasphemous and shameful words they dishonored and reproached the holy elder and caused him great insults. These people were sent by heretics on purpose; Among them, the most evil was one named Nikolai: he especially saddened the monk, insulting him with crazy and foul-mouthed speeches, until his long-dead father appeared to him in a dream, saying: “Leave the servant of God.” From that time on, Nicholas stopped talking fuss, and not only did he not bother the saint himself, but he also did not allow others to bother him. The monk spent many days in prison suffering; then the king ordered him to be taken for imprisonment to the eastern country, to the city of Masaleon. It was a bitter winter, and the old man suffered many troubles in his thin clothes from the frost, snow and wind. Moreover, the guard who led him into exile turned out to be a cruel man, devoid of any compassion: he exhausted the old man during the journey, forcing him to rush in order to cover a very long path in a short time. The king did the same with the other honest abbots, sending each one separately into exile. Then, thinking to himself that by keeping in captivity those who are above all sorrow, he will not only not achieve success, but will even encourage them to adhere to their teaching with even greater zeal, the king, fickle in mind, changed his intention. The Monk Nikita had barely lived as an exile in Masaleon for five days when the king ordered him, as well as the other abbots, to immediately return to Byzantium. The return journey was completed even faster than the original one, so that the saint barely survived from the fast journey and from the great cold. When all the abbots were brought to Byzantium, the king ordered them to be left under supervision until he decided how to attract them to like-mindedness with himself. Winter has passed, the Holy Great Pentecost and the blessed holiday of Holy Easter have passed; then the king gave the prisoners to the aforementioned John the Grammar, who taught eloquence as if through the lips of the devil, so that he would torture them as he wanted. Having locked each one separately in various prisons, he tormented them no less than the pagan saints. The dungeons were cramped, gloomy, stinking and caused great suffering to prisoners who did not have any amenities, not even beds. Through a small window they were given, like dogs, unclean and rotten bread, only eight spools a day, so that they would not die of hunger, and muddy, stinking water. Keeping the fathers in such need, the tormentor John thought of defeating them, or forcing them to agree with himself, or killing them. To the even greater sadness of the Monk Nikitas, the evil John captured his former student, who had just reached his youth, in the name of Theoktistus; he also imprisoned him in a difficult prison and tormented him with hunger and thirst. The heretics, seeing that the fathers were ready to die rather than renounce their orthodoxy, devised such a trick against them. They said: – We do not demand anything else from you, except that you partake of the Holy Mysteries only once in church with Patriarch Theodotus; you will do nothing more, and you will each go freely to your own monastery, with your own faith and wisdom. Misled by this cunning of the heretics, the fathers were to some extent inclined to their desire. Then, convinced of the deception, they completely repented and returned to the good path. After each of them was released from a special prison seclusion and imprisonment, they came to the Reverend Father Nikita and began to convince and pray to him that he would agree to enter into communication with Theodotus and leave prison. Saint Nikita did not agree to leave the imprisonment he endured for Christ, and did not at all want to fulfill the request of the fathers; but the fathers insisted, saying: “It’s impossible for us to leave here and leave you here: they ask us to do a small thing - just take communion with Theodotus; our faith will remain in us. According to the reasoning, in these difficult circumstances it is better to allow yourself little than to ruin everything. So they insisted and forced Nikita for a long time and annoyingly; The monk, not out of a desire to avoid suffering and not out of fear of torment, but at the diligent prayers of the fathers and honoring their gray hairs, bowed against his will to their admonition and left. He faced life and death; and although he would rather choose death for Orthodoxy than life, however, at that time he did not disobey the honest squad, whose right faith and virtuous life were known to him. Everyone went together to the false patriarch; he, in order to more conveniently attract them to communicate with himself, led them to a certain prayer place, deliberately decorated with icons, so that the fathers, seeing the holy icons, would conclude about the orthodoxy of the patriarch. There Theodotus served the liturgy; they received communion from his hands and heard the following words from his lips: “Whoever does not venerate the icons of Christ, let him be anathema.” The Patriarch said this not because he himself revered the icon of the Savior, but out of hypocrisy - before the fathers, so that they would not doubt having communion with him. Then, when everyone had gone to their monasteries, the Monk Nikita began to grieve heartily that he had communicated with the false patriarch Theodotus, a hypocritical deceiver: the saint considered a small deviation from the right path to be a complete error. He decided to retire to another country and repent of his sin there. Boarding a ship, he sailed to an island called Prokonnis (on the Sea of ​​Marmara, now Marmara). But then he reasoned within himself: where there was sin, there must be repentance, and he returned to Byzantium. Walking openly around the city, the Monk Nikita fearlessly taught people to adhere to the right dogmas established by the holy fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council. The king learned about this, called the saint to him and asked: - Why didn’t you go to your monastery, like other abbots? Why did you remain alone without permission, not obeying, as I hear, our command? Or do you regard our power as nothing? Fulfill our command and go to your monastery; If you don’t go, I’ll order you to be tortured. - Tsar! I will not go to my monastery, I will not leave my faith, I hold on and will hold on to my confession; my fathers, the holy Orthodox bishops, adhere to it, and without guilt they suffer from you exile, bonds and many troubles, defending the Orthodox Church, in which we abide and are consoled by the hope of the glory of God. Know for sure about me that it was not out of fear of death and not out of love for temporary life that I did what I should not have done, but for the sake of obedience I obeyed the elders and against my desire: only by fulfilling their will did I enter into communication with the false patriarch Theodotus, which I now regret and repent of. Be completely sure that from now on I have no communication with you: I adhere to the tradition of the holy fathers, which I accepted at first. Do whatever you want with me and don’t expect to hear anything different from me. The king, seeing the firmness of his conviction, gave him to a certain Zacharias, the head of the royal chambers, called Mangana, to keep him in custody until a decision was made. Zechariah was a kind and pious husband; He not only did not cause the elder any grief, but even showed him a lot of honor. Then the king sent the Monk Nikita into captivity on the island of the holy martyr Glyceria: this small island was called after the holy martyr because her holy relics lay there and a great church and monastery were created in her name, entrusted by the heretical authorities to a certain eunuch Anthimus. This man was not at all distinguished by kindness - he was a sorcerer, a blasphemer, capable of evil, hostile, crafty, proud and unmerciful; Because of his ferocity and evil disposition, the local residents called him Caiaphas. Such people were then appointed to manage monasteries in order, with the support of worldly power, to change everything according to their will. Anthimus accepted the saint sent to him and, using the power given to him by those who sent him, he zealously tormented him. Having imprisoned the saint of God in the cramped prison, he subjected him to continuous torment, not allowing him to even look out of the prison; He himself carried the key to it and ordered the meager food to be served to him through a very narrow hole. The leaders of the heretics promised this Anthimus a lot if he would force the Monk Nikita to agree with them, and the accursed one especially annoyed the saint because of this, hoping by force to persuade him to heretical wisdom; but the monk endured the evil inflicted on him for his piety with love; God revealed His wonderful grace in him and showed that he was a righteous, holy and miraculous helper to people in trouble. The aforementioned Zechariah, when he was sent by the king to the Thracian countries on public affairs, fell into the hands of the barbarians, who took him captive. Saint Michael, Bishop of Sinada, who was also kept in prison for Orthodoxy, learned about this; he sent to say to Saint Nikita: – Our mutual friend Zacharias is tied up and taken to a barbarian country; I ask you, beg God for him, for you can do it. Having received such news, the saint was deeply saddened and did not eat food all that day, but in the evening he took a candle from his brother Philip, who served him, lit it and stood in prayer all night, begging the merciful God for the captive Zechariah, to free him from the hands of the barbarians. And he received a message from God that Zechariah would soon be released. In the morning Philip came, saw that his father was bright in face and joyful in spirit, and said to him: - Father! Yesterday I left you very sad and sorrowful, but now I see you joyful. I ask you, tell me the reason for this transition of yours from sadness to joy. “I am glad that we will soon see our friend Zacharias here.” And so it was. Few days passed; The Greek king made peace with the barbarians, and captives began to be exchanged on both sides. When sending prisoners for exchange, the king did not have Zechariah in mind, for he had already learned that he adheres to the dogmas of the Seventh Ecumenical Council and helps the Orthodox; so he left him in the hands of the barbarians, to perish there. When the barbarians released many Greek captives, Zechariah remained, the leader of the barbarians said to him: – Do you want to go home? “And I would really like to,” answered Zacharias, “but our king did not want to free me from this captivity.” - I’m freeing you; go according to your desire. Seeing that the leader of the barbarians was so unexpectedly merciful to him, Zechariah knew that God Himself was arranging this through the prayers of the holy fathers, to whom he had once shown kindness. Filled with courage, he said to the leader: “If you want to set me free, then grant me another prisoner of the same name and a compatriot who was in prison with me.” “Take him too, and both of you go home in peace.” Thus Zechariah was released. Arriving with his friend on the island to the Reverend Father Nikita, he thanked him for his holy prayers, for the sake of which God delivered them from barbaric captivity. This holy father performed another glorious miracle: through his fervent prayer to God, he saved three brothers from drowning and brought them to land unharmed, who, sailing on the sea in one boat, were suddenly caught in the middle of the night by excitement. Thus, being himself a prisoner in bonds and in poverty, he miraculously delivered others from bonds and troubles. The monk suffered in prison for six years, until the death of the godless king Leo the Armenian. When the latter was unexpectedly killed by his soldiers and Michael of Ammoria, nicknamed Travlius, or Valvos, ascended the throne, they began to release the holy fathers from their bonds and imprisonments; Then the venerable Father Nikita, abbot of the Midice monastery, a martyr without shedding blood, a courageous confessor of Orthodoxy, an invincible warrior of Christ, was also released. He did not go to his monastery, but settled in a secluded place not far north of Byzantium, wanting to live in silence. There, after his prolonged suffering, he lived for a short time, but he showed many miraculous benefits through the power of multi-healing grace. Before his death, after all the painful suffering he endured in exile, he fell ill for the last time, received the Divine Mysteries on Saturday, and on Sunday at dawn he reposed in the Lord on the 3rd day of the month of April 2376. His holy death immediately became known in the capital and surrounding areas. Soon a multitude of people of both sexes and both ranks, spiritual and temporal, brethren from Midice and other monasteries gathered from the city and from everywhere, and two bishops came, Saint Theophilus of Ephesus and Saint Joseph of Thessalonites; Having hidden the holy father’s honest body according to custom, they placed it in a shrine, carried it to the ship and took it to the Midice monastery. Blessed Paul, Bishop of Plusiada, with many monks and laity, met the body on the shore, lifted it onto their shoulders and carried it to the monastery. Along the way, wonderful miracles were performed: the sick were healed and the possessed were delivered from evil spirits; one woman, who had suffered from bleeding for a long time, only touched the holy relics of the monk and immediately received healing. During the congregational singing of psalms and appropriate songs, they laid the monk on the left side of the porch, in the tomb of the previously deceased holy father Nicephorus, the first abbot of that monastery. And after the burial, many miracles were also performed and healings were given to those who came with faith, for the glory of Christ our God, glorified in His saints, to Him with the Father and the Holy Spirit be honor and glory and worship from all, now and always and unto ages of ages, amen. Bithynia is the northwestern region of Asia Minor, lying along the shores of the Black Sea, the Bosporus and the Strait of Constantinople. The Midician monastery was located not far from the city of Prusa, which stood near Mount Olympus; The Midicean monastery was founded by Saint Nikephoros, who was present at the 7th Ecumenical Council (787) as its abbot. Caesarea Bithynia was located between the rivers Rindak and Apamea Sextons or otherwise paramonari are the same as our clerks. The Seventh Ecumenical Council was convened in 787 in Nicaea by Empress Irene, widow of Leo IV. The council, consisting of 367 fathers, chaired by Saint Tarasius, condemned iconoclasm and restored icon veneration. Leo III the Isaurian. – Editorial staff of “ABC of Faith” Leo III the Isaurian 716–741, Saint Germanus 730, Anastasius 753. Then, before the restoration of icon veneration, 10 patriarchs were replaced on the throne of Constantinople, of which 6 were iconoclasts Constantine V Copronymus, reigned from 741 to 775. Leo IV – 775–785, Irina – 797–802 Nikephoros I-802–811, Michael 1–811–818, Leo V the Armenian-813–820 Rhetor (teacher of eloquence) Tertullus supported before the Roman governor Felix the accusation brought by the Jews against Ap. Paul, and in his speech he took care, first of all, to flatter Felix, supposedly a guardian of the needs of the Jews (Acts 24:1-27). Cyzicus is a city located on one of the Propontis islands, founded in the 5th century. BC Miletus The Manichaeans taught that there are two kingdoms in the world - good and evil, in constant struggle with each other, and in man - two souls, good and evil, that Christ did not have a body and suffered only visibly; allowed the transmigration of souls. You might be interested in: