Память преподобного отца нашего Никиты, епископа Халкидонского 3501

Our venerable father Nikita loved Christ from a young age; having renounced the world and all worldly attachments, he pleased God with his virtuous life, and was elevated to the throne of the Chalcedonian priesthood, on which, like a candle standing on a candlestick, he shone for the world and adorned the Church of Christ. Saint Nikita was very merciful to the poor; he fed the hungry, clothed the naked, welcomed strangers into his home and gave them rest; he was a father to orphans, a protector to widows and a savior to all the offended. When the difficult times of the iconoclastic heresy 3502 came, during the reign of Leo the Armenian 3503, Saint Nikita showed himself to be a courageous confessor of the name of Christ, for he labored a lot in the fight against wicked teaching, denouncing unorthodox dogmas, exhorting everyone to reverently worship the icon of Christ the Lord and His Most Pure Mother of God, as well as icons and all others. saints; the valiant confessor of Christ suffered much torment from the wicked king and his like-minded people; He suffered exile, humiliation, and other troubles for his orthodoxy. After sufficient time, after many confessional labors, Saint Nikita moved from earth to the heavenly abodes 3504; God glorified him in heaven before His Angels, and on earth - before people, for from his honest relics many miracles were performed, healings of all kinds of diseases were given to the glory of God, glorified in His saints. You shone with the brilliance of your deeds, O Reverend One, you were Nikita, the heir to the apostolic throne: and like the sun you shone upon your flock, Father, fulfilling all the Divine teachings. We also call you: Rejoice, fertilizer to Chalcedon. Chalcedon, or more correctly Kalchedon, was originally a Megarian colony on the shores of the Sea of ​​Marmara. Under Christian emperors, Chalcedon was the capital of the Asia Minor region of Bithynia. – In the history of the Christian Church, Chalcedon is remarkable as the site of the IV Ecumenical Council, convened in 451 by Emperor Marcian (from 450 to 457) to condemn the Monophysite heresy (this heresy was founded by Eutyches, Archimandrite of Constantinople, who taught that human nature in Jesus Christ was completely absorbed by the Divine nature and therefore in He should recognize only one nature - the Divine). The iconoclastic heresy appeared in the 8th century. The iconoclasts foolishly confused icon veneration with idolatry. The founder of this heresy is considered to be Constantine, Bishop of Nakolia (in Phrygia - the Asia Minor region). The most ardent champions of iconoclasm were the emperors Leo III the Isaurian (717–741) and Constantine V Copronymus (741–776). This heresy was condemned at the VII Ecumenical Council (which took place in 787 in the city of Nicaea). Leo V the Armenian reigned from 813 to 820. Death of St. Nikita followed at the beginning of the 9th century. You might be interested in: