Nicon

CONCERNING S. NICON, BISHOP, AND HIS ONE HUNDRED NINETY-NINE COMPANION MONKS, MARTYRS, NEAR TAUROMENIUM IN SICILY.

A.D. 250.

HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.

Nicon, Bishop and Martyr near Tauromenium in Sicily (S.)

Companion monks, one hundred ninety-nine, Martyrs near Tauromenium in Sicily (SS.)

Section I. The homeland, deeds, veneration, and monastic life of S. Nicon on Mount Ganus.

[1] The citizens of Naples hold by constant tradition that no Christian's blood was ever shed in their city, Nicon born at Naples in Italy, and when we journeyed thither in the year 1661, it was related to us more than once by those who considered it the reward of religion always fostered and protected that they possess in their sacristies the hitherto uncorrupted blood of more than one holy Martyr, carefully collected of old by the citizens. Of this matter we ourselves were witnesses, both concerning the miraculous blood of S. Januarius and concerning the other ever-fluid and uncorrupted blood of a certain holy Martyr, preserved in two phials in the sacristy of our Professed House. Nevertheless, though Naples produced no Martyrs within its walls, it gave birth to many who afterward attained that laurel crown; and among them S. Nicon, who from a zealous follower of secular military service became the leader of a distinguished company of one hundred ninety-nine monks, slain for the Christian faith under the Governor Quintianus near Tauromenium in Sicily. who suffered in Sicily. All these things are established from the Acts which, written (as is stated in section 21) by Chaeromenus, the attendant and witness of S. Nicon's passion, we present from the Vatican and Ambrosian manuscripts collated with one another, Acts written by the disciple Chaeromenus: and mutually supplemented, as indicated by the brackets [ ] within which we enclose those passages that are present in one manuscript but absent from the other.

[2] The title of the Ambrosian manuscript was this: The Martyrdom of S. Nicon and his one hundred ninety-nine companions, whose names are written in the book of life, who suffered under the Caesar Decius, when Quintianus was governing the province of Sicily, recorded by Chaeromenus, fellow disciple of the Saints and one who embraced the monastic life, a citizen of Syracuse. The same matters briefly related in the Menaea. The reason why he was not seized together with the rest and subjected to martyrdom is easy to surmise: namely, his absence from the monastery while the others were being captured; God so disposing matters that there might be one who would minister to the prisoners in their chains, having gained access to his master by prayer or payment to the guards; and who would transmit to posterity the history of their manner of life, to be preserved even to the present times. Moreover, an epitome of this history, compiled by collating among themselves the printed Menaea, the manuscripts of the Parisian Synaxarion, and that which is at Grottaferrata under the name of the Emperor Basil, we compose in like fashion and append to the larger Acts as a confirmation of them, inasmuch as the same epitome is found also in the Ambrosian and Chiffletian manuscripts.

[3] Baronius, when compiling the Roman Martyrology, happened to see none of these sources, so it is not surprising that, having no other authority than the Menologion in Sirletus's translation (which we likewise have in Canisius's most imperfect edition), he wrote thus for this day: Error concerning Caesarea of Palestine: "At Caesarea in Palestine, the holy Martyrs Nicon and ninety-nine others." That the number is erroneous, with a hundred omitted, may be excused as an inadvertence either of the author himself or of his scribes; what remains must be imputed to the Menologion, written too hastily: in which, as often elsewhere, certain intermediate lines being omitted and the day number placed out of order, these words: "Of the Holy Martyrs Nicon and his ninety-nine companions," whence the error crept into the Menologion, torn from the twenty-third day, are joined with the headless text of the following day in this manner: "who in the city of Caesarea of Palestine, on account of their confession of the Christian faith, obtained the palm of Martyrdom." We do not doubt that these words pertain to the eight Martyrs whom the Menaea praise in a single distich as slain at Caesarea in Palestine on the twenty-fourth day: the manuscripts say there were thirty-eight, while the Latin Martyrologies by name report either all of them or the leaders of the rest from Eusebius's History, book 4, chapter 15, as beheaded under Diocletian -- namely Timolaus, Dionysius, and others.

[4] We took pains to find at Rome the Greek text of the Menologion which Sirletus rendered into Latin, Is the text also frequently corrupt elsewhere? because, having no doubt of the translator's fidelity and skill, we desired to know which of the very grave errors abounding in the Canisian edition should be imputed to the carelessness of Greek copyists, and which to the person who transmitted Sirletus's version to Canisius; for it is evident both here and elsewhere that Sirletus's own autograph, which Baronius used, was taken from a corrupted and carelessly written codex and sometimes diverges from the copy sent to Germany. From this latter circumstance it happens that what Canisius wrongly has under the twenty-fourth day, Baronius has under the preceding day -- and rightly so: since on that day the Greeks solemnly venerate these Martyrs with their entire proper Ecclesiastical Office, according to the norm prescribed in the Jerusalem Typicon, Veneration among the Greeks, augmented even for the Church of Constantinople and now received everywhere.

[5] S. Joseph the Hymnographer composed the hymns, so that the initial letters of the individual odes form this acrostic:

Nikes se melpo ton Pheronymon makar.

"Holy one, I praise your name, which signifies victory."

For Nikon means "victor": and the Poet alludes to this most frequently, weaving into the beginnings of his final strophes the letters of the proper name in his customary fashion. We must also acknowledge that the veneration and fame of this contest was quite widespread throughout the entire East, if it also reached the Arabs: and that it did so reach them is suggested by the Prayer prefixed like a calendar to their sacred books for the month of Adar, which corresponds to our March, which Dom Amabilis Burzeus, Abbot, rendered into Latin for us, and the Syrians, which reviews the principal Saints of this month, and among them Nicon in this manner: "Let us magnify Cyril the Innocent... James the Blessed, Nicon the Innocent and Matrona the glorious": to which is added the Arabic-Egyptian Martyrology sent to us in Latin by Gratia Simonius, a student of the Maronite College, in which one reads thus for this day: "The contest of S. Nicon the Priest and his 196 companions."

[6] The arena of monastic exercise for these holy Martyrs and their leader Nicon was Mount Ganus, Mount Ganus unknown to the maps of ancient and modern geography thus far compiled: yet it is assigned to Thrace by Ortelius in his Thesaurus Geographicus, following the authority of Suidas, Nicetas, and Gregoras, but in such a way that he classifies it among places of uncertain position within that province. But if we wish to follow the traces of the Bulgars withdrawing from a besieged Constantinople in the first year of Leo the Armenian to devastate Thrace (such traces as an anonymous appendix to the Chronography of Theophanes has left marked for us), it will appear that no other mountain than what the ancients called Rhodope can be designated by that name. For setting out from Constantinople toward Athyras, thence to Selymbria, having razed the fortresses on both sides, they destroyed Daonium, devastated by Bulgars ravaging Thrace, burned the suburbs of Heraclea, and demolished Bisanthe or Rhaedestus, the common people being annihilated. And these operations thus far were along the shores of the Propontis, from Byzantium toward the Chersonese. Thence they proceeded to Aprus, which is also a fortress, about thirty Roman miles from Bisanthe toward the interior around the river Molanus; and having burned and overthrown it along with many other places, they turned aside from there by a ten-day march to the mountains of Ganus, in which they found a very large populace hiding, and nearly all the animals of Thrace, and slaughtered innumerable people and beasts, but carried off captive to Bulgaria the remaining portion along with a multitude of women and children. Thence descending, they came as far as the Chersonese, and returning again to the upper region, destroying all cities from the least to the greatest, they besieged Adrianople.

[7] The same mountain which the ancients called Rhodope. From these accounts you may infer that the Bulgars, wishing to proceed directly from Aprus to Adrianople after devastating the coastal regions, changed their plan in order to augment their plunder and place it partly in safety, diverting their march to this mountain, which is in a manner the navel of all ancient Thrace. For Rhodope is a kind of branch of the Haemus range (which in one continuous chain separates Moesia from Thrace, or, as later writers expressed it, Bulgaria from Romania), projecting into the middle of Thrace toward the Propontis; the extremities of which the aforementioned Ortelius, following Servius, calls the Gamaides mountains; Ganiades according to Suidas, yet rightly doubting whether Suidas did not more correctly write Ganiada: which we can scarcely doubt to be Mount Ganus, and to have been about forty miles distant from the sea, and thus accessible without great difficulty within a two-day journey; although the Bulgars, weighed down with plunder and occupied with devastating the places all around, are recorded to have spent ten days. Here, therefore, Nicon found Theodosius, Bishop of Cyzicus: Theodosius, Bishop of Cyzicus. who, it is credible, at the beginning of the third century, when the Emperor Severus had stirred up the dire persecution against Christians commemorated by Tertullian, chose a safe place of hiding there, from which, when occasion demanded, he could easily watch over his church from no very great distance and with less danger to himself, thanks to the convenience of the short crossing from Cape Hermaeus to Cyzicus, the nearest city of Asia across the water.

Section II. The ordination of Nicon, and the time and place of his combat and translation.

[8] In that mountain retreat, Theodosius, governing the bands of monks found there or gathered by him, Nicon truly consecrated Bishop, on his deathbed appointed Nicon as their leader; having advanced him through all the ecclesiastical grades to episcopal consecration in the three years since his arrival. Caietanus would not have doubted this in his work on the Saints of Sicily, nor would he have believed the title of Bishop to be improperly used in the Menaea for the title of Abbot or Hegumen, had he been able to see the Acts themselves. For the reasons that led him to this conclusion -- first, that neither the Roman Martyrology nor the Greek Menologion designates Nicon as Bishop; second, that it was contrary to custom for a Bishop to ordain a Bishop on his own authority -- accomplish nothing at all. For Baronius, as we have already seen, had no knowledge of these Martyrs except from the Menologion, corrupted in the manner we have described: and therefore venerated as a hieromartyr: furthermore, against his silence is opposed the title of Hieromartyr, constantly attributed to Nicon both in the Parisian Synaxarion manuscript and in the printed Anthologion: in which it is clear that Martyr-Bishops are so designated, while those who attained martyrdom from the monastic state are called Hosiomartyr, and the rest simply Martyrs or (if they shine forth with greater renown and celebrity) Megalomartyrs. As for the second head of Caietanus's argument, the opposing reasons refuted, he will not easily prove it true for the first three centuries amid the most severe persecutions, during which very many Bishops, having left their own sees, were devoting their efforts to afflicted Christians in those places where Christians happened to be present in some number, and when occasion demanded substituted others ordained by themselves for the consolation of those same Christians. Moreover, Theodosius did this not merely on his own authority, but by an angelic admonition, as is stated in the Acts, which we need not doubt was proposed to and approved by the Church hidden there.

[9] Were the same companions in the journey to Sicily also companions in martyrdom? After the death of Theodosius, from whom Nicon, divinely instructed, had learned that those regions would be devastated by barbarians, he crossed over to Sicily in accordance with Theodosius's last will, and finding a place suitable for a quiet retreat, there established a dwelling for himself and his companions, and held it for forty-two years, as is stated; and indeed with all the same companions -- one hundred ninety-nine -- whom he had brought with him, as Caietanus believes, nor do our Acts altogether contradict this. Because, however, it is difficult to believe that in so many years not one of them died, and the person of Chaeromenus the Syracusan, who joined them in Sicily, suggests that by a similar process we should believe that other Sicilians, attracted by the fragrance of holy conversion, adhered to Nicon; it may be held with much greater probability that Nicon substituted local men in place of the deceased foreigners, carefully preserving the number of his original companions: so that those who are praised as having obtained the crown of martyrdom were for the most part Sicilians. That they were able for so long a time to devote themselves securely to monastic exercise will not greatly surprise you, if you consider that from the death of Plautianus until the times of Decius there was almost perpetual peace for Christians, after 24 years tested by rare and by no means prolonged storms, especially in the provinces where, when the Emperors did not press the execution of the laws (as they scarcely ever did during the period mentioned), the Governors acted leniently or severely at their own discretion: but no one seems to have acted more severely in Sicily before Quintianus, appointed and inflamed by Decius, so that it is not surprising if he, stirring up persecution, also aroused as great a hatred of the people against himself as manifested itself in the passion of S. Agatha.

[10] It is known, moreover, that this passion pertained to the third consulship of Decius: under the Governor Quintianus, which we have sufficiently proved falls in the year of Christ 251, both on February 1 where we treated of S. Pionius in the Prolegomena section 17, and on February 5 where we treated of S. Agatha, who died or was buried on that day. From which it follows that these Martyrs, who are established from the Acts to have been crowned in the month of March, on the twenty-third and twenty-fourth days, completed their contest in the immediately preceding year: since their leader received a divine revelation concerning the vengeance to be taken not long afterward upon Quintianus, who was to be drowned in a river, as indeed happened to him within eleven months after the perpetrated slaying of S. Agatha, while he was crossing the Symethus or, as these Acts name it, the Psemisthus. Upon his death, the Christians immediately raised their heads, and both buried S. Agatha herself with honor, secure from the cessation of persecution according to her prediction, and began to attend to the search for the remains of others who had suffered elsewhere. Among those solemnly conveyed to the oratories established in the cities, and after his death translated, A.D. 251, February 13, that this glorious company was also included is suggested by the day of February 13, assigned to their festival in the Ambrosian manuscript. For where the Vatican manuscript has the day of martyrdom, in the words we have cited above, there one reads: "The commemoration of the holy martyrs is celebrated on the thirteenth of February." From this a plausible conjecture is deduced: that Bishop Theodosius, who, warned by a miracle, had reverently buried the venerable bodies two days after they had been slain together with his clergy, upon the cessation of the persecution disinterred them and on such a day translated them to his own church.

[11] But which church was that? "Of the Emesenes," say the manuscript codices, where beware of understanding Emesa, the famous city of Syria, by Theodosius, Bishop of the Messenians, and therefore of wishing to relocate this martyrdom to Caesarea of Palestine, thirty miles distant from it. For the initial vowel either is entirely redundant here, as in Ekatharina for Catharina, or crept into the text in place of the article, so that it was "of the church of the Messenians." For the city which the Latins call Messana and Sicilian authors call Messina is written Mesene by Stephanus de Urbibus, and Messene by Ptolemy and Strabo: and from this city are named Messenians not only those citizens who inhabit it, but all those who, by another name also imported from Italy -- Mamertines -- inhabit that entire horn of Sicily which extends from Mount Aetna to the Italian strait; over which Messana stands, the capital of the entire region and first encountered in Italian commerce.

[12] In truth, in those times it was not yet an episcopal see, as Rocchus Pirrhus solidly proved in his Account of the Church of Messana, with residence at Tauromenium learnedly refuting all those who are wrongly adduced by others as having held the episcopate at Messina in Sicily before Eucarpus, who flourished at the beginning of the sixth century: on the contrary showing that Tauromenium had been an episcopal see from the very times of the Apostles under SS. Pancratius and Maximus, disciples of Peter. We believe, therefore, that their successors, although they cannot be named up to the beginning of the said century, never ceased once the episcopate was established, and that among them was the Theodosius of whom we have spoken: whose name, if the cited Pirrhus could have learned it from these Acts, he would surely rather have included in the series of Bishops of Tauromenium, or (which in those early days was the same thing) of the Messenians, than Nicon: whom, although we acknowledge to have been ordained Bishop, we do not yet know to have exercised jurisdiction over anyone other than his own monks after he came to Sicily.

[13] The same Tauromenium, today called Taormina, equidistant from Messana and Catana, sits upon a steep mountain where the Martyrs were tortured, which Diodorus reports is called Taurus: from whose precipice we believe Nicon was ordered to be cast down. For there occurs no other city in which the Governor would then have resided and the Martyrs been tortured, closer to the place where they led their monastic life and consummated their passion, than Tauromenium. For upon first landing in Sicily, the Saints made their ascent to the lofty mountain of Tauromenium, and thence having advanced no small distance, they found a river called the Asinus, and finally beheaded at the nearby river. near which there was an ancient bathhouse, in which they established their dwelling, as is stated in the Acts. In the Vatican manuscript you have Esinus: and we do not doubt that it is the same as the Asine of Pliny, the Acesines of Thucydides, and that of Vibius Sequester called Tauromenium from the city past which it flows. Aretius and Leander attest that it is today called Cantara: nor indeed can you find on geographical maps the mouth of any other river between Catana and Taormina about five Roman miles distant from the latter; and therefore we have said in the title that the Saints suffered near Tauromenium, and we scarcely doubt that that city, then possessing the cathedral seat of the Church of the Messenians, was enriched with the precious treasure of the holy bodies as soon as the Christians obtained peace.

of Saints, nor would he have believed the title of Bishop to be improperly used in the Menaea for the title of Abbot or Hegumen, had he been able to see the Acts themselves. For the reasons that led him to this conclusion -- first, that neither the Roman Martyrology nor the Greek Menologion designates Nicon as Bishop; second, that it was contrary to custom for a Bishop to ordain a Bishop on his own authority -- accomplish nothing at all. For Baronius, as we have already seen, had no knowledge of these Martyrs except from the Menologion, corrupted in the manner we have described: and therefore venerated as a hieromartyr: furthermore, against his silence is opposed the title of Hieromartyr, constantly attributed to Nicon both in the Parisian Synaxarion manuscript and in the printed Anthologion: in which it is clear that Martyr-Bishops are so designated, while those who attained martyrdom from the monastic state are called Hosiomartyrs, and the rest simply Martyrs or (if they shine forth with greater renown and celebrity) Megalomartyrs. As for the second head of Caietanus's argument, the opposing reasons refuted, he will not easily prove it true for the first three centuries amid the most severe persecutions, during which very many Bishops, having left their own sees, were devoting their efforts to afflicted Christians in those places where Christians happened to be present in some number, and when occasion demanded substituted others ordained by themselves for the consolation of those same Christians. Moreover, Theodosius did this not merely on his own authority, but at angelic admonition, as is stated in the Acts, which we need not doubt was proposed to and approved by the Church hidden there.

[9] Were the same companions of the journey to Sicily also companions in martyrdom? After the death of Theodosius, from whom Nicon, divinely instructed, had learned that those regions would be devastated by barbarians, he crossed over to Sicily in accordance with Theodosius's last will, and finding a place suitable for a quiet retreat, established a dwelling there for himself and his companions, and held it for forty-two years, as is stated; and indeed with all the same one hundred ninety-nine companions whom he had brought with him, as Caietanus believes, nor do our Acts altogether contradict this. Because, however, it is difficult to believe that in so many years not one of them died, and the person of Chaeromenus the Syracusan, who joined them in Sicily, suggests that by a similar process we should believe other Sicilians, attracted by the fragrance of holy conversion, adhered to Nicon; it may be held with much greater probability that Nicon substituted local men in place of the deceased foreigners, carefully preserving the number of his original companions: so that those who are praised as having obtained the crown of martyrdom were for the most part Sicilians. That they were able for so long a time to devote themselves securely to monastic exercise will not greatly surprise you, if you consider that from the death of Plautianus until the times of Decius there was almost perpetual peace for Christians, after 24 years tested by rare and by no means prolonged storms, especially in the provinces where, when the Emperors did not press the execution of the laws (as they scarcely ever did during the aforesaid period), the Governors acted leniently or severely at their own discretion: but no one appears to have acted more severely in Sicily before Quintianus, appointed and inflamed by Decius, so that it is not surprising if he, stirring up persecution, also aroused as great a hatred of the people against himself as manifested itself in the passion of S. Agatha.

ACTS

Author: Chaeromenus of Syracuse, fellow disciple of the Saints.

From the Greek manuscripts of the Vatican and Ambrosian Libraries.

Nicon, Bishop and Martyr near Tauromenium in Sicily (S.)

Companion monks, one hundred ninety-nine, Martyrs near Tauromenium in Sicily (SS.)

BY CHAEROMENUS, FROM GREEK MANUSCRIPTS.

CHAPTER I.

The homeland, lineage, military service, conversion to the faith of Christ, and travels of S. Nicon.

[1] In those times when the most impious Quintianus was exercising his governorship, S. Nicon, instructed by his Christian mother, there was a certain man from the region of Naples, Nicon by name. He, having been enrolled in a certain military cohort, so bore himself therein that he was no less valiant in war than conspicuous for the flower of his youth, the grace of his form, and a certain splendor of countenance. He was Greek by a Greek father; but having a Christian mother, he was instructed by her nightly and daily exhortations, who addressed him thus: "My sweetest son, if ever you should fall into some necessity, such as often occurs in war, arm yourself with the sign of the Cross of Christ, and you shall escape your adversaries: nor shall you merely escape, but from every weapon, spear, and sword you shall remain unharmed."

[2] And shortly it happened that, battle being joined, he found himself driven into the greatest straits, arming himself with the sign of the cross, he emerges victorious: seeing his fellow soldiers who were with him being slain: and so, raising his eyes to heaven and sighing from the depths of his heart, he fortified himself with the venerable sign of the life-giving Cross: "O Christ," he said, "God almighty, let the power of your life-giving and honorable Cross appear in me today, so that, having subdued these foreigners, I may return victorious and become also your servant, and worship you with her who bore me, my mother." At the same time, confidently extending his right hand armed with a spear, in that very hour he slew about one hundred and eighty men, the rest fleeing from his face because they could not resist him, on account of the power of the Cross of Christ. Therefore Nicon glorified God and said: "Great is the God of the Christians, who by the sign of his Cross subdues foreigners." And the crowds marveled, exclaiming: "O miracle of heavenly providence! Never before us have we heard, nor among us have we seen, any of the soldiers so conduct himself in battle as we have just now witnessed Nicon do."

[3] Which he reports to his mother. When the army had been dismissed, Nicon went to his house and, praising God, announced to his mother all the great things God had wrought with him in the battle through the power of the holy and life-giving Cross. She, greatly rejoicing, said: "I give thanks to your holy name, O Lord, who desire all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. [And now, Lord, hear the voice of your handmaid, and deem my son worthy of the laver of regeneration, which you have granted us for the remission of sins: teach him to do your will, so that, pleasing you, he may obtain the eternal goods promised by you.]" And when the prayer was finished, Nicon began to ask her how one might become a perfect Christian.

She answered him: "You must fast for forty days, and having received instruction from a Priest, receive the laver of regeneration, and believe in Christ and his works, renouncing Satan and his works: thus you shall become a true Christian, a servant of Christ."

[4] He resolves to become a Christian. Then Nicon said to his mother: "As the Lord lives, it is better for me to be his servant than a worshiper of idols and a soldier of the Greeks. I will no longer sacrifice to stones [or to any other creature: but to God alone, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them]." And falling at his mother's feet: "Pray for your servant, mother," he said, "that God may give me a good angel as guide and guardian of my body and soul, through whom I may find among God's servants someone from whom I may receive the laver of regeneration and learn to do the will of Christ, our true God, and be enrolled in his rational flock: for had not your instruction, venerable mother, rescued me from the error of paganism and had I not through you come to know the supreme God, I would shortly have been fuel for hell, there to be punished with all the rest who, not knowing God, are now tortured in the depths of the underworld, according to that saying of the Prophet: 'The wicked shall be turned into hell, all the nations that forget God.' Ps. 9:18 I therefore give thanks to you, O mother, and to God most good: because through you I am to be engrafted into his rational flock, rescued from the error of the gentiles." And he departs from his mother to be baptized. And again falling on his face toward the East and praying, [he said to his mother: "Pray, mother, for your servant, that having departed hence I may obtain the desired blessings."] And she immediately took him by the hand and dismissed him with a blessing, binding him by a solemn oath to return after he had obtained holy baptism.

[5] Having gone forth to Chios, he fasts there. After he had departed, though much sought by the soldiers, he could be found by no one: but his mother, seizing one of the Toparch's men, said: "Know that my son has disappeared: and I myself know nothing concerning him." But Nicon, the servant of God, led by divine grace, went down to the shore and found a ship: and having taken with him no small sum of money, he sailed toward the regions of Constantinople, and landing on the island of Chios, ascended^g a lofty mountain; and there, persevering in prayer, he fasted for an entire eight days, that the Lord God might reveal to him in what place he would find what he sought. And there appeared to him by night a man of such bearing and gait as befitted a holy minister of God: who, calling him to himself, said: "Take this staff, on whose top you see the sign of the Cross; it will lead you to the place where you shall find that which you desire."

[6] Rejoicing, therefore, and magnifying God, at that very hour he went down to the shore, led^h by the staff and he receives from the Angel a cross as guide for the way which he had received from the Angel. Seeing him from afar, the sailors and the ship's captain said: "Hail, Nicon, servant of Christ, come aboard the ship, and we shall convey you safely, with the Lord directing, to the place appointed for you: for he who gave you the staff by night also made known to us that a man would come to us today at the shore, holding a staff in his hand with the sign of the Cross on its top: 'Receive him gladly,' he said, 'as he desires to depart with you; a ship being offered, and set him ashore on the mountain called Ganus, and you shall receive a reward from God.' Therefore we beg you, servant of God, if you are he, come, let us sail with God as guide: for the wind is altogether favorable, which by the power of God will bring us safely."

[7] He lands at Mount Ganus. Hearing these things, Nicon the servant of God withdrew a little to pray, and prostrating himself on the ground, he wept and said: "I give you thanks, O Lord my God: for upon me, a wretched and useless vessel, you bestow such great blessings, caring for my salvation with such great solicitude. Now I know, O Lord, that you desire to save every person who invokes your name in truth." Having said these and many other things, he boarded the vessel. And sailing thence within two daysⁱ and as many nights, they arrived at the regions of that lofty mountain which^k is called Ganus: and at the same time an Abbot appeared in episcopal vestments with fifteen brethren. And so, performing toward one another the customary monastic adoration, they took his hand and led him into the cave in which their Hegumen and Bishop had established his dwelling with the company of other monks.

CHAPTER II.

The monastic life and ordination of S. Nicon, and his return to Naples.

[8] Nicon the servant of God had spent two or three days^a here when, Received by Theodosius, Bishop of Cyzicus, contemplating the labors and vigils which those men bravely sustained, devoting themselves constantly to psalmody and reading, and watering the very ground with their tears, the fear of the Lord and an inexpressible love fell upon him, so that he was almost carried outside himself with exultation, marveling at and examining the angelic life the saints were leading. Therefore the Bishop, observing him singularly contrite in spirit, said to him: "For what reason and from where have you come hither, my son? Come, declare it to us with all sincerity." To whom Nicon the servant of God replied humbly indeed, yet with a cheerful countenance: "I am come from Italy, most holy Father, in order to become a Christian and to be joined to the holy flock of Christ." He is baptized. And falling at the Bishop's feet, he said with tears: "I beseech you, O Holy one of God, that you confer upon me without delay the laver of regeneration, and teach me to do what is pleasing to God." Then the Bishop ordered him to be instructed, and anointed him with holy oil, and having baptized him in that very cave in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, made him a partaker of the divine communion, and anointed him with the venerable chrism.

[9] When these things had been accomplished in this manner, he remained three years in that monastery of the mountain cave, He becomes a monk, and so exercised and instructed himself in the learning and disciplines cultivated there, as well as in psalmody, prayer, reading, and purity, that it was readily apparent he had been made a vessel of election for the Lord, and some said the man appeared like an angel, on account of his singular tranquility of soul and gentleness. For he appeared most abundant in patience, supreme in love, incomparable in fasting, insatiable in learning, unwearied in nocturnal psalmody, and irreproachable in every action of life: so that the Hegumen himself was seized with admiration for the holy man. To him, therefore, who was about to depart to the Lord at the end of the third year, an angel appeared by night in a dream, and by angelic admonition and said: "Before you depart from this life, you shall deliver your episcopate and flock to Nicon, whom you baptized: and you shall admonish him to transfer them to the southern parts of the province of Sicily, lest the monks, being found here, be destroyed by the sword of barbarians who are shortly to make an incursion into this place and mountain."

[10] He therefore took him and ordained him first a Deacon, then a Priest, He is consecrated Bishop, and finally a Bishop, commending to him about one hundred and ninety monks; and within a few days the most holy Bishop Theodosius, who had fled from Cyzicus on account of the extreme confusion of affairs, growing daily worse and worse, fell asleep in the Lord: and they buried him there near the cave, Upon the death of Theodosius, S. Nicon which faced the East. After the customary offices and sacrifices had been completed, having taken his companions with him and offered prayer, he embarked in his own^c ship and put in at Mitylene: and having spent two days there, he set out at once and arrived at the parts of Naxos^e, and finally, by God's guidance and power, sailing to Italy within twenty-two days, he arrived at Naples, his homeland.

[11] When his mother learned that her son had arrived, sailing with his companions to Italy, she immediately hastened to him, and began to question Nicon himself, whom she did not at all recognize for who he was, saying: "I beseech you,^f most reverend Father, do you know where Nicon my son is? There has been a great search here for him, to lead him out to war." But he answered: "I am Nicon, whom you seek." To which she said with tears: "I, O man of God, address you from the grief of my soul; and do you think me a deluded old woman?" "By your prayers, mother," he replied, "I am Nicon himself, whom you sent away to be baptized: but compelled by your solemn entreaties I have returned to see you: do as you wish."

[12] Then indeed the mother,[g falling upon her son's neck, kissed him, and wept and rejoiced at finding her son. He visits his mother and buries her.

Then raising her eyes to heaven,] she worshiped God with these words: "I give thanks to your holy name, O Lord: for you have shown me my son established in such dignity and angelic habit. And now, Lord, hear your handmaid, receiving my soul into your hands." And when that prayer was completed, she yielded her spirit to the Lord in peace, and all who had witnessed that admirable spectacle glorified God. The Saints, exulting in the Lord, celebrated her obsequies with psalms and hymns, and laid her body in a sacred coffin.

CHAPTER III.

The journey to Sicily and the martyrdom of the companions.

[13] When the fame of these events had spread through the city, it also reached certain former fellow soldiers of Nicon: Certain of his fellow soldiers and so they approached him on the shore, and seizing his hand, drew him aside: "We adjure you," they said, "by that Providence which is on high, tell us what and whence was that fortitude which you had in battle: that if it be some magic, we too may use the same for accomplishing such deeds: but if it be something else, declare it." He answered: "Believe me, brothers, neither through magic nor through any other contrivance did I accomplish anything, except that I fortified myself with the sign of the venerable Cross: thenceforward no one could endure the sight of my face: but the power of God, of which the Cross itself is merely the sign, overcame every enemy and adversary." When the soldiers heard, therefore, that the power of God supplied such strength, having heard of the power of the Holy Cross, they immediately prostrated themselves at the feet of the holy Bishop Nicon, asking and saying: "Have mercy on us, Holy one of God, and take us with you, so that just as in battle we were often saved through you, so also now we may become heirs with you of the heavenly kingdom."

[14] They adhere to him and become monks. They therefore left their wives and children, their brothers and houses, to follow Christ; and embarking in another ship, they sailed together to the parts of Sicily, near the lofty mountain called that of Tauromenium: and thence, having advanced no small distance, they found a river called the Asinus, in which there was an ancient bathhouse preserving its name from Hygia, that is, health: in which they established their dwelling unobserved by anyone. Here Nicon baptized the soldiers he had brought with him, nine men, after preliminary catechesis, and gave them the holy and angelic habit, prescribing that they should learn both good letters and the practice of psalmody customary among monks. And when they had planted every kind of fruit-bearing tree in the places near the river, and had prepared gardens for growing vegetables, they dwelt there for forty-two years.

[15] Quintianus the Governor is informed about them. After this, it was reported to Quintianus the Governor that certain men worship the God of heaven, having as their master Nicon the Bishop; and that they neither serve the commands of the gods nor submit to our religion. When the most cruel Quintianus heard this denunciation, filled with fury and seething with anger, he immediately dispatched soldiers to seize them and bring them before his presence. They, eagerly carrying out what they had been ordered to do with haste, arrived at the place, and interrogated them, saying: "Where is Nicon and his companions, who do not obey the laws of the Emperors and of the great gods?" To whom Nicon the servant of God replied: "Welcome, my little children, welcome: for my High Priest, Christ, summons me and mine through you." Meanwhile the brothers, intent on pouring out prayer to God that he might sustain them with his grace, were compelled by the soldiers to depart without delay to the Governor. And so, having put an end to their prayers, they were led at once by the soldiers into his presence, like sheep to the slaughter, and like lambs voiceless before their shearers.

[16] The holy and most blessed Father, our Nicon, strengthened them, Confirmed by S. Nicon, saying: "Act manfully, my brothers, against the tyrant: for behold, our race is finished, and the gates of the heavenly kingdom are opened: let us resist with ready spirit the cruelty of the tyrant to be unleashed upon us for the faith of Christ: let us speak boldly in his presence, and let us hear the voice of the good Shepherd saying: 'Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; but rather fear him who is able to cast both body and soul into the fire of hell.' And again: 'When you shall stand before Kings and Governors, do not think about how or what you shall speak: for it is I who speak in you.'" Matt. 10:28 and 13:9

[17] When the headquarters of the most monstrous and cruel Governor had been reached, they were ordered to be brought into the theater before his tribunal, and he addressed them in this manner: They profess their faith nobly. "Is it so indeed? Have you all turned aside to vain and foolish hopes, deceived by that sorcerer Nicon; and do you not worship the immortal gods, nor obey their precepts?" But they, as if from one mouth, answered and said: "We are above all Christians, never to be moved from our faith: and our hopes are placed not in vanities, but upon the Lord, who made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them. For your gods neither hear nor speak: seeing that they are lifeless stones, the works of human hands, [as our Prophet also testifies, saying: (Ps. 113) 'The idols of the nations are gold and silver, the works of human hands']; they have eyes and shall not see; they have nostrils and shall not smell; they have hands and shall not feel; they have feet and shall not walk, nor shall they cry out in their throat: in short, those who make them become like them, and all who trust in them."

[18] From these words the Governor, recognizing their immovable and firm faith: and beaten with sinews "Unless I order these men killed without delay," he said, "they will drive very many others into their most foolish error." And so he ordered them to be stretched out and their flesh to be beaten with raw ox sinews. When they had borne this torment nobly, he ordered them all to be cast into the bathhouse in which they had lived, They submit to the sentence of death. and that it be set on fire for a day^a and a night, so that their bodies might be consumed by the flames therein. But when they had been brought there, he first wished them to be beheaded, and then their corpses thrown into the fire, to strike the greater terror into all the spectators. But they, readily extending their necks, said: "Into your hands, O Lord, we commend our souls: for on your account we are put to death all the day long, we are reckoned as sheep for the slaughter."

CHAPTER IV.

The glorious death of S. Nicon: the miraculous revelation of the bodies.

[19] When they had been killed in this manner, and their bodies consigned to the fire in the bathhouse called Hygia mentioned above, S. Nicon in prison and the holy Nicon placed in prison, the tyrant was deliberating by what kind of death he might most cruelly dispatch him. But an Angel of the Lord appeared to the holy man, saying to him in a dream: "Be strong in God, Nicon, soldier of Christ: for Christ our God has received the burnt offerings of your one hundred ninety-nine disciples as a sweet-smelling savor, and they have entered the bridal chamber in which the heavenly bridegroom reclines. And behold, before him stood a maiden, whose face gleamed brighter than gold, a nocturnal vision is presented to him, and sparks of light radiated from her like the rays of the sun: and her adornment was composed of gold and sapphire: in her hands she held a lion white as snow, whose face resembled a leopard: and she stood in the plain of the torrent which is called Psemisthus, on the eastern side."

[20] Concerning the death decreed for Quintianus. On the western side stood two men of the greatest stature, whose heads reached to the summit of heaven, holding in their hands fiery^b spears, and they were conversing with the maiden who had appeared, saying: "Are we failing today, we who have been sent by the heavenly King, while we wait for Quintianus, intending to join battle with him? For behold, he delays." Then the maiden cried out to them, saying: "Behold, yesterday he killed one hundred ninety-nine men from among my own; and now he meditates yet worse things against their master Nicon, who has truly overcome every machination of the enemy, and shortly he will be present in the place to which you have been assigned." And casting from her hands the beast she held: "Take this beast also,"^c she said, "which will be your aid against the tyrant."

[21] When the servant of God Nicon awoke, he was greatly gladdened, glorifying and giving thanks to God: and he narrated all things in order with joy to a young man called Chaeromenus, who ministered to him and committed his life to writing, adding that he himself would die on that day and would not abandon his excellent fellowship. Quintianus, however, would end his life in the torrent called^d Psemisthus: all of which things, just as he had foretold, came to pass. For when morning came, he is again summoned to questioning by the Governor, the Governor ordered Nicon to be brought before his presence, and said to him: "Who are you, from where, and of what religion, you who by your magical art and incantations have caused such a great number of men to undergo the death sentence, and their bodies to be consigned to the fire? And behold, on account of their madness they have been deprived of the beauty of the sun and the splendor of the moon."

[22] The Blessed Nicon answered him: "O you who are filled with all injustice, from where I am and of what religion, not only I have told you, but you yourself heard from the mouths of many Saints, whom, blinded by your impiety, you killed yesterday: now, however, hear again from me accurately that I am a Christian, firm and constant, and have my hope fixed in God, who made heaven and earth: but you, on account of your execrable fury, he shall deliver to intolerable torments." He overcomes the rack and fire. At these words the Governor, roaring with rage,

ordered him^e to be raised upon the wooden frame; then, stretched out from four sides, to be roasted by placing lighted lamps beneath him. When this was done, S. Nicon rested as though in a flowery meadow, and so he sang psalms upon the burning coals, saying: "You are my stronghold and my refuge; my deliverer from my wrathful enemies." Then the attendants said to the Governor: "My lord, we are exhausted from lighting the lamps, yet the torments do not touch him."

[23] Thereupon he commanded him to be taken down and tied to beasts of burden and dragged along, so as to dispatch him from life as swiftly as possible.^f But the Holy one of God, catching sight of the animals, extended his hand toward them; He renders immobile the horses to which he is tied; and they, having been signed by him, became gentler than sheep and stood completely still, as if restrained by some bridle, and were not permitted to move so much as a step from their place, however many blows the attendants inflicted. And so they said to the Governor: "We labor greatly in striking the animals, yet they do not move at all from the spot." He, however, seized with rage, ordered the sinews of the animals to be cut with a sword: but they, receiving^g a human voice, said: "Our God in heaven and on earth has done all things whatsoever he willed, and we today are killed on account of Nicon." Then the Governor ordered him to be shackled and cast from a precipice: but even from there the Saint was brought out safe by an Angel, and stood in the midst of all, alive and unbound.

[24] When all were thrown into confusion by this spectacle: "By the providence of the supreme gods!" He rises unharmed from the precipice, said the Governor; "do you not see how great a care they have for you, and how they do not wish your body to be given over to destruction? Now therefore sacrifice to them, and you shall be their worshiper and friend." And the Saint answered: "Anathema be upon you and upon them, and upon all who trust in them: for they are lifeless stones." Then the Governor ordered his attendants to strike his face with stones, to pull out his tongue and cut it off, and finally to lead him away to the place where he had lived, and after other tortures he is beheaded, and there to behead him beside the river called the Asinus, where there was also a pine tree directly facing the East. The attendants therefore seized him, led him to the place prescribed for them, and cut off his venerable head, leaving the body as prey for wild beasts and the birds of heaven.

[25] By the liberation of a demoniac, For two days already the corpse had lain without the honor of burial, when a certain shepherd, passing by that way, possessed by an unclean spirit, as soon as he saw it fell on his face, and in that same hour received healing, the spirit itself crying out in a great voice: "Woe to me, where shall I flee from the face of the Bishop and Martyr Nicon? For after I fell upon him unexpectedly, I was struck by him as by fire. O admirable wonder, by which the dead man bestows a cure upon the living! For this is Nicon, who, beheaded by Quintianus after completing the course of his torments, has been made an heir of the heavenly kingdom." The shepherd who had been healed told the miracle that had happened to him to all.

[26] When Theodosius,^h Bishop of the Church of the Emesenes, learned of the matter, he took with him his Clergyⁱ with candles and censers, and sought out and found his sacred relics, the revealed bodies of the Saints are buried, the healed shepherd showing the way and saying that in that place the body of the holy and venerable Bishop Nicon should be sought, and of the one hundred ninety-nine who had been with him. This Bishop Theodosius carefully carried out, and had a worthy coffin prepared for the Saint, and laid him therein on that very spot, and opposite placed^k other coffins for the remaining companions of that Martyrdom; diligently collecting all the bodies from the ancient bathhouse burned by Quintianus, and transferring them together into sacred coffins. The bodies were found intact and unharmed by the fire, with only the heads severed from them.^l [The one hundred ninety holy Martyrs died on the twenty-third day of the month of March: the holy Bishop Nicon on the^m following day of the same month.] And they were laid to rest in the place called "the Shepherd's," beside the river Asinus: by whose prayers and intercessions may we ever be freed from the snares of our adversary, and may we with them and through them become heirs of the heavenly kingdom, by the grace and benignity of our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom be to the Father and the Holy Spirit glory and thanksgiving, now and always and unto the ages of ages. Amen.

COMPENDIUM

From the Menaea and the manuscript Synaxarion.

[27] Having experienced the power of the Holy Cross in war, The holy Nicon lived in the times of Quintianus the Governor, born in the region of Naples, handsome of form, fair of face, formidable in war, born of a pagan father and a Christian mother. When a great war had been stirred up and a perilous contest was imminent, the blessed one, remembering his mother's admonitions, he groaned deeply and said: "Help me, Jesus Christ," and fortifying himself with the venerable sign of the Cross, he threw himself into the midst of the enemy; and striking some with the sword, casting others down with the spear, he did not desist from the contest until he had scattered them all in flight, all being struck with admiration on account of this. Afterward, when the war had proceeded successfully, he too returned with the rest to his own house. There, having informed his mother of his intention, he sailed toward the regions of Constantinople.

[28] He landed at a certain island called Chios, and proceeded to the mountain that was on it: He seeks baptism. where for seven days, devoting himself to fasts, vigils, and prayers, he was taught by an Angel of God that he must descend to the shore, with the staff offered by him who appeared to him. When therefore he had come to the shore and found a ship, he entered it, and within two days landed at Mount Ganus. There, by God's guidance, a certain Bishop in monastic habit approached him, who, taking him by the hand, led him into the cave in which he himself dwelt, and having duly instructed him, baptized him in the name of the holy Trinity, also communicating to him the sacred mysteries: and moreover, after three years, ordained him Priest and then Bishop.

[29] Ordained by Theodosius, he sails to Italy. After this, receiving the leadership of all the monks who had gathered there these numbered one hundred ninety, he departed with all of them to Mitylene (for by a divine revelation he had learned that Mount Ganus would be devastated by Gentiles; as indeed it happened), and thence transferred himself to Italy: where, having visited his mother and arranged her funeral after she died, he crossed over to Sicily; and in that place he inhabited the mountain of Tauromenium together with nine others.

[30] Thence to Sicily, where he becomes a Martyr with his companions. But the Governor, as soon as word was brought to him about the holy man, immediately ordered all of them to be summoned before his tribunal, and being interrogated, they were stretched out on the ground and beaten with blows, and finally ended their lives by the sword. But the holy Nicon was stretched out from four sides, and roasted with lamps placed beneath him; then tied to beasts of burden and dragged along the ground; he was also hurled over a precipice, and his face was battered with stones; his tongue was cut out, and at last his head was severed with a sword: and thus the course of that glorious confession was completed.