St. Nikon and His 200 Fellow Companions Holy Martyrs

Slide 1:

St. Nikon was from Naples, Italy where he started his life in III century A.C. as a soldier in the Roman Empire troops. His father was an idolater but his mother was a strong Christian believer. Being a small child and later on an young man he was often spoken to by his mother words of Christian wisdom about the Holy Trinity and in particular the faith in Jesus. Having been overwhelmed by the typical of youth superficiality he used not to pay attention to her. However once upon a fierce battle he was surrounded by his cruel enemies and to avoid a brutal end of his life he suddenly recollected the wisdom words of his mother and cried to Heaven out of the bottom of his heart the following prayer words: “Oh, Christ, Almighty God! Show your mercy and power on me so that from now on I’d be your man!” and he won the battle out of the blue. When he got back to the camp all the rest of the soldiers started to hold him in a great respect. His mother was very proud of him keeping her piety at the same time and she continued praying about his son and his future conversion into Christianity. She explained carefully the Word of God to him and St. Nikon decided to seek for a priest to baptize him into the blessed holy faith in Jesus. Nikon the Holy Martyr & His 200 Fellow Companion Martyrs

Slide 2:

He fell on his knees in front of his mother and asked her prayers so that the merciful God should send an angel to him to protect him and give a helping hand with the acceptance of Christianity…His mother in reply asked him not to postpone and go too far away ‘cause she was pretty advanced in age and was afraid of not being able to await for his son back… So St. Nikon having not been able to find a proper priest in his region, got the guts to get on board of a sailing ship to the East provinces of the Roman Empire and he managed to reach for the Greek nowadays isle Xios where he could not find immediately what he was looking forward to. So he lived there on a mountain cage and prayed a lot to succeed in finding the best teacher in Lord who be able to introduce himself into the faith and baptize him as well by human dignity. The almighty God sent to him Theodosius, the Kizik Bishop who having been notified in a spiritual way in his night dreams about his arrival. He and his followers accepted Nikon with a great love and started teaching Faith to him. In a three years time, Theodosius received a revelation from God that he soon would depart for the blessed eternity and he baptized Nikon first in the lower ranks and later on as a bishop to whom he decided to leave his disciples. He advised Nikon as well to leave for Italy after his death.

Slide 3:

Having received the wisdom of his teacher and father priest, St. Nikon set forth Cecily with his 190 followers inherited from the school of Theodosius. Upon arrival in Cecily, he hurried up to reach for his mother who burst into tears when she saw him and was quick in thankful prayers for accepting him alive and in a service to the Lord. St. Nikon confessed in Naples his strong faith amongst his old fellows and friends and some other 9 soldiers decided themselves to follow suit and convert into Christianity. The whole group of approximately 200 companions being inclusive St. Nikon set out for Cecily where in the outskirts they made a camp and started growing orchard and a farm to maintain their lives ‘cause their faith did not allow to stay strictly attached to the Roman life style anymore. Soon they were alleged …still III century A.C. and the soldiers of the Roman Empire province they were located came to them to arrest and imprison the future Holy Martyrs. They all said their prayers and followed the soldiers. St. Nikon was trying to make their spirits bright by quoting the famous Mathew 10:28.

Slide 4:

“Don’t be afraid of people. They can only kill the body. They cannot kill the soul. He can send the body and soul to hell.” Mathew 10:28. Supported strongly by his father in Jesus the companions denied to bow to the idolatry of Rome and opted for keeping their sacred Faith and for their boldness and disobedience to the August of the Empire they were sentenced to death and beheaded to deserve their eternal glory as Holy Martyrs, Companions of St. Nikon, the Holy Martyr (III A.C.). St. Nikon was kept alive while slaughtering the others just to make his end a lot more bitter than expected. After the beheading of his fellows he was jailed and put to torture. He did not respond to the Province ruler’s promises and he was subsequently put to burning his flesh and dragging away of his wounded body by horses. The Saint reconfirmed his faith and the authorities being afraid of the spectators to follow suit into Christianity gave an order for his beheading. So the Holy Martyr carved his holy name on the Heavenly sky of God together with his fellow companions upon denial to commit betrayal to Jesus Christ and His Holy name. The bodies of all the Holy Martyrs were collected and buried by the local bishop and Kvintus, the Roman province ruler who led the attack and torture was struck by a terrible death. Source: Life Descriptions of the Saints, 1991 Holy Synod Edition of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.