Eikon

Nicetas the Patrician

Our Venerable Father Nicetas the Patrician, the Confessor

Confessor · Venerable · b. c. 763 — d. c. 838

Commemorated 13 October — Repose in exile for the holy icons

Nicetas the Patrician (c. 763–c. 838), called in the Greek synaxarion "Nicetas the Patrician, the Confessor" and by the OCA "Nikita the Confessor of Paphlagonia," was a high courtier of Byzantium who became a monk and a confessor for the holy icons. A Paphlagonian and a kinsman of the empress Irene, he held the rank of patrician at her court, is said to have represented her at the Seventh Ecumenical Council of 787, and assisted at the translation of the relics of the great-martyr Euphemia; renouncing rank and honours, he took the monastic habit in the capital, and under the iconoclast revival was driven from his monastery and wandered in exile until his death. The synaxarion's distich says that, having endured afflictions for the sake of the divine icons, "Nicetas rejoices with such joy as the angelic Minds know."

Nicetas was born about 763 in Paphlagonia, the Black Sea province from which the empress Irene's family also came; the tradition makes him her relative, and it was under Irene and her son Constantine VI that he rose at the imperial court to the high dignity of patrician. The OCA's notice records the tradition that he represented the empress at the Seventh Ecumenical Council at Nicaea in 787 — the council that restored the veneration of the holy icons — while noting honestly that his name does not appear in the council's surviving Acts. He is also remembered as having assisted at the translation of the relics of the great-martyr Euphemia, whose shrine Irene restored after its profanation by the iconoclasts.

Leaving position and honours behind, Nicetas resolved on the monastic life. At the emperor's request he did not withdraw into the wilderness but entered a monastery in the capital, exchanging the dignity of patrician for obedience. When the iconoclast persecution revived in the ninth century — the OCA's notice names the reign of Theophilus (829–842) — the aged monk held openly to the veneration of the icons, was expelled from his monastery by the heretics, and spent his last years wandering the country as a confessor without a home. He died in exile at the age of seventy-five, about the year 838. During his life and after his repose, the tradition records, he worked many miracles.

Feast and commemoration

October 13 (church date; Old Calendar civil October 26), a synaxarion memory in the Greek Menaion — where he is listed with his distich after the martyrs of the day — and in the Slavic calendars (azbyka: "the venerable Nicetas the Confessor, of Constantinople") and the OCA ("of Paphlagonia," from his birthplace). The differing local epithets — the Patrician, of Constantinople, of Paphlagonia — all designate the same confessor. No proper service is appointed; the common of a venerable serves where his memory is kept liturgically.

Hymns

Troparion — Tone 8 (from the common of a venerable)

In thee, O father, was preserved unimpaired that which is according to the image: for taking up the cross, thou didst follow Christ, and by thy deeds didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, which is a thing immortal. Wherefore thy spirit, O venerable Nicetas, rejoiceth with the angels.

Original translation from the Greek

Iconography

No pre-modern or free-licensed image of Nicetas the Patrician has been identified; he is listed among the wanted icons. He would be painted as an aged monk in the schema, sometimes holding an icon — the attribute of the confessors of iconoclasm — his court rank left behind him.

Disputed questions

  • Chronology. The OCA and the Russian calendar give his repose "about 838" at age seventy-five, and those figures are used in this entry. Modern Byzantinist scholarship on the Greek Life of the patrician Nicetas is understood to place his death in 836 and to detail his confession already under Leo V (813–820), before the persecution of Theophilus; this rests on memory of the scholarly literature and is flagged for verification rather than asserted.
  • Not to be confused with Nicetas the Confessor, abbot of Medikion (†824, commemorated April 3), the other famous iconodule confessor named Nicetas, with whom he is often conflated in popular calendars — the April 3 entry, when authored, owes this one a reciprocal note; nor with Nicetas the Goth, the fourth-century martyr of September 15, who shares only the name; nor with Nicetas of Paphlagonia the ninth-to-tenth-century writer (Nicetas David the Paphlagonian), a different man again; nor with Nikitas of Novgorod, the recluse of the Kiev Caves and bishop of Novgorod (†1108, commemorated January 31); nor with Nicetas of Apollonias, the other ninth-century iconodule confessor-bishop of the same name, commemorated March 20, who confessed under Leo the Armenian and died in exile.

Sources

  1. Greek Menaion synaxarion for October 13 (consulted live at glt.goarch.org) — the memory of "our venerable father Nicetas the Patrician, the Confessor," with the distich on his joy.
  2. Orthodox Church in America, Lives of the Saints, October 13 (consulted live) — the court career under Irene and Constantine VI, the tradition of Nicaea II with the caveat about the Acts, the Euphemia translation, the tonsure, the expulsion under Theophilus, and the death at seventy-five about 838.
  3. Russian calendar for the day (consulted live at azbyka.ru) — the Slavic listing "venerable Nicetas the Confessor, of Constantinople (c. 838)."
  4. On the Greek Life of the patrician Nicetas and its chronology (death in 836; confession under Leo V): modern Byzantinist scholarship, from memory — flagged for verification.