Nicon of Sicily
The Holy Hieromartyr Nicon and his One Hundred and Ninety-Nine Disciples
Hieromartyr · Bishop · Martyr · d. c. 251
Commemorated 23 March — Martyrdom of Nicon and his disciples in Sicily
Nicon was a soldier of Neapolis (Naples) in the third century — the son of a Christian mother and a pagan father — who was converted and baptized, became a monk and then a bishop, and with a company of nearly two hundred disciples was martyred in Sicily under the emperor Decius. He is honoured with his companions, the "one hundred and ninety-nine disciples of Nicon," as one of the great martyr- bands of the early Church.
Nicon's mother was a Christian, his father a pagan, and he was reared with a divided heart until, serving as a soldier, he found himself in mortal peril in battle and, remembering his mother's counsel, made the sign of the Cross and called upon Christ; delivered, he resolved to become a Christian in earnest. Returning home, he was baptized, and after his mother's death he withdrew from the world.
Crossing to the East, he entered a monastery — the tradition places it on a mountain near Cyzicus — and there, after years of ascetic labour, he was made abbot and at length bishop. When persecution arose, he set out with a great company of his monks and disciples, numbering (the synaxarion says) one hundred and ninety-nine, and came at last to Sicily, near the region of Taormina. There they were taken by the governor; the disciples were put to the sword, and Nicon, after prolonged tortures, was beheaded, completing the number of the martyrs at two hundred. Their relics were later gathered and honoured.
Feast and commemoration
March 23 (church date; Old Calendar civil April 5), within Great Lent. The company is kept universally in the Byzantine rite.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 4 (common of several martyrs)
Thy martyrs, O Lord, in their sufferings received incorruptible crowns from Thee, our God; for possessing Thy strength, they cast down the tyrants and shattered the feeble insolence of the demons. By their intercessions save our souls.
Original translation from the Greek
Iconography
Nicon is shown as a bishop-martyr in the omophorion, his disciples ranged behind him in the martyr's dress. No pre-1900 icon of the company alone has been identified for this collection.
Disputed questions
- The number "one hundred and ninety-nine" is the received figure of the synaxaria; some notices round the company to two hundred (with Nicon). The exact chronology and the identity of the persecuting governor vary in the sources.
- Not to be confused with Nicon of the Kiev Caves (the "Dry," †1101, kept the same day), nor with Nicon the Preacher of Repentance (Metanoeite) of Sparta (Nov 26).