Nicon of the Kiev Caves
Our Venerable Father Nicon the Dry, of the Kiev Caves
Venerable · d. 1101
Commemorated 23 March — Commemoration of the monk of the Kiev Caves, 28 September — Synaxis of the Fathers of the Near Caves
Nicon, surnamed "the Dry" (Sukhoi), was a monk of the Kiev Caves monastery who was carried off captive during a Polovtsian (Cuman) raid, held three years in cruel bondage, and — after refusing ransom and enduring the hamstringing of his legs — was miraculously returned to the Caves; the withering of his body from his sufferings gave him his by-name. He reposed at the monastery around 1101 and rests among the fathers of the Near (Antoniev) Caves.
Nicon was taken prisoner when the Polovtsy overran the region of Kiev (the great raids of the late eleventh century). His captor bound him and demanded a ransom; Nicon refused to let it be paid, saying that Christ would deliver him in His own time and that he would not have the monastery impoverished for his sake. Enraged, his masters tormented him — starving him, cutting the sinews of his legs so that he could not flee, and setting a guard over him. He bore all with prayer and foretold that he would be back in the Caves on the third day.
On the day he had named, in the sight of his guards, he was suddenly caught away and found himself again in the church of the Caves during the Liturgy. The wonder was made public when, some time afterward, the very Polovtsian who had held him came to Kiev in an embassy, recognised Nicon among the brethren, and, astonished, himself received baptism and became a monk of the same house. From the long fasting and the wasting of his wounds Nicon's body remained dry and withered, whence he is called "the Dry." He passed the rest of his life in the monastery and reposed about 1101; his relics lie in the Near Caves, and he is commemorated with their synaxis on September 28.
Feast and commemoration
March 23 (church date; Old Calendar civil April 5), within Great Lent, and with the Synaxis of the Venerable Fathers of the Near Caves on September 28.
Hymns
Troparion — Tone 8 (common of a venerable)
In thee, O Father, was preserved unimpaired that which is according to God's image; for taking up the Cross thou didst follow after Christ, and by thy deeds thou didst teach us to despise the flesh, for it passeth away, but to care for the soul, a thing immortal. Wherefore, O venerable Nicon, thy spirit rejoiceth with the angels.
Original translation from the Slavonic
Iconography
Nicon is shown as a monk of the Caves in the schema, gaunt and withered, holding a scroll or a cross; in the Caves menologia he appears among the fathers of the Near Caves. No pre-1900 icon of him alone has been secured for this collection.
Disputed questions
- Not to be confused with Nicon of Sicily (the hieromartyr and his 199 disciples, kept the same day) or with the Abbot Nikon of the Kiev Caves, the successor of Theodosius. The by-name "the Dry" is his distinguishing mark.