Автор: tantris
Дата: 30-11-10 14:08
Saint Nikon the Metanoeite
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Nikon "the Metanoite" (Greek: Νίκων ὁ Μετανοείτε, Nikon ho Metanoeite) (died 998) was a Greek Orthodox monk and saint born in Byzantine Pontus (Pontus Polemoniacus, modern north-eastern Turkey).[1] Perhaps Nikon's most notable historical impact, according to Andrew Louth was the light his Life, the biography of Nikon written after his death by a successor abbot in his monastery, shed on the re-Christianizing of reconquered sections of the Byzantine empire. It is also special in its references of localities in Crete and the central Greek mainland. Nikon himself was special in that he was represented as a missionary monk, one who was constantly preaching rather than constantly praying[2].
When he was still a young man Nikon went to a monastery known as Khrysopetro ("Golden Stone") on the borders Pontos and Paphlagonia. He spent twelve years there, living an ascetic life of prayer and penance, so extreme that his brothers tried to persuade him to lesson his regimen. His abbot, impressed by his spiritual conferences and worried that his newly returned father would draw him from the ascetic life, sent him out into the world to preach. After his departure, he traveled to Asia Minor and preached repentance there for three years before moving on. Following the expulsion of the Arabs from Crete in 961 by Nikephoros Phokas, he became active as a missionary preacher on the island, struggling to return recent converts of Islam back to Christianity. The area had been under Muslim control for 300 years or so, and in that time Christianity in the area weakened, many former Christians having converted to Islam. Even those who remained faithful to Christianity had somewhat lost contact with the living tradition, churches and monasteries having fallen into decay. The people in the region were, quoted from Nikon's biography, not Islamic, but rather Christians who had been corrupted "by time and long fellowship with the Saracens." Nikon was forced to change his tactics on Crete, now having to use his wit to lead his listeners to repentance, rather than just preaching the message of repentance. It was there that he acquired the nickname "metanoite" (Greek for "repent") for his habit of using it as a preface to all his sermons[3].
After five years on Crete he went on to Epidauros, Athens and Euboea. Then on to Thebes and Corinth, and finally down into the Peloponnese, particularly to Sparta, which he reputably saved from a plague. There he also built three churches and a monastery continuing his preaching and teachings, which were reportedly confirmed by miracles. The Peloponnese is represented as a land full of demons, of which Nikon is constantly struggling against. He ended his life in mainland Greece, in the province of Lakonia, where he exerted considerable influence on both clergy and laity, founding a large number of churches. As a result, after his sanctification by the Greek Orthodox Church, he eventually became patron saint of the town of Sparta. His feast is celebrated each year on November 26. After thirty or so years of preaching in the Peloponnese he died in a monastery there on November 26, 998 AD. According to his biography, Nikon continued to grant miracles posthumously, in fact, much of the account deals solely with these posthumous miracles. Nikon is pictured in mosaics in the monastery of Hosios Loukas, or Saint Luke.[4]
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