Venerable Nicholas the Confessor

Life

This saint was from the island of Crete. He came to Constantinople to visit his relative Theodore, abbot of the Studion monastery, and there he remained and became a monk. As a monk Nicholas went through all the labors for the salvation of his soul. During the time of the persecution of the Church by Leo the Armenian, Theodore and Nicholas were fiercely tormented, humiliated, beaten with ox sinews, and finally cast into prison where they were imprisoned for three years. After the death of Saint Theodore, Nicholas became abbot of Studion. Even while still alive he performed miracles by the power of God's grace. Thus: he healed Eudocia, wife of Emperor Basil, and Helena, wife of the patrician Manuel, from illness. To Theophilus Melissenus, a distinguished nobleman whose children did not survive, he blessed the newborn daughter and prophesied that she would live and be fruitful, which came to pass to the joy of the parents. On the very day of his death he summoned the monks and asked them what they lacked. Grain—the monks answered. Then the dying man said: "He who fed Israel in the desert will send you wheat abundantly in three days." And indeed on the third day a ship full of grain sailed up to the monastery, sent by Emperor Basil. He departed to the heavenly kingdom in the seventy-fifth year of his life, on February 4, 868.