My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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ON SEPTEMBER 15th OUR HOLY ORTHODOX CHURCH COMMEMORATES THE HOLY MARTYR NIKETAS THE GOTH
Niketas, bearing the name of one who conquers, was a valiant soldier of Christ. The handsome and wondrous man of God was born of notable and wondrous parents of the race of the Goths. The Goths at that time were generally reputed to be a barbarous and harsh people who lived by the Istros River, known by the local inhabitants as the Danube. It is a marvel that though Niketas was born and raised amid such surroundings, he never adulterated the inborn nobility of his soul. His good resolve shone forth as a brilliant sun in a land and among a people benighted by the dark clouds of barbarism and unbelief. Niketas did not take on any of their harshness and their fierce way of life, nor their religion. Though he lived among them, his pure and good judgment conquered the hardness and cruelty with which he was surrounded. He was able to overcome his circumstances and the savage mentality that existed in those parts on account of his love for the Christ and his love of virtue.
From Niketas' tender years until his youth, he was watered by the clear flowing streams of the teachings of Theophilos, the hierarch of the Goths. The holy Theophilos revealed himself as one great and notable when he, both in word and deed, personally affirmed what was promulgated at the First Ecumenical Synod at Nicaea, showing himself a zealot of the Homoousian party. Long after the collapse of Arianism heresy in the empire, many of the German tribes still held fast to its tenets.
Our Saint Niketas helped advance the work of Christ by both the example of his godliness and his God-inspired words to convey to the Goths the words of life in their own language. Having been baptized into the proper confession of the Holy Trinity by the former Bishop Theophilos, Niketas never wavered in his Orthodoxy.
Not much time passed before the race of the Goths was divided into two adverse and warring parties pitched for civil war. One group was led by Fritigernes and the other by Athanaric. The latter was a hard man known for his savagery and impiety. Soon the profane and inhuman Athanaric regained his former strength. Preserving all his malice, he now became an implacable enemy of the Christians. He was, however, especially enraged against the wise Niketas, of whom reports reached him of his fearlessness and great boldness in preaching piety. Many, on account of his teaching, came to believe in Christ.
Unable to further the Saint's freedom of speech, the impious, who were more beasts than men, revealed their long-standing wrath and rage which festered within them. They suddenly came up to the place where Christ's athlete was speaking the word of truth. By force, they seized him and brought him to the governor of their district, Athanaric. They used every effort to make him forsake the Faith of the Christians, or else expect death. He raised his voice, proclaiming with boldness, "A Christian I am, and I prefer many deaths than deny the most sweet name of my Savior Christ, Whom I confess before all of you as True God. To Him do I offer all my reverence. I am ready to spill of my blood for the love of Him. Your own religion, with its deities and myths, is a piece of impertinence. Well did I turn away; and unlike yourselves, neither did I establish it in my mind as the truth. As wild beasts, today you have carried me to this lawless tribunal.
Being unable to endure the martyr's frankness, with one accord, those who drove away the truth and defended falsehood rushed headlong at Niketas. Some took up rocks, and others clutched at pieces of wood, that they might shatter the martyr's bodily members. According to the historian and Saint, Theophanes the Confessor (760-817 A.D.), Niketas' flesh was scattered and his limbs were cut off. Theophanes goes on to describe how, on account of Niketas' unchecked desire for the Christ, he was cut down, scourged, and subjected to diverse methods of bodily destruction. The pagans then lit a huge bonfire and cast Niketas into the flames. In the midst of that furnace, the Saint, as a whole-burnt offering, chanted hymns to God that He might preserve him to the end with a pure and unadulterated confession of the Faith. Having trampled down the flame of idolatry and all the might of the demons, Saint Niketas, the namesake of victory, surrendered his blessed soul into the hands of God (+ 375), and was vouchsafed the crown of the contest and membership in the ranks of the martyrs. His body was not in the least outraged by the fire. After the impious extinguished the flames and laid hold of his holy relics, they cast forth the holy relics, they cast forth the holy Niketas, unburied into a wild place, that he might become food for predators. But hearken how God dispensed otherwise, so that the lovers of Christ might not be deprived of the divine treasure, that is to say, his martyric body.
At that time, in that land of the martyr, there was a pious Cilician Christian from Mopsuestia, named Marianos. He was a close friend of the martyr. Together they had shared a life of virtue, living in the same house of a long time.
Marianos, one night, rose up, though he was filled with much fear on account of the harsh and cruel Athanaric who forbade anyone to collect the holy relics. This was not enough to dissuade Marianos from going to that place where the precious relics of the martyr were cast. It was dark, however, and Marianos was wondering how he might find his greatly beloved Saint Niketas. Straightway, while he was still pondering the matter--behold! above him a heavenly power and bodiless being took the form of a star and went on before him, guiding him in the dark through the martyric body. In this manner, guided by the star, Marianos recognized the body of the martyr, which was intact. There was not the least destruction from the fire--only certain small traces which revealed that he was cast into the flames. Divine power dispensed that it should be so, for further proof of the miracle. Then, without losing any time, he left for his own country. With the help of Saint Niketas, he, fearlessly and without encountering danger, arrived home in Cilicia. He, thereupon, stowed away the reliquary chest in his house with befitting honor. Marianos' home became a fountain of innumerable healings, even as another Sheep's Pool (John 5:2). Not only Mopsuestia enjoyed the patronage of the Saint's healings, but all those parts round about as well. All those who came received healing form the holy relics, so that none left with a complaint.
Soon afterward, on account of the concourse of many people to Marianos' dwelling-place, the Mopsuestians built a holy church to the Martyr. They transferred his precious relics from the house of Marianos, leaving behind only the third finger of the martyr's right hand for spiritual sanctification and bodily cure.
Yearly, on the 15th of September, at the church of Saint Niketas, the Martyr's memory is celebrated with great reverence and joy, to the glory of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to Whom is due glory, honor, and veneration to the boundless ages of unending ages. Amen. (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George