OUR VENERABLE FATHER NIKON THE DRY

(11/24 DECEMBER)

Remember those who are in bonds as if you were bound with them (Hb. 13, 3). These words of the Apostle call the miracles of the blessed prisoner Nikon to mind. The blessed man originated from an eminent Kiev family. He came to the Cave Monastery, devoted his mind and the entire self to the obedience towards Christ and became a diligent monk. When the Polovtsian tribes made a raid on Kiev, the blessed Nikon and St Eustratius were taken captives to the Polovtsian lands and imprisoned in irons. A Christ-loving citizen of Kiev came to the Polovtsian camp offering to ransom the captives. Nikon did not seek the benefactor’s aid and the man assumed that the saint had wealthy relatives who were expected to ransom him. The person paid the ransom for many people and returned with them to Kiev where he told of the blessed Nikon. The saint’s relatives heard the story and came to ransom the saint. The blessed Nikon, however, responded them the following,

‘Do not waste your wealth in vain. If the Lord wanted me to be free, He would not have committed me into the hands of these lawless people, for He commits to captivity those who He wills. But His hands shall restore them.’

His family reproached him and returned with all their wealth home. When the Polovtsians saw that they were not going to receive gold for the captive they began torturing him. He was forced to serve a heavy enslavement. He had been tormented daily for three years. His hands and legs were kept in chains. He was often burned with hot iron or coals or cut with knives. They starved the saint for one to three days. In summer, he was often left in the hot sun and in winter the saint was exposed to the snow and cold. The Polovtsians did all this in order to make the saint seek ransom from his relatives. However, St Nikon thanked the Lord and unceasingly prayed to Him for his tormentors.

At length, he said to his torturers,

‘Christ will deliver me from your hands. My brother Eustratius appeared to me; you sold him to Jews to be crucified and you will be judged for your deed. The brother informed me of my coming liberation. He told me that in three days I should be in the monastery due to the prayers of Sts Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves. And you, wretched men, will be tormented with Judas who had betrayed Christ.’

When they heard that, the Polovtsians thought that the saint planned to escape; so they severed the tendons on his feet and legs and put him under guard. Three days later, while the guards were watching, the saint suddenly became invisible and the guards heard nothing but a voice saying, ‘Praise the Lord from heavens.’

Thus, St Nikon was invisiny transported to the Cave church of the Most Holy Theotokos just at the time when the serving priest was beginning the preparatory prayers for the Divine Liturgy. All the brethren immediately gathered around St Nikon and asked how he came. At first, he wanted to conceal that great miracle, but the brethren, seeing him bound in chains and his body putrid from wounds, and blood oozing from the cut tendons, beseeched him to tell the truth. Then, the blessed man told all that had happened to him, but he would not allow the iron chains to be removed from his hands and feet.

The abbot told him, ‘Brother! If it were pleasing to the Lord to see you in these chains, He would not have delivered you from captivity. Therefore, listen to us now.’

They removed the iron chains from his body and reworked them into appurtenances for the sanctuary.

Many years later, there was a peace treaty concluded with the Polovtsians. A group of them visited the Cave Monastery on an occasion and the warrior who had held Nikon captive saw the saint and recognized his former prisoner immediately. He told the abbot and brethren what had happened in detail. The brethren glorified God; the Polovtsian warrior was so moved in spirit that he and his companions got baptized and tonsured soon. They served the blessed Nikon and ended their lives in repentance at the Holy Cave Monastery.

The blessed Nikon was called ‘he dry’ because he was so withered and drained of blood by his sufferings that he could truly say with David, My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue has cleaved to my throat. The congregations of evil-doers have surrounded me; they have pierced my hands and my feet (Ps. 21, 15—16), and we, looking in wonder at the life and miracles of this earthly angel, say with the Apostle, we have this treasure in earthen vessels (2 Cor. 4, 7).

His dryness withered all passions so that the saint burned with a fire of love for God being enlightened by good deeds. For the physical corruption he suffered in this life, he received of incorruptibility in the world to come.