The holy great martyr Nicetas the Goth was a disciple of Theophilus, Bishop of the Goths, who participated in the First Ecumenical Council [Nicaea 325]. When the Gothic prince Athenarik began to torture Christians, St. Nicetas stood before the prince and denounced him for his paganism and inhumanity. Subsequently harshly tortured, Nicetas confessed his faith in Christ even more strongly, and prayed to God with thanksgiving. His mind was unceasingly raised up to God, and on his breast under his robe he bore an icon of the Theotokos with the Pre-eternal Christ Child standing and holding the cross in His hands. Finally, the tortures threw the soldier of Christ into the fire, where the holy martyr breathed his last, but his body remained untouched by the fire. His companion Marian took his body from the land of the Goths (Wallachia and Bessarabia) to the town of Mopsuestia, in Cilicia. There, he built a church dedicated to St. Nicetas. (372)
You lovingly took up the cross for armor, and you advanced to fight the enemy. You were burnt to death for Christ, and thus you offered up your priestly soul to the Lord. You have been rewarded with the gift of healing, O great-martyr Nicetas; now beg Christ our God to save our souls.
O glorious Nicetas, you crushed the power of deception by your perseverance in the faith and earned the crown of victory by your struggles; therefore, you now enjoy the company of angels in heaven. With them, do not cease to intercede with Christ our God that He many save all of us.
Galatians 2: 16-20
Brothers and sisters: Knowing that a man is not justified by legal observance but by faith in Jesus Christ, we too have believed in him in order to be justified by faith in Christ, not by observance of the law; for by works of the law no one will be justified. But if, in seeking to be justified in Christ, we are shown to be sinners, does that mean that Christ is encouraging sin? Unthinkable! If, however, I were to build up the very things I had demolished, I should then indeed be a transgressor. It was through the law that I died to the law, to live for God. I have been crucified with Christ, and the life I live now is not my own; Christ is living in me. I still live my human life, but it is a life of faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
Mark 8: 34b-38, 9:1
The Lord said, “If a man wishes to come after me, he must deny his very self, take up his cross and follow in my steps. Whoever would preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel’s will preserve it. What profit does a man show who gains the whole world and destroys himself in the process? What can a man offer in exchange for his life? If anyone in this faithless and corrupt age is ashamed of me and my doctrine, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when he comes with the holy angels in his Father’s glory.”
He also said to them: “I assure you, among those standing here there are some who will not taste death until they see the reign of God established in power.”
Icon courtesy of Jack Figel, Eastern Christian Publications – ecpubs.com
Saturday, September 14 –
