Nikon the Dry

Last updated

Nikon the Dry was enslaved by the Polovtsians in the 11th century. Before his capture, he had been a monk of the monastery of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra in Ukraine. Nikon endured brutal captivity for more than three years, eventually gaining his freedom through a miracle.

Nikon, before his freedom was gained, informed his enslaver that Jesus would release him from bondage in three days. As a consequence, his enslaver crippled Nikon's legs so that he could no longer walk. According to legend, three days later, Nikon was carried by God to Kyiv unseen. Sometime later, Nikon's former master encountered the holy man in the city. The man repented of his former ways was baptised, and became a disciple of Nikon.

Nikon was referred to as "the Dry" due to his intense practice of fasting.

Nikon the Dry died in 1101 and is commemorated on the date of his passing to eternity, 11 December, in the Eastern Orthodox and Byzantine Rite Catholic Churches. [1]

See also

Related Research Articles

The Julian calendar is a solar calendar of 365 days in every year with an additional leap day every fourth year. The Julian calendar is still used as a religious calendar in parts of the Eastern Orthodox Church and in parts of Oriental Orthodoxy as well as by the Amazigh people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Believers</span> Russian religious dissenters

Old Believers, also called Old Ritualists, are Eastern Orthodox Christians who maintain the liturgical and ritual practices of the Russian Orthodox Church as they were before the reforms of Patriarch Nikon of Moscow between 1652 and 1666. Resisting the accommodation of Russian piety to the contemporary forms of Greek Orthodox worship, these Christians were anathematized, together with their ritual, in a Synod of 1666–67, producing a division in Eastern Europe between the Old Believers and those who followed the state church in its condemnation of the Old Rite. Russian speakers refer to the schism itself as raskol (раскол), etymologically indicating a "cleaving-apart".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Christianity in Ukraine</span>

The history of Christianity in Ukraine dates back to the earliest centuries of the history of Christianity, to the Apostolic Age, with mission trips along the Black Sea and a legend of Andrew the Apostle even ascending the hills of Kiev. The first Christian community on territory of modern Ukraine is documented as early as the 4th century with the establishment of the Metropolitanate of Gothia, which was centered in the Crimean peninsula. However, on territory of the Old Rus in Kiev, Christianity became the dominant religion since its official acceptance in 989 by Vladimir the Great, who brought it from Byzantine Crimea and installed it as the state religion of medieval Kievan Rus (Ruthenia), with the metropolitan see in Kiev.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Symon Petliura</span> Ukrainian military leader (1879–1926)

Symon Vasyliovych Petliura was a Ukrainian politician and journalist. He was the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian People's Army (UNA) and led the Ukrainian People's Republic during the Ukrainian War of Independence, a part of the wider Russian Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church</span> Byzantine Rite Eastern Catholic Church

The Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) is a major archiepiscopal sui iuris ("autonomous") Eastern Catholic church that is based in Ukraine. As a particular church of the Catholic Church, it is in full communion with the Holy See. It is the third-largest particular church in the Catholic Church after the Latin Church and the Syro-Malabar Church. The major archbishop presides over the entire Church but is not distinguished with the patriarchal title. The incumbent Major Archbishop is Sviatoslav Shevchuk.

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, the feast of the death and Resurrection of Jesus, called Pascha (Easter), is the greatest of all holy days and as such it is called the "feast of feasts". Immediately below it in importance, there is a group of Twelve Great Feasts. Together with Pascha, these are the most significant dates on the Orthodox liturgical calendar. Eight of the great feasts are in honor of Jesus Christ, while the other four are dedicated to the Virgin Mary—the Theotokos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony of Kiev</span> Christian monk and Saint

Anthony of Kiev, also called Anthony of the Caves, was a monk and the founder of the monastic tradition in Kievan Rus'. Together with Theodosius of Kiev, he co-founded the Kiev Pechersk Lavra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow</span>

Saint Philip II of Moscow was the Metropolitan of Moscow and all Rus' from 1566 to 1568. He was the thirteenth Metropolitan of Moscow to be appointed without the approval of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as had been the norm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Savanna-la-Mar</span> Parish Capital in Cornwall, Jamaica

Savanna-la-Mar is the chief town and capital of Westmoreland Parish, Jamaica. A coastal town, it contains an 18th-century fort constructed for colonial defence against pirates in the Caribbean.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simeon (Gospel of Luke)</span> 1st century prophet of the New Testament

Simeon at the Temple is the "just and devout" man of Jerusalem who, according to Luke 2:25–35, met Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as they entered the Temple to fulfill the requirements of the Law of Moses on the 40th day from Jesus' birth, i. e. the presentation of Jesus at the Temple.

In Christianity, the Nativity Fast—or Fast of the Prophets in Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church and Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church—is a period of abstinence and penance practiced by the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodox Church and Catholic Church in preparation for the Nativity of Jesus on December 25. Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Churches commence the season on November 24 and end the season on the day of Ethiopian Christmas, which falls on January 7. The corresponding Western season of preparation for Christmas, which also has been called the Nativity Fast and St. Martin's Lent, has taken the name of Advent. The Eastern fast runs for 40 days instead of four or six weeks and thematically focuses on proclamation and glorification of the Incarnation of God, whereas the Western Advent focuses on three comings of Jesus Christ: his birth, reception of his grace by the faithful, and his Second Coming or Parousia.

Solomon Bayley was a formerly enslaved African American who is best known for his 1825 autobiography entitled A Narrative of Some Remarkable Incidents in the Life of Solomon Bayley, Formerly a Slave in the State of Delaware, North America. Published in London, it is among the early slave narratives written by enslaved people who gained freedom before the American Civil War and emancipation. Bayley was born into slavery in Delaware. After escaping and being recaptured, he bought his freedom, including his wife and children. He worked as a farmer and at a sawmill. In their later years, he and his wife emigrated in 1827 to the new colony of Liberia, where he worked as a missionary and farmer. His short book about the colony was published in Delaware in 1833.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christmas in Ukraine</span> Overview of Christmas in Ukraine

In Ukraine, Christmas celebrations traditionally start on Christmas Eve, which is celebrated from December 24 to January 6, the date of the celebration of the baptism of Jesus, known in Ukraine as Vodokhreshche or Yordan, according to the Gregorian calendar and Revised Julian calendar by the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), the Catholic Church in Ukraine and Ukrainian Protestants.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jovan Vraniškovski</span>

Jovan Vraniškovski, Metropolitan Jovan of Kruševo and Demir Hisar, of the Macedonian Orthodox Church, formerly known as Jovan VI, Metropolitan of Skopje and the Archbishop of Ohrid, is the former head of the Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric (2005–2023).

The following are 11 public holidays in Ukraine.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Jennings (abolitionist)</span> American Author, First White House Memoirist

Paul Jennings was an American abolitionist and writer. Enslaved as a young man by President James Madison during and after his White House years, Jennings published, in 1865, the first White House memoir. His book was A Colored Man's Reminiscences of James Madison, described as "a singular document in the history of slavery and the early American republic."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Orthodox Church of Ukraine</span> Partially-recognized Eastern Orthodox church in Ukraine

The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, also called the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, is a partially recognized Eastern Orthodox Church in Ukraine. It was granted autocephaly by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople on 6 January 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Freedom suit</span> Enslaved persons lawsuits for freedom

Freedom suits were lawsuits in the Thirteen Colonies and the United States filed by slaves against slaveholders to assert claims to freedom, often based on descent from a free maternal ancestor, or time held as a resident in a free state or territory.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Perpetua and Felicity</span> Early-3rd-century Carthaginian Christian martyrs

Perpetua and Felicity were Christian martyrs of the third century. Vibia Perpetua was a recently married, well-educated noblewoman, said to have been 22 years old at the time of her death, and mother of an infant son she was nursing. Felicity, a slave woman imprisoned with her and pregnant at the time, was martyred with her. They were put to death along with others at Carthage in the Roman province of Africa.

References

  1. "Prolog: December 11". www.westsrbdio.org. Archived from the original on 14 December 2007. Retrieved 13 January 2022.