SAINT NICHOLAS MYSTICUS

May 16

From the Prologue

Nicholas was famous because of the unusual severity of his life. When Emperor Leo the Wise married for the fourth time, the patriarch refused him entrance into the church and defrocked the priest who performed the marriage. As a result of that, the emperor deposed the patriarch and banished him to a monastery. The delegates of the Roman Pope Sergius II approved of the emperor's fourth marriage. When the emperor died, Nicholas was again restored to the patriarchal throne and called an assembly in the year 925 A.D., at which a fourth marriage for a Christian, in general, was forbidden. He died in the year 930 A.D. Nicholas is often surnamed Mysticus [The Mystic] and was a member of the emperor's secret council. At first, this saint was a high ranking courtier after which he left the vanity of the world and was tonsured a monk. He died peacefully in the year 930 A.D.




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St Nicholas Russian Orthodox Church, McKinney, Texas