Venerable Nicetas the Confessor, Abbot of Medikion.
St. Nicetas the Confessor was abbot of the monastery of Medikion in Bithynia in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. A gentle father to his monks, he guided his community in prayer and asceticism until the renewal of iconoclasm, when he refused to reject the holy icons and was imprisoned and exiled by the emperor.
He endured his sufferings with patience and reposed a confessor, honored throughout the Church for his steadfastness in the Orthodox faith. He is commemorated on April 3.
Feast day
On the New Calendar, Nicetas the Confessor is commemorated on April 3. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on April 16 of the civil calendar.
Who celebrates a name day
People with these names keep their name day on this feast:
Also commemorated on April 3
Joseph the Hymnographer
Venerable, Ιωσήφ ο Υμνογράφος
Venerable Joseph the Hymnographer, composer of many canons of the Church and confessor for the holy icons.
Elpidephoros, Dius, Bithonius and Galycus
Martyr, Ελπιδηφόρος, Δίος, Βυθόνιος και Γάλυκος
Holy Martyrs Elpidephoros, Dius, Bithonius and Galycus, who suffered different deaths for Christ.
Name days: Elpidoforos, Elpidophoros, Elpidiforos
Illyrios of Mount Myrsinon
Venerable, Ιλλύριος
Venerable Illyrios the Wonderworker, ascetic of Mount Myrsinon in the Peloponnese.
Paul the Russian
Martyr, Παύλος ο Ρώσος
Holy New Martyr Paul the Russian, a freed captive who was martyred in Constantinople.
Agape the Virgin Martyr
Holy Woman, Αγάπη η Παρθενομάρτυς
Holy Virgin Martyr Agape, commemorated on this day in the Greek synaxaria.
Icon: public domain image from Wikimedia Commons.