Nicanor the Deacon

Saint Nicanor the Apostle was one of the seven deacons chosen by the community of Jerusalem and named in the Acts of the Apostles, and is counted among the Seventy Apostles. He is honoured by the Orthodox Church as apostle, deacon and martyr. Tradition says that he suffered on the day on which Saint Stephen, the Protomartyr, was stoned.

The choosing of the Seven

The Acts of the Apostles (chapter 6) tell that as the disciples multiplied, a murmuring arose among the Greek-⁠speaking Jews against the Hebrew-⁠speaking, because their widows were overlooked in the daily distribution. The twelve apostles called the multitude of the disciples together and said that it was not right for them to leave the word of God to serve tables. They asked that seven men of good repute, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, be chosen from among the disciples for this service, so that the apostles might devote themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word.

Those chosen were Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas of Antioch, a proselyte. The apostles prayed and laid their hands on them, a gesture in which Christian tradition sees the institution of the diaconate. The Greek names of several of them lead scholars to think that they were Greek-⁠speaking Jews. The name Nicanor, meaning conqueror, was very common in the Hellenistic world.

Ministry and martyrdom

Little is preserved about Nicanor's life. Tradition counts him among the Seventy apostles, who proclaimed the Gospel. According to the writing attributed to Hippolytus, On the Seventy Disciples, he died at the time of the martyrdom of Saint Stephen. Orthodox tradition says that he suffered together with Stephen and many other Christians killed in the persecution that followed; some traditions place him in Cyprus. After the persecution that followed Stephen's death, many believers of Jerusalem were scattered into Judea, Samaria and farther, some reaching Cyprus as well. His death is usually dated around 76, but the sources differ.

Veneration

Saint Nicanor is commemorated individually on 28 December, and on 28 July he is celebrated in synaxis with Prochorus, Timon, Parmenas and Nicholas. Stephen, the seventh of the Seven, is commemorated separately, on 26 December. The Catholic Church commemorates him on 10 January. His name appears in several ancient lists of the Seventy. An icon of him painted by Fyodor Zubov in 1685 is preserved in the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Convent in Moscow.