Nicetas

Holy Hierarch Nicetas was archbishop of Aquileia in northern Italy from 454 or 455 until 485. In the past his life and deeds were confused with those of Nicetas of Remesiana, who worked in Upper Moesia, a different saint.

In 452 the Huns of Attila destroyed Aquileia; according to tradition Nicetas found refuge on the island of Grado, safer from invaders, where a cathedral is said to have been built in his time, though the work was finished only much later, before the synod of 579. His name appears in a letter of Pope Leo the Great of 21 March 458, in which the pope is concerned about the moral consequences of the destruction, captivity and flight, for example what should be done if a man returned from captivity and found that his widow had remarried. His commemoration is on 22 June, a date fixed in Aquileia after Baronius, in place of the old day of 7 January. His successor was a certain Marcellianus. He is honored as a saint of the undivided Church.