Nicetas the New

Holy Hieromartyr Nicetas the New was born between 1760 and 1770 and was hanged at Serres in Macedonia on Great Saturday of the year 1808. He is the patron of the city of Serres.

Origin and monastic life

Some say he was from Epirus, others from Trebizond, from the Laz region of Pontus. The second view rests on the service composed by the monk Jacob of the New Skete (1840-1850) and on the reliquary of the relics, where is written "Nicetas the Laz". His parents were secret Christians. From the text of his martyrdom it cannot be said whether he denied Christ at first and became a Muslim at Serres, but it speaks of the circumcision he underwent. He was a monk at the Skete of Saint Anne on Mount Athos, where he struggled with fasting, vigil and prayer. Later he was ordained deacon and priest at the monastery of Saint Panteleimon, the Russian one.

Martyrdom

Seized by a longing for martyrdom, he went around the villages near Serres and Drama and preached before the Turks Christ as true God. He confessed to the hieromonk Constantine of the dependency of the Mother of God Iliokalli and received communion. He then passed by the church of Saint George and went to the mosque of Ahmed Pasha. A Turkish teacher lived there with his students, one of whom was lame in both feet. Nicetas told him he would be healed if he believed in Christ. The young Turk told his teacher, and the saint was seized and taken to the voivode of Serres, who ordered him imprisoned. In prison he suffered terrible tortures. On the evening of Great Saturday of 1808, Isuf Bey ordered the sentence carried out, and Nicetas was hanged at the place called Tzeriah-⁠Pazar. The deacon of the nearby church of the Archangel Michael saw a great light that night.

The body stayed three days on the gallows. On the evening of the Tuesday of Bright Week, the Christians were given permission to take it down and bury it in the church of Saint Nicholas in Serres. Part of the relics is at the Skete of Saint Anne on Athos, and a piece in the metropolitan cathedral of the Holy Taxiarchs in Serres. He is commemorated on Thomas Sunday, seven days after Pascha.