Nicholas of Corinth

Holy New Martyr Nicholas of Corinth, also called Nicholas of Psari, was an itinerant merchant from the Corinthia, burned and beheaded at Constantinople in the year 1554 for confessing Christ.

A native of the village of Psari in the Corinthia, he was the son of John and Kali, pious people. At twelve he was orphaned of his father and left for Selymbria, where he married and had children. From there he moved to Constantinople and lived as an itinerant seller of small wares. His Muslim colleagues denounced him for allegedly speaking ill of the religion of Muhammad, for which he was arrested in the time of Sultan Suleiman I (1520-1566) and brought to the judge. Nicholas confessed Christ and condemned the religion of the Turks as false. He yielded neither to tortures nor to flattery. They threw him first onto a pyre, then beheaded him, in the year 1554.

The service of the martyr was written by the hieromonk Damascene, later bishop of Lita and Rendina. The Saint's head is kept at the Great Meteoron. He is commemorated on 14 February, according to the new calendar.