Nicodemus of Elbasan

Saint Nicodemus the New Martyr, also called Nicodemus of Berat or Nicodemus the Younger, was born in Vithkuq in present-⁠day Albania. He was married and had children. He abandoned the Christian faith and became a Muslim, and then returned to Christ on Mount Athos. After three years he decided to go back to his native town, informing the Muslim authorities, and he was beheaded on 11 July 1722, according to some sources. His relics are venerated at Berat. The name in our record ties him to Elbasan, but the sources place him at Berat.

His secular name was Nikolla Dede. He came from Vithkuq in the Korça region and lived in Berat, where he was a tailor. He had been married four times, and his fourth wife was a Muslim, and for her sake he accepted Islam. His eldest son, a grown man, refused to follow him and left home for the Holy Mountain. When Nikolla learned that his son was on Athos, he wanted to meet him.

Arriving on Athos, he saw the life of the monks, their prayers, fasting and services, repented and understood the sin he had committed. He went to the skete of Saint Anne, presented himself to Father Philotheus, whom the record calls a patriarch, and was tonsured a monk with the name Nicodemus. There he repented so deeply that he fasted for three years, praying to God.

On Athos he learned that a man who has denied Christ before men can be forgiven by God only if he confesses him again before men. So the desire arose in him to return to Berat and confess Christ before all. Before leaving he met a well-⁠known ascetic of Athos, the hermit Acacius, from whom he asked advice.

He set out for Berat with a staff in his hand. As soon as he arrived, people recognized him. When they learned that he had returned to Christianity, they denounced him and brought him before the kadi. The kadi at first tried to dissuade him, but seeing his insistence, he ordered that he be put to death.

The sources do not agree on the date. The record first says 11 July 1722, then gives 10 July 1709 as the day of the sentence of beheading, adding that some Greek church sources give 11 July 1722 and the year 1714. His service, a Greek Life of Saint Nicodemus the Younger of Vithkuq, was printed in 1741 by Gregory of Durrës at the Academy of Moscopole.

The relics of the saint were found in the church of Saint Michael at Berat. After the destruction of the churches, in 1967, the relics were to be destroyed, but the faithful saved the bones, while the saint's head was taken by the psalm-⁠reader Lili Thimi Koçi, who hid it in the wall of his house to protect it from theft or desecration. The head is kept in a silver box weighing 755 grams, engraved by the jewellers of Berat. On 10 July 1991 Lili Koçi's son, Llazar, took the head out of the wall and brought it to church for the faithful. Every 10 July Llazar Koçi carries the head of Saint Nicodemus to the church of Saint Michael, and he keeps it with reverence in his own house.