Nicodemus of Palermo

Saint Nicodemus was an Orthodox bishop of Palermo at the time when Sicily passed from Muslim to Norman rule, and he died in 1083. Our sources call him a saint and hierarch, but cite no act of canonization of any recognized Orthodox Church; his commemoration is seen mainly in an award established in 2002 by a body whose canonical standing we cannot confirm from the sources.

The Orthodox Church of Sicily had been Byzantine and belonged to the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Under Muslim rule, from around 827 until the 1060s, the Christians of Sicily, like the Jews, became a subject people, mildly persecuted and heavily taxed, but in most cases free to keep their religion and professions. In Palermo alone there were twenty Orthodox churches. Nicodemus was appointed bishop in 1065, based at the Byzantine church of Santa Domenica Kuriacia in Monreale. By that time a part of the inhabitants had accepted Islam, and the language of the city, close to Greek, had changed much.

In 1072 he welcomed in Palermo Roger I of Sicily, whose coming ended Muslim rule over the city. Pope Alexander II confirmed him as bishop. The Normans, occupying the city, sought out Nicodemus, who consecrated again the old church of Saint Mary, which had been turned into a mosque some two hundred and forty years before, and served the first service in it. Nicodemus was known for his piety and meekness. But the new power, after it had established its position, and being faithful to the Latin rite after the schism of 1054, forced him to leave the city and sent him to live outside, in the part now called Mezzomonreale. For his fidelity to the Orthodox Church he was sent from Palermo; the new power wanted a Latin bishop.

He died in 1083. His body is buried in a stone sarcophagus in the crypt of the Norman-⁠era cathedral of Palermo, dedicated to the Dormition of the Mother of God. On 5 May 2002 his successor Lorenzo, metropolitan of a "Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church Abroad" and archbishop of Palermo and all Italy, instituted the Cross of Merit of Saint Nicodemus, Orthodox bishop of Palermo, as an award for those who serve the Church in Palermo or help it. It is awarded by the Confraternity of the Knights of the Most Holy Trinity, of which Archbishop Lorenzo is Grand Master.