Nicodemus of Veria

Saint Nicodemus of Veria, venerable martyr, came from a wealthy and noble family of Veria and lived in the time of the emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos. He struggled at the Philokalles Monastery in Thessalonica. He is commemorated on 24 November (new style, the Greek calendar).

Nicodemus helped fallen women to leave their sin and therefore was often found in the places where they worked. The monks of his monastery did not understand his spiritual work and treated him as a drunkard and fornicator. The pimps, envying his work, stabbed him. Covered in blood, he was carried to the monastery, where he was not allowed to enter, and he died before its gates. His body was thrown into a foul-⁠smelling place.

After ten years he gave forth myrrh, and then his holiness was recognised. The venerable Philotheos Kokkinos, a disciple of Saint Gregory Palamas and later abbot of the monastery, wrote his life. The repeated disasters of the region preserved neither his relics nor the exact site of the Philokalles Monastery. His commemoration, drawn out of oblivion, was fixed on 24 November by Metropolitan Paul Giannikopoulos of Veria, on the anniversary of the bishop's consecration.