Nikephoros of Katavad

Holy Venerable Nikephoros of Katavad was an abbot and missionary on an island in Phoenicia, in the time of the Byzantine Empire.

He was born in Constantinople into a rich and noble family, to parents named Andrew and Theodora, who raised him in the Christian faith. After their death he gave all his property to the poor and went to Chalcedon, where the strict life of the monks of the monastery of Saint Andrew pleased him, and he remained among its brotherhood. From the first he showed unusual zeal in prayer and labour and such patience in ascetic struggle that the abbot sent him as a preacher of Christ to an island of Phoenicia and made him abbot of a monastery of the Most Holy Theotokos.

The saint stayed on the island thirty-⁠three years and brought many pagans to Christ. In place of pagan shrines, churches were built. Feeling death approach, he ordered himself carried onto a ship and told the shipmaster to be at ease, for he was departing to the Lord, and to take his body to Chalcedon, to the monastery of Saint Andrew. With these words he died. The ship reached Chalcedon safely, and the brothers of the monastery buried him with honour.

His memory is kept on 2 May, in the new style. His life was written by Saint Demetrius of Rostov.