Nikephoros of Tiberiopolis

Holy Hieromartyr Nikephoros of Tiberiopolis was a priest and suffered in the year 361, together with fifteen other members of a monastic community of Tiberiopolis, in the time of Julian the Apostate.

In the second half of the fourth century a monastic brotherhood flourished in Tiberiopolis (today Strumica). In the persecution of Julian the Apostate, in 361, sixteen of its members accepted a martyr's death for Christ: the bishops Theodore and Timothy, the priests Theodore, John, Nikephoros, Peter and Sergius, the deacons Basil and Thomas, and the monks Daniel, Eusebius, Hierotheus, Comasius, Socrates, Chariton and Ethimasius.

The local people kept their memory. After the First Balkan War, when Strumica passed to Bulgaria, the Greeks of the town moved in 1913 to Kilkis and other places in Macedonia. They took with them part of the holy relics, the hand of the priest Peter, which has been in Kilkis ever since, in a church bearing the name of this martyr. Their service was printed three times, in 1741, 1830 and 1930. In 1967 the sixteen martyrs of Tiberiopolis were proclaimed patrons of Kilkis.

They are commemorated on 11 December, in the Greek calendar. The Azbyka page notes that they are not included in the present calendar of the Russian Orthodox Church.