Nikita of Constantinople

Blessed Nikita of Constantinople, the scribe (chartophylax) of the imperial city, lived, it is thought, in the eleventh or twelfth century. He was called "the hidden" because he lived amid the bustle of the city and did there hidden labours of piety. He is commemorated on 9 September. In icons he is painted standing, with a scroll in hand. The sources give no years of birth and death.

The story from his Life

According to his Life, Nikita had two friends: a priest and the deacon Sozont. For some reasons they quarrelled. When the priest died, Sozont grieved much that he had not managed to make peace with him, and told an elder, a man of ascetic labour, the sin that tormented his conscience. The elder ordered him to give a letter to the first person he would meet at midnight at the church of Holy Wisdom. The first was Nikita, who was then chartophylax. Reading the letter, he wept and said that what was asked was beyond his strength, but that, through the prayers of the elder who had sent Sozont, he would do what he could. Before the church doors Nikita made a prostration, saying: "Lord, open to us the doors of Your mercy", and the doors opened of themselves. He began to pray, leaving the deacon at the threshold, and Sozont saw a wonderful light around him. After the prayer they came out, and the doors closed of themselves.

When they were approaching the church of the Mother of God at Blachernae, Nikita prayed again, and the doors opened before them. In the church it became light, and from the altar two rows of priests came out, among them the deacon's friend. Then Nikita told Sozont to speak with his brother and end the enmity between them. At once the priest and the deacon bowed to each other, embraced with love and were reconciled. When the priest went back, the doors closed of themselves. Nikita told the deacon to save his soul, and to tell the father who had sent him that the purity of his prayers and his hope in God can raise even the dead. After these words, according to the sources, Nikita became invisible to Sozont. The deacon returned to the elder, his confessor, and thanked him with tears, and Nikita, the hidden servant pleasing to God, lifted the sin from the living and the dead.