Nikon of Melitene

Holy Martyr Nikon of Melitene is commemorated together with the Holy Martyr Hieron and other Christians who suffered at Melitene, in the time of Diocletian and Maximian. The Azbyka page is the life of Hieron and does not name Nikon in its text; he is counted among those who suffered with Hieron.

Hieron was born at Tyana, in Second Cappadocia, of a pious mother, Stratonike. When Lysias, sent by the emperors, sought strong men for the army in Cappadocia, Hieron refused to serve together with worshippers of idols and drove off the soldiers sent to seize him, then withdrew into a cave with eighteen Christians, until his friend Cyriacus gently urged him to come out. Going toward Melitene, he received in the night an appearance of a man in white garments, who announced heavenly glory, and he entrusted his mother to God.

At Melitene he was imprisoned with thirty-⁠three other Christians and urged them not to sacrifice to idols. Before Lysias, Hieron confessed that he had resisted the soldiers, and his hand was cut off, while the others were beaten. A kinsman of Hieron, Victor, bribed a clerk and fled, but died soon after. Hieron left his property to his sister in his testament and asked that his hand be taken to his mother. On the fifth day all were condemned to the sword; they went to death singing a psalm and knelt to pray, then their heads were cut off. A rich man, Chrysaphius, paid in gold the weight of Hieron's head and kept it with honour, and later raised a church where the martyrs had been beheaded.

Their memory is kept on 20 November, in the new style.