Thursday, May 28, 2026
St. Nicetas the Confessor, Bishop of Chalcedon
An eighth-century hierarch who endured beating, imprisonment, and exile under the iconoclast emperors rather than yield the icons to fire.
Read more about Nicetas the Confessor›
Nicetas was born in the late eighth century in Bithynia, took monastic vows in one of the great monasteries of the region, and was eventually elected bishop of Chalcedon — the city on the Asian shore of the Bosphorus across from Constantinople, the site of the Fourth Ecumenical Council in 451. He served as bishop in the brief restoration of the holy icons that followed the Seventh Council of 787, and his episcopate stretched into the second iconoclast period that began under Leo V in 815.
Like Michael of Synnada and the other iconodule bishops, Nicetas refused to subscribe to the new iconoclast edicts. He was deposed, beaten, imprisoned, and exiled — sent from monastery to monastery and from one barren place to another to break his resolve. He endured these miseries for many years without recanting. The synaxarion records that during one such exile he was permitted to live in a small cell with only the necessities, and that the local people came to him secretly for spiritual counsel even under the watch of the imperial guards.
He died in exile around the year 838, a few years before the restoration of the icons under the Empress Theodora in 843. The Church honors him among the great line of ninth-century confessors. His feast is kept on May 28.
Also commemorated
- Hieromartyr Eutychius, Bishop of Melitene — A first-century disciple of the apostles who labored as bishop of Melitene in Armenia and received the crown of martyrdom.
- Woman-martyr Heliconis of Thessalonica — A third-century maiden of Thessaloniki tortured and beheaded for the name of Christ.
- Saint Alexander, Bishop of Thessalonica — Fourth-century bishop of Thessalonica and one of the three hundred and eighteen fathers of the First Ecumenical Council.
- Hieromartyr Helladius the Eastern
- Blessed Andrew the Fool-for-Christ of Constantinople — Tenth-century Slavic-born holy fool of Constantinople who with his disciple Epiphanius beheld the Pokrov vision at Blachernae.
- Venerable Virgin-martyr Philothea the Wonderworker of Pamphylia
Icons curated from public-domain sources and Wikimedia Commons.
Readings
Scripture for the day
Hymns
Troparion and kontakion
Troparion of St. Nicetas the Confessor
In truth thou wast revealed to thy flock as a rule of faith, a model of meekness, and a teacher of temperance, so that by humility thou didst gain exaltation, and by poverty, riches. Holy Father Nicetas the Confessor, intercede with Christ our God that our souls may be saved.
Kontakion of St. Nicetas of Chalcedon
Confessing the icons of Christ in the second iconoclasm, O Nicetas of Chalcedon, thou didst endure exile; wherefore the Church doth hymn thee as a steadfast confessor.