Martyr Nicon of Sicily and his Companions

Nicon was born in the second century in Naples of a pagan father (a Roman centurion) and a Christian mother who had concealed her faith and his upbringing in it from her husband. He entered the imperial army in his youth, served with distinction, and rose to the rank of centurion. In an unexpected emergency — surrounded with his troops in a difficult engagement — he made the sign of the Cross over his men and prayed to his mother's God, and the engagement was won. The synaxarion records that he revealed his faith openly afterward.

When his term of service ended, he returned to his mother at Naples, was baptized, and shortly afterward — to avoid the renewed persecution that fell on the Christians of Italy — he fled to Sicily with one hundred and ninety-nine of his fellow soldiers, all of whom he had brought to the faith through his example. They settled at a remote spot on the island and lived together as a small monastic community.

In the renewed persecution under Decius (around 250) the small community was discovered. The two hundred — Nicon and his disciples — were arrested, brought before the local governor, and beheaded together in a single day. Their relics were honored at the place of their suffering, where a great basilica was raised in the medieval period. Their joint feast falls on March 23.