Nikolay Pinarsky

Nikolay Pinarsky, known in English-language scholarship as Saint Nicholas of Pinara or Nicholas of Sion, was a sixth-century Christian monk, abbot, and bishop in Lycia in southwestern Asia Minor, then a province of the Eastern Roman (Byzantine) Empire. His life is known chiefly from a Greek hagiographical narrative, the Life of Saint Nicholas of Sion, written by a member of his own monastic community not long after his death. According to that account he was born in the village of Pharroa in Lycia and was dedicated to the monastic life from childhood. He entered the nearby monastery of Holy Sion, a house associated with an uncle who served as its abbot, and in time succeeded to the abbacy himself. The monastery lay in the mountainous country inland from Myra and served both as a center of ascetic life and as a place of pilgrimage and pastoral care for surrounding villages.

The vita attributes to Nicholas a series of miracles during his years as abbot, including healings of the sick and the demon-possessed, the provision of water for the community, protection of crops from destructive weather, and aid to the poor and to travelers. He made a pilgrimage to Palestine, visiting Jerusalem and other holy places, an episode the biographer presents as confirmation of his sanctity. After his return he continued to govern Holy Sion. In later life he was chosen for the episcopal see of Pinara, an ancient Lycian city that had lost much of its earlier civic importance but still required a bishop. He accepted consecration, though the text stresses his reluctance and his preference for the monastic vocation over the administrative burdens of the episcopate.

As bishop of Pinara, Nicholas is portrayed as remaining closely tied to his monastery and to the rural population of the region. His tenure fell during the long reign of Emperor Justinian I, a period of extensive church building and theological controversy in the empire, but the Life concentrates on local pastoral and miraculous activity rather than on imperial or conciliar affairs. After some years of episcopal service he appears to have withdrawn again toward the monastic community. He died on 10 December 564 and was buried at the monastery of Holy Sion, where his tomb became a focus of local veneration.

In the Eastern Orthodox liturgical tradition Nicholas of Sion is commemorated on 10 December, a date distinct from the feast of Saint Nicholas of Myra on 6 December. Historians of late antiquity regard the Life of Saint Nicholas of Sion as a comparatively early and detailed source for Lycian monasticism, village Christianity, and the social role of the holy man in sixth-century Anatolia. His cult remained largely regional. Although he never attained the universal popularity of Nicholas of Myra, the two figures have at times been confused in later devotion and in some older scholarship; modern study treats them as separate persons whose legends were occasionally blended.