Q4173514

Saint Nikita the Stylite (also called Nicetas of Pereyaslavl) was a twelfth-century ascetic of the Russian Church whose life is known almost entirely from later hagiographical tradition. Nothing reliable is recorded of his parentage, childhood, or exact place of birth. He is described as having lived in the town of Pereyaslavl (present-day Pereslavl-Zalessky) in the Vladimir-Suzdal lands, where he served as a tax collector. In that office he gained a reputation for greed and harshness, extracting payments from the local population with notable cruelty.

According to the Life, a sudden conversion occurred when he entered a church and heard a reading from the prophet Isaiah that called sinners to wash themselves and become clean. Struck by the words, he distributed his wealth to the poor and presented himself at the nearby monastery dedicated to Saint Nikita. The abbot, distrusting so abrupt a change in a man of such public notoriety, at first refused him. Nikita remained at the gates for three days in prayer until he was finally received and tonsured.

Once a monk, he adopted extreme forms of asceticism. He dug a deep pit in which he dwelt, wearing heavy iron chains and a metal cap that he himself had forged. Later he took up the rare vocation of a stylite, remaining for years upon a pillar in continual prayer. Tradition ascribes to him gifts of healing and discernment; the sick and those regarded as possessed were brought to him from the surrounding region. On 24 May 1186 robbers, mistaking the gleam of his iron chains for silver, attacked and killed him. When they discovered the chains were only iron they fled. His relics were found incorrupt and became a focus of local veneration.

He is commemorated in the Russian Orthodox calendar on 24 May. The Nikitsky Monastery at Pereslavl-Zalessky, where he had lived and where he was buried, remained the principal centre of his cult. His story is cited in Eastern Christian hagiography as an example of radical repentance after a life of public sin, though independent contemporary documentation of his career is lacking.