Holy Martyr Nicephorus of Antioch

Saint Nicephorus of Antioch
القدّيس الشهيد نقفور الأنطاكي

Today is the Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee in the Orthodox Church – the opening of the Lenten Triodion and the beginning of the preparation for Great Lent. As we open the Triodion we are reminded, among other things, that fasting and tithing and praying are simply not enough to assure us of salvation. The only acceptable sacrifice to God is a broken and contrite heart. This is why the Pharisee – who upheld every letter of the Law, who fasted twice a week, who prayed daily to God, who tithed of his own goods, and who enjoyed the respect and admiration of the community – went down from the Temple without God’s favour. He was so full of love for himself, that he had no love to give to anyone else, or for that matter, to God. This is also why the tax collector – a man shunned and spat upon by the Jewish community, whose occupation was synonymous with unctuousness and greed and collaboration with hated Rome – enjoyed God’s favour as he left the Temple. The only prayer he offered to God was the prayer of the heart – ‘God be merciful to me a sinner!’

It therefore seems all too fitting that we should remember also on this day a martyr for Christ whose life and deeds exemplify this same dynamic of the repentant Publican. We have on the calendar today an Antiochene Syrian, whose martyrdom is characterised by humility and self-giving love for a man who hated him. Saint Nicephorus [Gk. Nikēphóros Νικηφόρος, Ar. Naqfûr نقفور] of Antioch lived in the third century, and suffered under the anti-Christian persecutions of Emperors Valerianus and Gallienus around the year 260.

Nicephorus grew up alongside another young man named Sabricius. Sabricius was educated and attained to the priesthood; while Nicephorus remained a simple layman. And yet the two were inseparable, fast in friendship, and so close to one another that they thought with one mind, felt with one heart, acted with one will. Nicephorus and Fr Sabricius were steadfast in this friendship as adults, and their friendship attracted the jealousy of devils, who sowed seeds of dissension between them. Their differences erupted into a quarrel, which ended with the two of them bitterly refusing to speak to each other or even meet each other in the street.

Nicephorus continued in his hatred for Fr Sabricius for some time, before at last he came to himself and realised how it was poisoning his soul. He remembered the sweetness of their former friendship, and repented how he had cast it aside. He sent word to Sabricius by way of a mutual friend of theirs, to beg his pardon for the injury he had done to Sabricius. However, Sabricius refused to listen. Nicephorus gave the same message again by another friend, with no better result – and a third time, again fruitless. Fr Sabricius had forgotten the Gospel entreaty of Christ:

Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift.

At length, Nicephorus went himself to the home of Fr Sabricius, and waited outside his gate. When Sabricius emerged, Nicephorus threw himself at the feet of the priest, with his face down in the dust, owned his fault and begged him with tears, ‘Father, for Christ’s sake, forgive me, a sinner!’ Yet Fr Sabricius in his hardness of heart would not forgive, not even for the sake of that Christ in Whom he professed belief. Sabricius shook Nicephorus roughly off of his robe, and strode over and past him without even once glancing down at him. Nicephorus went home thus rejected.

In the year 260, a letter was sent to Rome by Valerianus as he was on expedition with his armies against Persia, that Christians in the Empire were to be taken and interrogated, and forced to offer sacrifices to the Roman gods to prove their loyalty. If they refused to offer sacrifices, they were to be stripped of all public honours, their property was to be confiscated, and they were to be put to death. This order reached Antioch soonest, as Antioch was then on the front lines of the Roman-Persian Wars, from which Valerianus would never return, but die a prisoner of war in Persia.

The Roman prætorian præfect of Antioch had Fr Sabricius seized and brought before him. At his interrogation by the præfect, this exchange took place between them:

‘What is your name?’

‘It is Sabricius.’

‘Of what profession are you?’

‘I am a Christian.’

‘Are you of the clergy?’

‘I have the honour to be a priest. We Christians acknowledge one Lord and Master, Christ Jesus, who is God – the true and only God who created heaven and earth. The gods of the nations are devils.’

The præfect then ordered Sabricius to be placed in a vice and tortured à peine forte et dure. Though the pain of this torment was excruciating, Sabricius would not relent, but continued to profess Christ throughout. The executioners were flummoxed by this priest’s strength of will, and Sabricius explained to them that although his body was in their power, his soul could not be touched – this being under the sole sway of Christ. The Roman præfect then passed sentence upon him, saying: ‘Sapricius, priest of the Christians, who is ridiculously persuaded that he shall rise again, shall be delivered over to the executioner of public justice to have his head severed from his body, because he has flouted the edict of the emperors.’

Sabricius was not fazed. Indeed, he even seemed to be joyful as he was led to the place of execution, for it seemed to him that he was about to be given a martyr’s crown. Nicephorus ran out to meet him as he was led out under guard, and again flung himself at his feet, asking of him, ‘O Martyr of Jesus Christ, forgive me the wrong I have done to you!’

But Fr Sabricius would not even look at him. Nicephorus rose and ran ahead of the procession to another street which he knew they had to pass through, and knelt there so that the guards had to stop in the road. Nicephorus began again begging Sabricius for pardon. The Roman guards mocked him and began to kick him and beat him with whips, saying: ‘What manner of fool are you, begging pardon from a condemned man? He is about to die under the sword. What harm can he do to you then?’

They proceeded to the place of execution, and once more Nicephorus flung himself down at Sabricius’s feet and begged his forgiveness, but Sabricius would not listen to him, his heart having been hardened by hatred. When it became clear that the end was nigh upon him, the courage of Sabricius faltered, and he cried out to the executioners to spare him, that he would even sacrifice to the gods of the Romans if they would spare his life. Nicephorus, when he heard this from the midst of the crowd, was mortified, and he cried out to Fr Sabricius not to forsake Christ, not at the end after all of his struggles and sufferings. And then Nicephorus went up to the guards and proclaimed himself a Christian who believed in Jesus Christ, and offered himself up to die in Sabricius’s place.

The soldiers, bewildered at this sudden reversal, hesitated. They did not kill Sabricius; instead they sent back a lector to apply to the præfect, and told him that Sabricius was ready to profess his loyalty to the Emperor with sacrifices, but that there was this other man Nicephorus who proclaimed himself a Christian and was ready to die in his place. The præfect then passed down the judgement, that Sabricius was to be released, but that Nicephorus was to be beheaded in his place if he would not recant Christ. The order went down to the killing-ground, and Nicephorus was beheaded as commanded.

Observe. The hagiography of Nicephorus says nothing but that the priest Sabricius was pure and blameless of life, that he prayed and fasted, that he was ready even to die for the sake of his faith. So too had done the Pharisee in Christ’s parable! The faith of Fr Sabricius was perfect in every single way but one: he would not forgive his brother who had wronged him. And so the favour of God turned instead upon the wretched Nicephorus, the unforgiven layman who the whole time had prayed only the prayer of the Publican: ‘be merciful to me, a sinner!’ Holy martyr Nicephorus, pray to Christ our God for us sinners!

Troparion for Saint Nicephorus, Tone 4:

Thy Martyr, O Lord, in his courageous contest for Thee
Received the prize of the crowns of incorruption and life
From Thee, our immortal God.
For since he possessed Thy strength, he cast down the tyrants
And wholly destroyed the demons’ strengthless presumption.
O Christ God, by his prayers, save our souls, since Thou art merciful!

Icon of the Publican and the Pharisee

Kontakion of the Publican and the Pharisee, Tone 4:

Let us flee from the pride of the Pharisee!
And learn humility from the Publican’s tears!
Let us cry to our Saviour,
Have mercy on us,
Only merciful One!