The past few weeks, I have been reading through the lives of some of the saints who have gone before us for encouragement. These folk, that great cloud of witnesses, were the real deal, and it does not take much reading from their lives to figure that out. Well, I saw that the first of the saints commemorated on this day is Martyr Nikon in Sicily. Nikon…that was just too good to pass up mentioning here. And no, he is not the patron saint of Nikonians, but he most likely is the patron saint of some Nikonians.
I will share below the excerpt on the life of Saint Nikon which I read this morning. He certainly is not your stereotypical Sicilian (neither mobster nor Princess-Bride-ish), but could certainly serve as an encouragement for those who remember hearing some of the faith as a child and then upon encountering hard times later in life again call on that faith of our childhood.