ST. NICON, SURNAMED METANOITE, CONFESSOR
NICON, a native of Pontus, and of a noble family,
in his youth fled privately from his friends to a monastery called
the stone of God, where he lived twelve years in the practice of the
most austere penance and humble prayer, by which he studied perfectly
to die to himself. His heart became quite penetrated with holy
compunction and the purest love of God, and he spoke on virtue with
an unction which pierced the souls of those that heard him discourse
on heavenly things. The incredible spiritual fruit which his
conferences and private exhortations produced, induced his superiors
to employ him in preaching the word of God to the people. This office
he exercised in quality of apostolic missionary in most parts of
Armema, and afterwards passed into Crete, which island was then in
the hands of the Saracens. Penance was the great duty which the saint
announced to the people in imitation of St. John Baptist, and he
began all his sermons with these words: Metanoite, or do
penance; whence this surname was given him. The necessity and
obligation that all men lie under of doing penance, he inculcated
according to the maxims of the gospel; and he excellently explained
the conditions of sincere repentance. For thousands and thousands
befool themselves, and mock God in this point, when, by venting a few
sighs and groans they persuade themselves that they have repented,
though their hearts all the while deceive them. A true penitent must
apply himself to the difficult work of self-examination by a strict
scrutiny into, and survey of, the whole state of his soul, in order
to discover every latent inordinate affection or passion. He must
pursue sin home to his inclinations, and dislodge it thence;
otherwise all he does will be to little purpose; so long as the root
of sin remains lurking in the affections, it will shoot out again,
and God who sees it there, pays no regard to lying vows and
protestations. By earnest prayer, mortification, alms, and holy
meditation, the penitential sorrow must be improved, till it has
forced its way into the very innermost corners and recesses of the
soul, shaken all the powers of sin, and formed that new creature
which is little understood among Christians, though the very essence
of a Christian life. By teaching penitents thus to lay the axe to the
very root of sin, St. Nicon had the comfort to see in my wonderful
conversions wrought among Christians, by which the face of religion
seemed changed among them through the whole island. The saint,
fearing lest the infant principles of conversion might be stifled and
overland by the cares of the world, was infinitely solicitous to
engage penitents to cut off and renounce all occasions of sin, to
strengthen their souls in the fervent practice of all virtues and
good works, and to cultivate the seeds of piety which the divine
grace had sown in them. The sweetness with which the holy preacher
recommended the most severe maxims of the gospel, made our faith
appear amiable to the Mahometans themselves. After having preached in
Crete almost twenty years, and settled all the churches of that
island in good order, he passed to the continent in Europe, and
announced the divine word in Peloponnesus, Achaia, Epirus, and other
parts of Greece confirming his doctrine with miracles. He died in a
monastery in Pelo ponnesus in 998, and is honored both in the Greek
and Roman Calendars See his authentic life in Baronius, Annal. t. 10.
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