Born in Bithynia, in the city of Caesarea. His father Filaret, having lost his wife, became a monk, and Nikita stayed with his grandmother, his father's mother. After he grew up and completed all his studies, he went to the monastery of Midiki, where he was ordained a monk by abbot Nikifor, and after seven years of hard work and exploits, he was ordained a hieromonk by Patriarch Tarasius. After the death of Nicephorus and Nikita's faithful friend Athanasios, the brotherhood chose Nikita, and through his will, as abbot. It was St. Nikita has been a bright example of life and exploits to his brothers for many years. But when Leo V the Armenian came to reign, after the pious Irina and the orthodox emperors Nicephorus and Michael, the iconoclastic heresy flared up again. The emperor overthrew the patriarch Nikephoros and sent him to prison, and in his place raised a kind of heretic Theodotus Cassiter, a man of impure life. And Nikita would be imprisoned and tortured, but he does not waver in Orthodoxy. He would be taken from dungeon to dungeon, and tortured by hunger and thirst, frost and sweat and mockery. But he was not swayed. He was especially bored by a certain Nikola with his sneers and mockery. But one night, his dead father appeared to Nikola in a dream and scolded him: "step aside from the servant of God!" From that moment on, Nikola repented and not only stopped bothering the saint, but also dissuaded others from bothering him. When Leo the Armenian died an evil death, the empire was taken over by the Orthodox emperor Michael Valvos, who freed all the Orthodox martyrs. Nikita retired to a lonely place near Constantinople, where he spent his last days of earthly life in prayer and thanking God for everything. He created many miracles by praying during his lifetime. And when he died, they transferred his body to his monastery. And during that funeral, many sick people touched his body and were healed. His remains were placed next to the tomb of his spiritual father Nicephorus and his friend Athanasius. May this great hierarch rest in peace in 824.
Saint Paul the Slave. Holy Martyr Ulpian. Easter fast.