St. Nicholas Studites
Abbot
Feast day: February 4
Born at Sydonia (Canea), Crete, in 793; died at Studius Monastery, Constantinople, in 863. Saint Nicholas was a disciple of Theodore Studites, educated at Studius Monastery from age 10, and at age 18 became a monk there. During the iconoclastic persecution he followed his abbot into exile, and aided others who had been banished.
In 842, on the death of Emperor Theophilus, peace was temporarily restored and he returned to the monastery where he was elected abbot. When Emperor Michael III exiled Saint Ignatius and made Photius patriarch of Constantinople in 858, Nicholas refused to recognize Photius as patriarch, was imprisoned, and then went into voluntary exile; Michael then appointed a new abbot.
After several years in exile, Nicholas was brought back to his monastery and imprisoned. When Emperor Basil restored Ignatius, the lawful patriarch, Nicholas considered himself too old to resume charge of the monastery, and died as a simple monk .He was brought back to his monastery and imprisoned there just before he died.
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