www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life Faith & Theology St. Nicholas of South Canaan

I found out that this saint existed when I saw him in an ikon of the "Synaxis of the Saints of North America" which can be found on the wall of Holy Trinity Orthodox Church (OCA) in Parma, OH. It was the first time I'd ever seen St. Nicholas of South Canaan, but no biography or even a tropar and kondak were provided to give me a clue about what this saint did or who he is. The URL to see this site is:

http://www.holy-trin.org/Ss_north_america/ss_north_america.htm

St. Nicholas of South Canaan is at the bottom right.

I assume that the "South Canaan" in his title is the place in Pennsylvania where St. Tikhon Monastery is located...and oh how I want to visit there! I just have never heard of him and the directory of saints on the OCA website provided no further clues. Maybe someone here can help me figure out who this holy hierarch is...

Thanking you in advance,

Timothy, servant of God

Just did a quick search on Google and found that St. Nicholas of South Canaan is none other than St. Nikolai (Velimirovic) of Zica, the great Serbian Orthodox hierarch and author of the Prologue of Ochrid! I thought I had missed something by not supplicating this holy hierarch in my prayers...but it turns out that I already was! I've been commemorating St. Nikolai of Zica for a good while now!!!

Well, at least the mystery is solved...but if I am not mistaken it was the first time I'd seen an ikon of St. Nikolai. I've only seen pictures up to this point...

In Christ,

Timothy, servant of God

FYI, the OCA has a mission in Montana, St. Nicholas of South Canaan. (It may have moved up to church status by now.) It was not easy for their priest to find information on the saint, either. The name appears to be misleading, I suppose. For still more information, you might try contacting the church, or their former priest, Fr. Eric Tosi, now rector of St. Paul's Church OCA in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Probably the reason the Serbian-born St. Bishop Nikolai Velimirovic of Zica and America, a survivor of the infamous Nazi concentration camp at Dachau (together with Serbian Patriarch Gavrilo), is identified as "St. Nicholas of South Canaan" is because at the time of his repose, St. Nikolai was serving as "Namestnik" (Deputy Abbot) of the Russian Orthodox Monastery of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk and Rector of St. Tikhon's Orthodox Pastoral Seminary, both located in South Canaan, PA.

OrthodoxEast

Dear Orthodox East,

Yes, it is in fact fascinating to see how a Saint can be referred to by more than one place-name that he or she was associated with in life.

And St Nicholas of Myra in Lycia is also known as "St Nicholas of Bari" - even though he never was in Bari, Italy - his relics were transferred there from his original see and so he became "of Bari."

Something similar occurred with St Januarius, Bp. of Benevento in Italy who is called "of Naples."

St Paisius Velichkovsky is at once "of Romania" "of Mt Athos" etc. even though he always signed his name "Paissy, Native of Poltava" .

The champion saint in this regard has to be St John Maximovitch of San Francisco who is commemorated at once as "of Shanghai" "of France" "of Spain" and "of the Netherlands" by those who received the benefit of his pastoral care in those places.

Alex

Dear in Christ Alex,

You are right about St. John the Wonderworker. I usually refer to him either as "the Wonderworker" or "St. John of San Francisco". I had not known until I read about it, that St. Nikolai of Zica and South Canaan had been at St. Tikhon's Monastery. Now I really, really, really want to go there...as soon as my health permits!