Venerable Nikita the Stylite, Wonderworker of Pereyaslavl” Zalesskiy

Nikita was born in Pereyaslavl-Zalessky and in his youth was known for violence and robbery. His Life tells that he was struck by a reading from Isaiah in church ('Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean') and, horrified by a vision at his own table, went to the monastery of St Nikita outside the town. There he took monastic vows, and he is said to have sat for days in a marsh among swarms of gnats to punish himself.

He later lived on a pillar beside the church wearing heavy iron chains. According to the Life, the sick came to him for healing. Relatives, who took the chains for silver, killed him in the pillar in 1186 and fled, then threw the chains into the Volga near Yaroslavl, from where they were later brought back to his tomb.