Saint Who?
Saints Who Were Poets
Saint Nicetas of Remesiana
Bishop († c. 414)Feast: June 22
Nicetas was born around the year 335. He was a bishop, a missionary, and a great writer. His friend Saint Paulinus of Nola (see “Saint Who?” of September 7) describes how Nicetas brought the warmth and light of the Gospel to the frozen north (probably modern-day Germany), and melted the icy hearts of the inhabitants. Saint Jerome praised Nicetas for evangelizing barbarians by his “sweet songs of the cross.”
A number of scholars think that Nicetas wrote part of the Te Deum. Sung as part of the Liturgy of the Hours on great feasts, the hymn is in three sections, probably composed at different times. The central section, a beautiful piece of Christological poetry, is attributed to Saint Nicetas. “You, Christ, are the king of glory,/ the eternal Son of the Father./ When you became man to set us free/ you did not spurn the Virgin’s womb/ …. Come then, Lord, and help your people, bought with the price of your own blood,/ and bring us with your saints to glory everlasting.”
Nicetas also wrote a number of treatises. He is said to be the first to describe in writing the mystical bond of the faithful in heaven and earth as the “communion of saints.” Nicetas died around the year 414.
Almighty Father, through the intercession
of Saint Nicetas, enliven our cold hearts
so we may gladly sing your praises.
