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Nicarete, a Lady of Nicomedia

Wace's Dictionary of Early Christian Biography

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Nicarete ( Νικαρέτη ), a lady of one of the noblest and richest families of Nicomedia, who devoted herself to perpetual virginity in connexion with the church of Constantinople. She was warmly attached to Chrysostom and was punished for her devotion to his cause by the confiscation of most of her property in the troubles that followed his expulsion. She was then advanced in life and had a large household dependent on her, but managed her lessened resources with such economy that she had enough for their wants and her own, and also to give largely to the poor. Skilled in the compounding of medicines, she often succeeded in curing where physicians failed. Her humility and self-distrust would never allow her to become a deaconess, and she declined the office of lady superior of the consecrated virgins when Chrysostom earnestly pressed it on her. She retired from Constantinople to avoid the persecution in 404 (Soz. H. E. viii. 23).

[E.V.]