Hierarch
Hierarch Niphon, Bishop of Constantia (Cyprus)
IV в.
Also known as: Нифонт Кипрский
Hierarch Niphon, Bishop of Constantia (Cyprus) — who in his youth fell into a dissolute life but was miraculously converted by a vision of his sin-darkened face and the smiling countenance of the Theotokos on an icon, later becoming a clairvoyant ascetic and bishop.
IMPORTANT CORRECTION: the category has been corrected from "righteous" to "hierarch".
Hierarch Niphon was born in Paphlagonia, educated in Constantinople. As a child he was meek and devout, but in youth fell into a dissolute, sinful life, though periodically stricken with remorse. A friend told him his face had darkened from sin "like an Ethiopian's" — this shocked him into repentance; praying before an icon of the Mother of God, he saw her face brighten and smile at him, after which he devoted himself entirely to prayer, received monastic tonsure, and intensified his asceticism, gaining the gift of discerning demonic schemes and of seeing souls depart at the hour of death.
In old age, while in Alexandria, he was revealed in a vision to the Patriarch as worthy of the episcopate and was consecrated bishop of Constantia on Cyprus, though his tenure was brief. St. Athanasius the Great visited him before his death; he foreknew the day of his repose three days in advance and, on his deathbed, saw angels and the Mother of God.
His feast is kept on December 23/January 5.