Saint Nikita Besogon

Niketas the Goth-Beater is an early Christian saint and apocryphal great martyr who was tortured and died for Christ in Constantinople; he is the fictional son of the Roman Emperor Maximian. He is widely known in Christian iconography for the motif of him beating a demon that tempted him to embrace paganism. September 15 (28) was the feast day of two great martyrs named Niketas: the Goth-Beater and Niketas the Goth. During the reign of Peter the Great, the apocryphal life of Niketas, son of Maximian, was rejected, not because the other life was deemed more authentic, but due to its lesser popularity. Only Niketas the Goth continued to be venerated on that day. Subsequently, in iconography, the narratives concerning the two saints sometimes merged, although Niketas the Goth did not "physically" fight a demon.