COUNCIL OF NICEA Fresco in the Sistine Salon Vatican t

Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Die - Statue Saint-Nicaise

Nicasius of Die (4th century) was a 4th-century

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

from

Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...

, present-day

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. As Bishop of

Die Die, as a verb, refers to death, the cessation of life. Die may also refer to: Games * Die, singular of dice, small throwable objects used for producing random numbers Manufacturing * Die (integrated circuit), a rectangular piece of a semicondu ...

he is notable to history as one of only five

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

s from the Western part of the Roman Empire who attended the

First Council of Nicaea The First Council of Nicaea (; grc, Νίκαια ) was a council of Christian bishops convened in the Bithynian city of Nicaea (now İznik, Turkey) by the Roman Emperor Constantine I in AD 325. This ecumenical council was the first effort ...

in 325.

Sainthood

Alternatively known as bishop Nicaise of Die, he is also considered a

Saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of Q-D-Š, holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and Christian denomination, denominat ...

in the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

with a

feast day The calendar of saints is the traditional Christian method of organizing a liturgical year by associating each day with one or more saints and referring to the day as the feast day or feast of said saint. The word "feast" in this context d ...

celebrated on 20 March and in the

Eastern Orthodox Church The Eastern Orthodox Church, also called the Orthodox Church, is the second-largest Christian church, with approximately 220 million baptized members. It operates as a communion of autocephalous churches, each governed by its bishops via ...

, is celebrated on the "Sunday of the Fathers of the first Council" .

Bishopric

Nicaise was the earliest attested Bishop of Bishop of Die, Drôme. although the largely discredited 17th century

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

Polycarpe de la Rivière Dom Polycarpe de la Rivière was Carthusian prior of the 17th century, historian and scholar with a fertile imagination. Much of his life is surrounded in mystery and although he wrote biographies on numerous church identities he is considered ge ...

says he was the successor to St Mars of Die bishop c. 220, and then St Higer. These prior bishops are not known from other sources. The same Polycarpe claims to have found in a

life Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energ ...

of St Marcel de Die, a letter from the Council of Nicaea for Nicaise to give to the bishops of Gaules. In this, no trace has ever been found of this letter.

Attendance at Nicaea

At first glance Nicaise was an unlikely attendee at the Council of Nicaea. The Latin churches were represented by only four delegations, of Die, of Rome, of Carthage and that of Cordoba (whose bishop Hosius, was the adviser of the emperor

Constantine Constantine most often refers to: * Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I *Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria Constantine may also refer to: People * Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...

). We see that these four seats were not random, they represent the four regions of the West:

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

(Iberia) and

. It should have been expect that Gauls' Bishops send their

primate Primates are a diverse order of mammals. They are divided into the strepsirrhines, which include the lemurs, galagos, and lorisids, and the haplorhines, which include the tarsiers and the simians (monkeys and apes, the latter including huma ...

the

archbishop of Lyon The Archdiocese of Lyon (Latin: ''Archidiœcesis Lugdunensis''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Lyon''), formerly the Archdiocese of Lyon–Vienne–Embrun, is a Latin Church metropolitan archdiocese of the Catholic Church in France. The Archbishops ...

Maxime Maxime is a French given name that may refer to: As a name * Maxime Bernier (born 1963), former Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs *Maxime Bôcher, American mathematician * Maxime Boyer, Canadian professional wrestler * Maxime Du Camp, French wri ...

(or

Tetrad Tetrad ('group of 4') or tetrade may refer to: * Tetrad (area), an area 2 km x 2 km square * Tetrad (astronomy), four total lunar eclipses within two years * Tetrad (chromosomal formation) * Tetrad (general relativity), or frame field ** Tetra ...

). Instead they sent the bishop of a small and obscure

bishopric In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

. It has been conjectured that the primate was unavailable due to health or age and Nicaise, having Greek parents was chosen for his knowledge of

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

.par Lenain de Tillemont, "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire ecclésiastique des six premiers siècles", Vol 6, (troisième partie, 1709) p. 687.

Burial

According to Lenain Tillemont, in the eleventh century Die Cathedral would have housed the relics of Nicaise.

References

{{authority control Bishops of Die French saints 4th-century bishops in Gaul Year of birth unknown 4th-century Christian saints Gallo-Roman saints