An icon of St Nicholas the Wonderworker of Myra, over the west door of the eighteenth-century Church of St Nicholas in Totea, Gorj County, Romania. The Taifals, whom Nepotian and his brother officers were supposed to be conspiring with, originally came from this part of southwestern Romania.
Introduction
From 331, the Praetorian Prefect of the East was Ablabius, making him the most important man in the eastern Roman Empire after the Emperor himself. Originally a pagan from Crete, he became a Christian and was a close confidant of Emperor Constantine. Later, under Constantius, he lost his place and his life for supporting the Orthodox party in the Arian crisis.
ONE day a malicious rumour came to the ears of Ablabius, the right-hand-man of Emperor Constantine the Great, whispering that three officers, much decorated for crushing a revolt of the Taifals in Phrygia, were really conspiring with them to create a breakaway Taifal state. Ablabius and the Emperor saw no alternative but to have the alleged traitors beheaded.
The situation seemed hopeless, but one of them, Nepotian, remembered how Nicholas, bishop of the town which had been their base for the Taifal campaign, had rescued three innocent men from a similar fate there.* So they spent the night in prayer, asking Nicholas’s God to help them. Ablabius, meanwhile, slept fitfully.
Next morning Constantine sent for him, and began to recount a troubling dream he had experienced the night before. “But sire,” Ablabius broke in, awestruck, “this same Nicholas appeared to me also, saying: ‘Have nothing to do with these just men’.” So the officers were released, and all three resigned their commissions to become monks.
Based on Άγιος Νικόλαος: Δέκα θαύματα που συγκλονίζουν (‘St Nichholas: Ten Astonishing Miracles’), as told by a Monk of the Gregoriou Monastery on Mount Athos.
Précis
One night, Emperor Constantine and his counsellor Ablabius each dreamt that St Nicholas came to warn them that three men due to be executed as traitors were innocent. Awestruck that they had experienced the same dream, they let the prisoners go. The prisoners were no less amazed, for they had spent that same night begging St Nicholas for his help. (60 / 60 words)
One night, Emperor Constantine and his counsellor Ablabius each dreamt that St Nicholas came to warn them that three men due to be executed as traitors were innocent. Awestruck that they had experienced the same dream, they let the prisoners go. The prisoners were no less amazed, for they had spent that same night begging St Nicholas for his help.
Variations: 1.increase the length of this precis to exactly 65 words. 2.reduce the length of this precis to exactly 55 words. 3.introduce one of the following words into the precis: about, although, because, despite, just, unless, until, who.
Archive
Word Games
Sevens Based on this passage
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Variations: 1.expand your answer to exactly fourteen words. 2.expand your answer further, to exactly twenty-one words. 3.include one of the following words in your answer: if, but, despite, because, (al)though, unless.
Spinners Find in Think and Speak
For each group of words, compose a sentence that uses all three. You can use any form of the word: for example, cat → cats, go → went, or quick → quickly, though neigh → neighbour is stretching it a bit.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1 Crush. Sleep. They.
2 I. How. Sire.
3 Emperor. Innocent. Monk.
Variations: 1. include direct and indirect speech 2. include one or more of these words: although, because, despite, either/or, if, unless, until, when, whether, which, who 3. use negatives (not, isn’t, neither/nor, never, nobody etc.)
Homonyms Find in Think and Speak
Each of the words below has more than one possible meaning. Compose your own sentences to show what those different meanings are.
This exercise uses words found in the accompanying passage.
1. Saw. 2. Man. 3. Base. 4. See. 5. Right. 6. Break. 7. Just.
High Tiles Find in Think and Speak
Make words (three letters or more) from the seven letters showing below, using any letter once only. Each letter carries a score. What is the highest-scoring word you can make?
x
0
Add
Your Words ()
Post Box : Ask Nicholas
Grok : Ask Grok
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