But the torture did not kill the martyr — his faith only got stronger. Then Maximian tried to burn the saint and throw him off the mountain, but nothing could harm the martyr, so his father threw him into prison.
The icon renders the next episode from the life of Saint Nikita. In prison, he saw a demon, who pretended to be an Angel and tried to persuade the martyr to worship idols and thus avoid new tortures. But Nikita realized that God’s messenger would not suggest such ideas, and began to pray to the Lord. Then Archangel Michael descended to Nikita and told him to stretch out his hand and catch the demon.
The hagiography of the saint recounts that the martyr “seized the devil, and threw him down in front of him, and stepped on his neck, and crushed him. He saw that the devil was hissing, and took off the iron chains that were on his feet, and began to beat the devil with the chains.”
These lines led to Saint Nikita being depicted with shackles in his hand — he uses them to beat the devil. The martyr holds the devil with his other hand, most often pulling him by his ears.
The hagiographic text tells that three years later the king summoned his son for questioning again, and the saint brought the demon holding him by the hand. He showed the demon to his father and explained that his father’s idols are just the same. Then Nikita resurrected two spouses who had long been dead.
Nevertheless, these miracles did not convince Maximian, and he continued to consider his son a deceiver. Then the whole city and the queen rose against the ruler, and
