IOANNICOS, saint. – Thaumaturge originating from Bithynia, born at Mericati in 754, died on 3 Nov. 846.
As a soldier he fought in Thrace and against the Bulgarians, but, having converted from iconoclasm, he preferred the solitary life on Olympus. As the iconoclast persecution later intensified, he lived as a true wanderer. He was acquainted with St. Theodore the Studite and St. Methodius of Constantinople, to whom he foretold his elevation to the patriarchal throne and into whose hands, before dying, he made a celebrated profession of the Catholic faith. He is recalled with praise in an apocryphal letter of the Second Council of Nicaea (B. Montfaucon, Bibl. Coisliniana, Paris 1715, p. 100). Feast on 4 Nov.
BIBL.: Acta SS. Novembris, II, Brussels 1894, pp. 311–32, with two ancient Lives, by the monks Sabba (ibid., pp. 332–84) and Peter (ibid., pp. 384–435); Martyr. Romanum, p. 497.