NICHOLAS (Nixóaxos, “victor over the people”). A deacon, bearing an Hellenistic name, he was the last of the seven ordained by the Apostles at Jerusalem (Acts 6:5). He was a “proselyte of Antioch,” and thus not of Jewish stock. St Epiphanius (Haer., I, 21, 1: PG 41, 390) and others consider him one of the seventy-two disciples of Jesus.
St Irenaeus (Contra haer., I, 26, 3: PG 7, 687) connects the name of Nicholas with the sect of the Nicolaitans and with St Hippolytus (Philosophumena, 7, 8), and holds him responsible for the origin of that sect with its depraved customs.
Clement of Alexandria (Strom., III, 4: PG 8, 1232), followed by Eusebius (Hist. eccl., III, 29: PG 20, 277), believes that Nicholas lived chastely and that later his disciples misunderstood a somewhat imprudent expression of his concerning the need to “mortify the flesh” (to subdue the passions), as if the deacon permitted “abuse” of the flesh. According to St Epiphanius (Haer., I, 25), on the other hand, Nicholas at first left his wife to live in perfection, but later took her back and lived dissolutely. No Church attributes to Nicholas a reputation for holiness.
Pietro De Ambrogio