Ioannikios 2 was the subject of two Lives written by contemporary or near contemporary authors, Sabas (Sabas 1) and Petrus (Petros 126), both monks, who drew on personal knowledge and on first hand accounts for much of their information: Sabas, Vita S. Ioannicii (in AASS Nov. II i, pp. 332-383) (= BHG 935), Petrus, Vita S. Ioannicii (in AASS Nov. II i, pp. 384-435) (= BHG 936). On the relationship between these two sources, see C. Mango, "The Two Lives of St Ioannikios and the Bulgarians", in Okeanos: Essays Presented to Ihor Sevcenko on his Sixtieth Birthday (Cambridge, Mass., 1984), pp. 393-404. Their accounts complement one another and also describe many of the same events, but they also contain important differences and often disagree on when certain events occurred in Ioannikios 2's life. Probably neither author had sources which knew for certain when certain events (especially the more miraculous) occurred, but as they were usually associated with a particular place they are narrated when the author's story places Ioannikios 2 in the appropriate vicinity. However, Ioannikios 2 clearly moved around from place to place, revisiting old haunts and moving on again. Hence the same event can occur at different periods in the two narratives. Petrus however seems to have had access to better information, since he knew Ioannikios 2 personally and also drew much of his information from Eustratios 19, his own hegoumenos and a longstanding associate of Ioannikios 2; in addition he was almost certainly writing within months of the death of Ioannikios 2: see Mango, op. cit., p. 394 with n. 5.

Born in the village of Marykaton in Bithynia, to the north of Lake Apollonias, Ioannikios 2 was the son of Myritzikos 1 and Anastaso 1: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 2, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 4 ("from Marykaton in Bithynia, son of Myritzikios (sic) and Anastaso"), Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 6 ("from Marykaton in Bithynia"). The family name was Boïlas: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 6 (cited below). The name is apparently Bulgar, and he may therefore have been of Bulgar, or possibly of Slav, descent; cf. Winkelmann, Quellenstudien, pp. 182, 202, H. Ditten, Ethnische Verschiebungen zwischen der Balkanhalbinsel und Kleinasien vom Ende des 6. bis zur zweiten Hälfte des 9. Jahrhunderts, Berliner Byzantinischen Arbeiten 59 (Berlin, 1993), p. 255, S. Vryonis, "St Ioannicius the Great and the "Slavs" of Bithynia", Byz 31, pp. 245-248. Ioannikios 2 had a sister, Anonyma 54: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 27, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 35. According to Sabas 1, Ioannikios 2 was born in the fourteenth year of the reign of the emperor Constantine V (Konstantinos 7) (τῷ τεσσαρεσκαιδεκάτῳ ἔτει τῆς τοῦ Ἰσαύρου Λέοντος παιδός, Νεστοριανοῦ Κωνσταντίνου, δυσσεβοὺς τυραννίδος): Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 2. This suggests that he was born in c. 753/754. This is consistent with the statement of Sabas 1 (see below) that when he died in November 846 he was in his ninety-fourth year. However Petros 126 says that when he died he was aged eighty-four (see below); this gives his date of birth as c. 762/763.

Ioannikios 2 was possibly related to the mother of St Paul the Younger (for Paul and his mother, see PBE II): Vita Pauli (BHG 1474), in Anal. Boll. 12 (1892), pp. 20-21 (λόγος διαπεφοίτηκεν οὐ μακρὰν εἶναι γένους αὐτὴν Ἰωαννικίῳ). Ioannikios 2 was not given a religious education, but at the age of seven was sent by his parents to tend pigs (τοῦ βόσκειν χοίρους) and continued with this way of life until the age of sixteen, when he reached maturity at the end of his second age (sic) and the start of his third; the latter point is dated in the thirty-first year of the reign of the emperor Constantine V (Konstantinos 7) and the first of Eirene 1, the wife of Leo IV (Leo 4) the Khazar (ἐν ἀρχῇ δὲ τῆς τρίτης τῆς ἡλικιώσεως, ἤγουν ἑξκαιδεκαετίας, τριακοστῷ δὲ καὶ πρώτῳ ἔτει τῆς ἀρχῆς τοῦ κρατοῦντος, ἐνιαυτῷ τὲ πρώτῳ τῆς νυμφευθείσης Χαζάρῳ Λέοντι τῷ τούτου υἱῷ φιλοχρίστου Εἰρήνης - i.e. c. 770/771): Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 2. His parents were presumably therefore farmers or peasants.

In his nineteenth year (c. 771/772 on Sabas 1's chronology) he was enrolled in the Exkoubita by the emperor and served in the eighteenth bandon: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 3 (ὅθεν τῷ ἐννεακαὶδεκάτῳ αὐτοῦ χρόνῳ τῆς ἡλικίας εἰς τὴν τῶν ἐξσκουβιτόρων στρατίαν καὶ ἐν βάνδῳ ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῳ κατ' ἐκλογὴν ἀκριβῆ ὑπὸ τοῦ τυράννου ἐντάττεται), cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 4 (on reaching young manhood - εἰς νεανίσκου ἡλικίαν - he joined a leading regiment in the army and enrolled among the exkoubitors in the eighteenth bandon - στρατοποιεῖται μὲν ἐν πρώτοις καὶ κατατάττεται ὑπὸ τὸ θεοφύλακτον τάγμα τῶν ἐκσκουβίτων ἐν βάνδῳ ὀκτωκαιδεκάτῳ; according to the chronology of Petros 126, his enrolment in the Exkoubita was c. 780/781). He is described as bigger and stronger than his fellow soldiers: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 3. He grew up as an iconoclast like his parents: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 3, cf. Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 27, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 35. He is said to have repented at the time when iconoclasm was overthrown by Eirene 1; Sabas 1 gives the date as the second year of the basileia of Eirene 1, the twelfth of her ἀρχὴ, and the twenty-eighth year of Ioannikios 2's life: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 4. Eirene 1 overthrew iconoclasm in 787, but the figures in Sabas 1 point to a date soon after the death of Leo IV (Leo 4) and the accession of Constantine VI (Konstantinos 8), c. 781/782 (i.e. two years after the death of Leo IV (Leo 4) and twelve after Eirene 1 was crowned Augusta). Sabas 1 goes on to say that Ioannikios 2 did not finally abandon iconoclasm until he was in his thirty-sixth year (i.e. c. 788); he had been on campaign in the East and was returning through the Olympus mountains when he encountered an old man (unidentified) who urged him to abandon iconoclasm, and he was instantly converted: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 5 (τῷ τριακοστῷ γὰρ καὶ ἕκτῳ χρόνῳ τοῦ ὁσίου τῆς ἡλικίας, ἐν τοῖς ἑῴοις μέρεσι γενομένου φοσσάτου κἀκεῖθεν ἐπαναστρέφοντος διὰ τῶν Ὀλυμπιακῶν καὶ μεγίστων ὀρέων).

Ioannikios 2 took part in the battle of Markellai against the Bulgars (in 792) and allegedly fought with great bravery, saving the life of one of the leading notables by a great act of strength and thereby attracting the attention of the emperor himself; when asked his name and status, he identified himself as Ioannikios, an exkoubitor, from Marykaton in Bithynia, of the Boïlas family (χώρας μέν ἐστι Βιθυνῶν ἐπαρχίας, κώμης δὲ τῶν Μαρυκάτου καὶ γένους τῶν Βοϊλάδων, τήν τε κλῆσιν πέλει Ἰωαννίκιος καὶ τὴν στρατείαν ἐξσκουβίτωρ); this was allegedly noted down and he was promised a reward; meanwhile he continued to fight bravely; Sabas 1 gives dates for these events which again cause difficulties; according to Sabas 1 they occurred seven years after Ioannikios 2 finally abandoned iconoclasm, in his forty-third year (i.e. c. 795) and in the sixth year of the reign of Constantine VI (Konstantinos 8) (i.e. c. 786; unless this is interpreted as alluding to the sixth year since Konstantinos 8 proclaimed himself sole emperor, in November 790, when it gives the consistent date of c. 795): Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 6 (in the seventh year after that - ἥπερ δὴ ἔτος τρίτον καὶ τεσσαρακοστὸν ἀριθμεῖται, ἕκτῳ ἔτει τῆς αὐτοκρατορικῆς βασιλείας Κωνσταντίνου τοῦ νεωτέρου). According to the Life by Petros 1, Ioannikios 2 distinguished himself by two great acts of bravery after the battle of Markellai, saving the life of the emperor Constantine VI (Konstantinos 8) himself and killing a barbarian and so securing a way of retreat for the defeated Roman army over the mountains: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 5.

In distress at the calamitous defeat he prayed to the Virgin Mary: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 6. He then abandoned his secular career and determined to become a monk: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 7. He had served in the army for twenty-four years (εἴκοσι τεσσάρας χρόνους διαπρέψας ἐν τῇ στρατείᾳ): Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 8. To be consistent with the earlier dates, this would give a date of c. 796. However both Sabas 1 and Petros 126 state that after the battle of Markellai Ioannikios 2 made his decision and then returned home to his parents, travelling via Constantinople; then with his parents' blessing he withdrew to Mt Olympus: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 7, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 7.

He first went to the monastery of the Agauroi at Prousa, where he opened his heart to the hegoumenos Gregorios 48 and was advised to acquire some learning, including hymns and the order of the liturgy: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 8, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 7-8 (the unnamed hegoumenos advised him to spend time in a coenobium and acquire some learning before taking upon himself the life of a solitary). He then visited a friend at the village of Kastoulon near Atroa, where he was introduced to a local monastery called Telaou (ἐν μονῇ τῶν ἐκεῖσε Τελάου προσαγορευομένῃ) and there soon acquired the rudiments of letters (τὴν τῶν γραμμάτων μόνην εἰσαγωγὴν) before, finding this monastery too disturbed owing to troubles with some neighbouring villages, he left for the monastery of Antidios higher up the mountain: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 8. The episode at Kastoulon is not recorded by Petros 126.

At the monastery of Antidios Ioannikios 2 was warmly received by the hegoumenos Ioannes 438 and spent two years there learning the life of a monk and acquiring a basic knowledge of the Psalms, learning thirty of them; Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 9, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 8-9. According to Petros 126 he had received no previous education (οὐδέπω γὰρ ἦν μεμαθηκώς): Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 9. After two years he decided to leave: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 9. First, though, he climbed to the top of Korakos Kephale, the mountain above the monastery, where he fasted for seven days and prayed for someone to anoint him; there he allegedly encountered two solitaries, who foretold his future and gave him a monastic habit: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 9, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 10 (he spent some time on the mountain tops).

Then, with the blessing of the hegoumenos Ioannes 438 he left to return to the mountain called Trichalix, where the monastery of the Agauroi was; he was there provided by Gregorios 48 with a cell (κελλίον) in which to live: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 10, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 10 (he returned to Agauroi, where the hegoumenos gave him permission to occupy a small cave where he could be solitary - χάριν ἡσυχίας).

The accounts of the two Lives diverge somewhat at this point. According to the (later) Life by Petros 126, the hegoumenos Gregorios 48 ordered two of his monks, Eustratios 19 and Theophylaktos 105, to prepare the cave; Ioannikios 2 then remained there for thirteen years engaged in prayer and fasting, until he grew so famous that his visitors became a nuisance; he therefore decided to move somewhere quieter and so withdrew to the Thrakesioi (ἐπὶ τὰ μέρη τῶν Θρᾳκησίων μεταναστεύει), taking with him three other solitaries, Petros 128, Sabas 10 and Antonios 32: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 10. However his three colleagues grew weary and returned to Agauroi and Ioannikios 2, instructed in a vision by an angel, also returned and went to the wilder parts of Trichalix, where he again became famous; the hegoumenos Gregorios 48 visited him and ordered Eustratios 19 and Theophylaktos 105 to prepare a cave for him and to serve him: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 11.

While this cell was in preparation, Ioannikios 2 performed a miracle involving a tame goat, which was witnessed by the monk Sabas 10: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 13.

According to Sabas 1, after his return from Antidios to Agauroi to the cell provided by Gregorios 48, his fame spread and the crowds that visited him became a nuisance; he therefore withdrew to a village called Hellespontos, in the district of Pandemos, where he dug himself a hole and lived in it for three years, being fed with bread and water once a month by the goatherd Anthinos 1; after three years, while he was in church taking communion, he met a former fellow-soldier who recognised him, and they then went to live a spiritual life together in the mountains of Kondouria near Myra in Lycia (μεθ'οὗ καὶ πνευματικῶς ἀγαλλιασθεὶς πρὸς ὄρη δύσβατα λίαν τῆς Κονδουρίας ἀπέβλεψε θηροτρόφα ὄντως καὶ πολυήσυχα πέλοντα πρὸς δύσιν Λυκίας καὶ πρὸς ἀνατολὴν διακείμενα τῆς Ἀσίας, πλησίον Μύρων): Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 10. On the way he performed a miracle at a river crossing: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 11. He visited Ephesos, where he prayed in the Church of St John and also persuaded two nuns, an elderly mother and her teenage daughter (cf. Anonyma 59 and Anonyma 60) to return to their monastery, before travelling on to Kondouria: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 12. He next went down into the mountains of Cilicia, where he remained for seven years; then he made his way to the monastery of Eriste, in the district of Pandemos in Bithynia, where he accepted the tonsure and became a monk; this event is dated by Sabas 1 to the fifth year of the emperors Nikephoros 8 and Staurakios 2, the twelfth year since Ioannikios 2 became a hermit and the fifty-fourth year of his life (i.e. c. 807; in this year ἀποκαλύπτεται ἐκ Θεοῦ ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ Πανδήμου μονὴν Ἐριστὴν καλουμένην ἀναζεύξαι ἐκεῖθεν (i.e. from Cilicia), μιᾶς οὔσης τῶν ἐν Βιθυνίᾳ ἀσκητηρίων μεγίστης καὶ τιμίας, ποιμένα ἐχούσης κατὰ τὸν καιρὸν Στέφανόν τινα πάσῃ ἀρετῇ ἀληθῶς ἐστεμμένον καὶ Ἀναστάσιον οἰκονόμον ὡσαύτως, κἀκεῖ τὸ τῶν μοναχῶν ἐπενδύσασθαι σχῆμα); on arrival at the monastery he revealed his vision to the hegoumenos Stephanos 127 and on the following day received the tonsure from the oikonomos Anastasios 59; he then retired to the district of the Metata (ἐπὶ τὰ Μητάτα; presumably the area of the stud farms in Asia and Phrygia) and took up residence in a cave at a place called Ta Kritama close to the river Gorgytes: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 13.

After three years there he went to visit an aged holy man, Georgios 220, at a place called Chelidon, near to the fort of Lisos, in the mountains of Alsos in Lydia (ἐπὶ τὰ τῆς Λυδίας τοῦ Ἄλσους ὄρη καὶ ἐν κάστρῳ τῷ Λισῷ παρακειμένῳ τόπῳ, Χελιδόνα καλουμένῳ); on the way he killed a serpent in the river Gorgytes; he spent three years there with Georgios 220, who taught him all the psalms, then he returned to Ioannes 438 at the monastery of Antidios, accompanied by an attendant, Pachomios 1; from there he went on to Gregorios 48 at the monastery of the Agauroi and to Mt Trichalix; Gregorios 48 met him there with three monks, Eustratios 19, Sabas 10 and Theophylaktos 105, and they built a cell (κελλίον) for him: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 14.

Ioannikios 2 allegedly favoured Eustratios 19, foreseeing that he would later become hegoumenos himself with many monks under him; it was Eustratios 19 who told Petros 126 to compose the Life of Ioannikios and who was the source of much of his information: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 12. These same events are apparently placed by Petros 126 later in the career of Ioannikios 2, probably in the reign of Michael II (Michael 10). According to him, as the fame of Ioannikios 2 grew and he was increasingly troubled by visitors seeking his advice, he retired to a cave at Ktemata, beyond Mt Lissos, near the river Gorgytas, and chained himself to a rock for three years (ἐκ τοῦ τόπου ἐν ᾧ ἦν μεταβὰς πρὸς τὰ ἐπιλεγόμενα Κτήματα, τὰ ἐπέκεινα πέλοντα τοῦ προσονομασθέντος Λησσοῦ, ἐν τῷ ποταμῷ τῷ καλουμένῳ Γοργύτῃ); then he visited a wonderful old man (πανθαύμαστος γέρων; i.e. Georgios 220, see above); he killed a great serpent living in the river Gorgytas with a single blow of his "iron" (τὸ σιδήριον) and, according to Eustratios 19, he also killed another beast (ἔχιδνα) using the power of prayer (διὰ προσευχῆς ἐθανάτωσεν): Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 39-40.

Petros 126 also describes a visit which Ioannikios 2 paid to the Church of St John in Thrakesioi (presumably at Ephesos, and presumably also the event described above by Sabas 1); on the way, being overcome with hunger and the heat, he turned aside to an oratory, where a worshipping couple found him and fed him; he then went on his way and made a miraculous crossing of a dangerous river; on arrival at the church he wished to enter and worship by night to avoid the crowds but was prevented by the churchwarden (Anonymus 564); however he gained entrance in a miraculous manner, prayed there and then returned to Mt Lissos: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 42-43.

In the ninth year of Nikephoros 8 (in 811), in which the Bulgars attacked the empire, Ioannikios 2 was visited by relatives of the emperor and foretold to them the defeat and death of Nikephoros 8: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 15, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 14. Later that same year, when Staurakios 2 became emperor, the same relatives asked Eustratios 19 in Constantinople about his fate and he carried their query back to Ioannikios 2, who foretold that he would die of his wounds: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 15, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 15. In the second year of Michael I (Michael 7), in 813, Ioannikios 2 was visited by Bryennios 3, cousin of the (future) emperor Leo V (Leo 15), and foretold to him the accession of Leo 15: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 16, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 16 (Bryennios 3 was a frequent visitor). After the accession of Leo 15, Bryennios 3 mentioned the prophecy to him; Leo 15 sent him back to Ioannikios 2 to enquire about the length of his reign, but Ioannikios 2 foretold only that Leo 15 would persecute the church: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 17, cf. 18 (Leo 15 resumed the iconoclast persecution).

Apparently before the persecution began, Ioannikios 2 withdrew from Mt Trichalix at Prousa to Mt Alsos in the direction of Lydia, not allegedly as a fugitive (according to Sabas he was οὐ φυγὰς) but in order to teach the Truth: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 18 (ἀπὸ τοῦ Προυσαέων ὄρους Τριχάλικος ἐπὶ τὸ πρὸς Λυδίαν Ἄλσος), Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 19 (ἐπὶ τὸ ὄρος τὸ καλούμενον Ἄλσος). At Mt Alsos he became involved with Gourias 1, a wicked monk and allegedly a wizard, who pretended to want to become his disciple and whom he took into his service as his attendant (Petros 126 says: δέχεται αὐτὸν δῆθεν ὡς εἰς μαθητείαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ ὑπουργοῦ τάξιν ἐγχειρίζει αὐτῷ); after unsuccessful attempts on his life, by soldiers and by the use of poison through Gourias 1, Ioannikios 2 received a warning from St Eustathios the martyr (killed under the emperor Hadrian) in a vision and expelled Gourias 1, resuming again his solitary life: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 18-19, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 20-22.

While on Mt Alsos he built churches and monasteries to St Eustathios (in thanks for his deliverance), to the Theotokos (after a vision of a nearby healing spring) and to Sts Peter and Paul, and lived quietly there: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 19-20, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 19-23. At this time he miraculously saved a church from a thunderbolt: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 24. He was joined at Lisos on Mt Alsos during the persecution by the monk Eustratios 19: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 21. According to Petros 126, it was Eustratios 19 who informed him that the persecution had begun; he then went off to pray and was observed praying up in the air: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 25. During the reign of Leo V (Leo 15), Eustratios 19 came to Ioannikios 2 and took up residence with him: Vita Eustratii 10-12, pp. 374, 24-376, 3, p. 388, and Synax. Eccl. Const. 379-380, 57ff., 382, 4ff. During the period of this persecution he saved the life of a boy sent for water but led astray by demons, and also cured a woman wandering on the mountain of Chelidon whom demonic possession had made mad; he took the demon into himself and subsequently expelled it in the form of a bear: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 22-23, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 26-28.

While living for a time in a waterless cave at Chelidon, where he had gone to seek isolation, he discovered a source of water and founded a shrine there; later on it became a monastery: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 45 (and cf. above; possibly the Church of the Theotokos). He lived for a time in a cave at Chelidon called Marsalinon where he killed a huge snake by the power of prayer, as he informed Eustratios 19; he then went into the districts of Kontouria, where he encountered a nun, of distinguished family (Anonyma 59) and her daughter (Anonyma 60), who was afflicted by an unclean spirit; he cured the daughter by taking her affliction on himself and with difficulty recovered from it: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 46-47.

He took shelter from a storm once in a cave, only to find it inhabited by a dragon: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 48. On a later return to Mt Alsos, where he had earlier built a shrine to the martyr St. Eustathios, he planned a new cell (κελλίον) for himself; he planned the construction himself and then left the workmen to carry on the work; one of the workmen, Pardos 13, was bitten by a snake and miraculously cured by Ioannikios 2; Pardos 13 was still alive when Petrus wrote the Life of Ioannikios 2 and used to describe how Ioannikios had cured him: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 41. Ioannikios 2 once visited the monastery of Kounin, where the annual festival of the monastery was being celebrated by a large gathering of fathers and monks; at first he remained unrecognised, until a woman with an unclean spirit called upon him and he cured her: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 44. During the persecution under Leo V (Leo 15) he made his way secretly back to Mt Trichalix, part of the Olympus range near Prousa, to avoid the crowds; on the way he killed a serpent which was terrorising local villagers; on Trichalix he lived as a solitary, concealed in a place known only to Eustratios 19; after Leo V (Leo 15) had been emperor for seven and a half years, Ioannikios 2 foretold his murder to Eustratios 19, who shortly after his return to the house of Niketas 154 learned that Leo V (Leo 15) had just been assassinated and that Michael 10 was now emperor; Eustratios 19 and Niketas 154 visited Ioannikios 2 with the news: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 24-25, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 29-31. The date was December 820.

Perhaps on this same occasion, if not on another visit by Eustratios 19 and Niketas 154 (the sources contradict one another), Ioannikios 2 foretold the death of the hermit Elias 22, his near neighbour: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 25, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 31. He lost and miraculously recovered his own iron crucifix: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 26, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 32 (τὸ ἐν τῇ χειρὶ αὐτοῦ κατεχόμενον σιδηροῦν σταυρίον). He expelled a swarm of evil spirits, in the form of crows, from a nearby cave: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 26, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 33. He cured the ailing daughter (Anonyma 55) of the kandidatos Theodotos Sellokakas (Theodotos 44): Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 34, cf. Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 27 (the paralysed daughter of an unnamed synkletikos). He had a brother-in-law (γαμβρός) who was a convinced iconoclast and who died blind but obdurate in spite of Ioannikios 2's best efforts to change his mind: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 27, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 35.

On one occasion he met a number of leading bishops and hegoumenoi, including Theodoros 15 (Theodore the Stoudite), Ioannes 439 (bishop of Chalcedon), Petros 49 (bishop of Nikaia), Klemens 1 (secretary of Theodoros 15), Ioseph 18 (oikonomos of the Great Church), the unnamed brother of Ioseph (Anonymus 559) and many other hegoumenoi, with their followers and many laymen; they had assembled in the Church of the Prophet Elijah at one of the metochia of the monastery of the Agauroi, where Eustratios 19 brought Ioannikios 2 down to meet them; after prayers and conversation they ate and then Ioannikios 2 foretold that Ioseph 18 was soon to die, which he did eighteen days later: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 36, Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 28. Petros 126 adds that Ioannikios 2 rebuked the Stoudites for doubting his prophecy: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 36 (this may be an addition by Petros 126 following problems caused by the Stoudites in the period after the Triumph of Orthodoxy, in 843; cf. below; there is no trace of this element in the Life by Sabas 1). The date of this incident may have been 821, when Theodoros 15 (Theodore the Stoudite) was living at Prousa; cf. Theodoros 15, but see also Mango, op. cit., p. 396, n. 10 for doubts.

Ioannikios 2 was the addressee of a letter from Theodoros 15 (Theodore the Stoudite), written after Ioannikios 2 was visited by Theodoros 15, Petros 49 of Nikaia and Ioannes 439 of Chalcedon; the letter concerned Theoktistos 19 and his return to the church; Ioannikios 2 is styled τὴν ἁγιωσύνην σου (p. 658, line 30) and addressed as θεοτίμητε (p. 657, line 4), τιμιώτατε (p. 657, line 19), πάτερ ἅγιε (p. 658, line 28) and πάτερ ὅσιε (p. 658, line 40): Theod. Stud., Ep. 461, pp. 657-658. He is mentioned in another letter of Theodoros 15, where he is styled πνευματικοῦ ἡμῶν πατρός (p. 724, line 80): Theod. Stud., Ep. 490, pp. 722-724. In one of Theodoros 15's sermons Ioannikios 2 is criticised for not having suffered during the persecution of iconophiles under Leo V (Leo 15): Theod. Stud., Catech. Parva 38.

Possibly in 825 (Sabas 1 dates the event to the fifth year of the emperors Michael 10 and Theophilos 5 and to the fourteenth year after the death of the emperor Nikephoros 8) Ioannikios 2 is said to have visited persons held captive by the Bulgars since the death of Nikephoros 8 and miraculously led some of them back to freedom; the story was told to Sabas 1 by Eustathios 19, one of those rescued: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 29 (this story is not recorded by Petros 126).

After his return to Trichalix he was visited by the former hegoumenos of the monastery of Elaiobomoi, Antonios 30, and his oikonomos, Basilios 119; he foretold to them the death of Inger 2, bishop of Nikaia, and asked Basilios 119 to visit him and ask him to abandon iconoclasm; shortly afterwards Inger 2 refused the request and died; according to Petrus's informant, Eustratios 19, Ioannikios 2 knew of Inger 2's death precisely as it happened: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 30, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 38.

About this time he visited the tomb of Theophanes 18 Homologetes at the monastery of Megas Agros at Sigriane to pay his respects: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 31, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 37 (he visited the monastery of Isaac the Great (sic), called Agros, and paid his respects at the tomb). On his way back he put in at the island of Thasios at the north end of Lake Apollonias where there was a monastery of the same name; the hegoumenos Daniel 12 and the monks went to greet him and welcomed him as a prophet of God; at their request he drove away a great serpent which occupied the waters: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 31, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 37. He also foretold the death of Daniel 12's brother, Euthymios 11, which occurred five days later: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 31.

He and Daniel 12 returned to the mountains to seek solitude (πρὸς τὴν ἡσυχίαν) in the caves there; they lived for a time in separate caves at a place called Toparche; Ioannikios 2 was bitten by a snake at Toparche and after his recovery returned with Daniel 12 to the solitude at Trichalix: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 32. While still at Toparche, according to Petros 126, Ioannikios 2 and Daniel 12 came upon a cave filled with demons, known as the Cave of Toparche (τὸ ἄντρον εἰς τὸν Τοπάρχην); after forty days Ioannikios 2 overcame them and they went on their way rejoicing: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 53.

When the crops of a metochion of the Agauroi monastery at which stood a chapel of Sts Cosmas and Damian were attacked by caterpillars, the monks appealed for the help of Ioannikios 2 through the medium of Eustratios 19 (whom the Life by Petros 126 describes as their hegoumenos already), he descended from the mountain and personally expelled the pest: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 32 (placed immediately before the death of Gregorios 48 and the later succession of Eustratios 19), Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 56.

The hegoumenos of the Agauroi (Gregorios 48) planned to visit Constantinople on business and beforehand sought the blessing of Ioannikios 2, meeting him at a metochion of the Agauroi where was a chapel of St Georgios; Ioannikios 2 foretold in riddling terms that Gregorios 48 would die in Constantinople within days of completing his business; Gregorios 48 did not understand him, but went to Constantinople, completed his business and died eleven days later; he was succeeded first by his nephew, Anonymus 560, and then by Eustratios 19: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 32, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 59.

Ioannikios 2 received a visit from Isaakios 7, kourator of a women's convent in Constantinople called Tou Kloubiou, whom he urged to become a monk; Isaakios 7 though willing needed the consent of the hegoumene of the monastery (Anonyma 56), which she was not willing to give, and Ioannikios 2 sent back with him to Constantinople the two monks Dositheos 2 and Eustratios 19 to persuade her; they failed (according to Petros 126 they had almost managed to persuade her but she hardened her attitude following the intervention of the Stoudite monks under Athanasios 8 and Naukratios 1; the date was therefore after the death of Theodoros 15) and Isaakios 7 fell ill and died; the hegoumene Anonyma 56 and her daughter (Anonyma 57) later visited Ioannikios 2 for his blessing, which he gave them but then handed a staff of office not to the hegoumene Anonyma 56, since he foresaw that she was soon to die, but to the daughter Anonyma 57 instead; when the hegoumene complained to Eustratios 19, he explained the reason to her: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 33, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 57-58.

Because he was increasingly famous and harrassed by visitors, Ioannikios 2 withdrew with Eustratios 19 once again to the wilderness of Korakos Kephale; on the way they had an encounter involving some wild dogs and lost sheep near the village of Merilos; Ioannikios 2 calmed the dogs and told the two shepherds Theophylaktos 106 and Christophoros 47 where to find their sheep, and in return was guided on his way to Trapeza; to avoid a meeting with oncoming travellers he made himself invisible: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 34, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 60-61.

On arriving at their destination, the monastery of Antidios, they settled in separate cells (κελλία) in the mountains above the monastery; Ioannikios 2 did not escape the crowds even there but grew more famous and performed more miracles; while living there he cured the wife (Anonyma 58) of Stephanos 128 (patrikios and magistros), received frequent visits from Stephanos 129 (monk and former notarios of Olbianos 3) whose death he foretold, and foretold also the death of the monk Thomas 58 who visited him with the hegoumenos Euthymios 12: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 35, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 62-65 (information about these miracles came from Eustratios 19).

His retreat with Eustratios 19 was apparently during the persecution of iconophiles in the reign of Theophilos 5, when Antonios 31 became hegoumenos of the Agauroi monastery; Antonios 31 ignored the advice of Ioannikios 2, remained an iconoclast, and died: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 36, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 66 (according to Petros 126 he eventually repented, accepted a suitable penance from Ioannikios 2, and died shortly afterwards after becoming paralysed). Around this time Ioannikios 2 was visited by the hypatikos Konstantinos 260; he advised him not to beat his servants, and he also cured his son, Nikephoros 65, of a speech defect: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 37.

Ioannikios 2 visited the monastery of Antidios to inspect progress on the construction of a church to St John the Baptist there; on emerging with the monk Ioannes 440 he made himself invisible and passed unseen through a waiting crowd: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 38.

His miracles were much talked about by one of his acquaintances, Theodoros 321 (monk and hegoumenos), who took to meet him a man who was sceptical; Ioannikios 2 performed a miracle involving a wild bear which convinced the doubter: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 39, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 51 (his influence over wild animals was well known). He gave instructions to his attendant, Theodoulos 6, to take oil to the poor: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 40, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 52.

By his prayers he twice in quick succession cured Eustratios 19 of illness when the latter was hegoumenos of Agauroi, once when Eustratios 19 was at the monastery and sent the monk Nikolaos 71 to inform Ioannikios 2, and once soon afterwards when he was at a metochion called Leukadon: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 41, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 54 (a nose bleed and subsequent weakness and fever; Eustratios 19 himself wrote an account of this which Petrus used). During the persecution under Theophilos 5, Ioannikios 2 was visited by Drosos 3 (a persecutor and protonotarios of the Opsikion) seeking his blessing; he warned him to put his papers in order as the basileus was demanding his accounts (meaning that he was soon to die); Drosos 3 did not understand the warning and ignored him, and died soon afterwards: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 42, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 67.

When Petros 126, author of the Vita, and a fellow monk, Platon 22, visited him one year and expressed a desire to visit him again the following year, he foretold that Platon 22 would never see him again, and this came true when the following year Platon 22 had to remain behind owing to unexpected lack of transport (see Platon 22); however he sent εὐλογίαι (?gifts of consecrated bread) to Platon 22 and his relatives: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 43, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 68.

While living on Mt Olympus in Bithynia as a contemplative (τὸν ἐν ἁγίοις πατέρα ἡμῶν ... Ἰωαννίκιον, πρὸς τοῖς κατὰ τὸ Ὀλύμπιον τότε ὄρεσιν ἡσυχάζοντα), he was visited by Peter of Atroa (Petros 34), shortly after Petros 34 recovered from an illness and shortly before he died: Vita Petr. Atr. 80, p. 213. Soon after the death of Petros 34 (1 January 837) Ioannikios 2 told Sabas 1 of the vision he had seen of the death of Petros 34: Vita Petr. Atr. 81-82, pp. 215-217, cf. Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 44 (Ioannikios 2 had a vision of the death of Peter of Atroa (Petros 34), occurring at the very moment of Petros 34's death; he described this to the monk Sabas who narrated it in the Life of Ioannikios 2 and again at greater length in the Life of Peter of Atroa).

During the persecution under Theophilos 5, Ioannikios 2 received two high officials, the protovestiarios and the megas kourator (Anonymus 562 and Anonymus 563), sent by the emperor himself to question him about the veneration of icons of Christ; he had anticipated their coming and answered firmly that images of Christ should be treated with all proper respect; he is described here as τὸν προφητικώτατον ἄνδρα καὶ μέγαν Ἰωαννίκιον: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 45. Shortly afterwards he received a visit from the hegoumenos of the Agauroi, Eustratios 19, who told him about the cruelties of the persecutors; Ioannikios 2 foretold the Triumph of Orthodoxy after the death of Theophilos 5 and added that Methodios 1 would become patriarch: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 46, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 69 (he repeated the prophecy on more than one occasion).

In 841 he was visited by Euthymios (the Younger); he allowed him to be accused of murder, but then foretold his future as a monk: Vita Euthymii Iun. 7-8 (pp. 174, 5-175, 12).

He opposed the plan of the empress Theodora 2 to rehabilitate the memory of the emperor Theophilos 5: Acta Davidis, Symeonis et Georgii 254, 15. In 843, in the Laura of the Prophet Elias on Mt Olympus, he received a delegation from the empress Theodora 2 and the Council concerning the appointment of a new patriarch (cf. Anonymi 27 and Anonymus 636); he advised the choice of Methodios 1: Vita Mich. Sync. (ed. Schmit) 249, 15-250, 2, Vita Mich. Sync. (ed. Cunningham) 26 (102, 23-104, 12) (cf. Cunningham 162-164), Vita Theoph. Grapt. 33 (p. 218, 19-23) (advised the selection of Methodios 1).

After the Triumph of Orthodoxy, when Methodios 1 was patriarch, Ioannikios 2 wrote to him about the attacks being made on Methodios 1's character and about the disputes that had arisen in the church over whether former iconoclasts and their appointees could continue to function as bishops and priests; he supported moderation and noted that the former patriarch Tarasios 1 had allowed them to continue to practise under strict conditions; he also invited Methodios 1 to visit him: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 47, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 69. Methodios 1 showed the letter to the emperors (τοῖς βασιλεῦσι) and acted according to the advice it contained: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 48, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 70. He gave Methodios 1 advice and encouragement in his actions against iconoclasts: Nicetas, Vita Ignatii 500D-501A.

Ioannikios 2 was questioned about his faith and to reassure doubters who wondered if his success was not due to stupidity and ignorance (ἁπλότης and ἰδιωτεία) he produced a statement of his faith: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 48, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 55. He was now an old man living a life of austerity; he received a visit from two hegoumenoi, both called Makarios (Makarios 6 and Makarios 7), and told them the story of the consecration of certain churches which he founded at Lissos during the reign of the emperor Leo V (Leo 15) (see above): Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 49.

On one occasion he received a visit from the sakellarios Leo 251 and the protovestiarios Agapetos 4, and was asked to intervene with them to secure the release of a local person (Euandrios 1) carried off captive during an Arab raid, by exchanging him either for an Arab captive (so Petrus) or for a monk of the Agauroi monastery (so Sabas); he was asked also to seek the intervention of the empress Theodora 2; during discussion with the officials the fall of Amorion was mentioned (presumably as a recent event; it occurred in 838); Ioannikios 2 advised his petitioners that the matter be left to God, but said that he believed that the captive (Euandrios 1) would soon be free; that very night, allegedly, the prisoner (Euandrios 1) and fellow captives were guided to safety by a vision of Ioannikios 2, whom they recognised; later they visited Ioannikios 2 themselves in order to thank him: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 50, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 62.

When he was in his ninety-second year (c. 844), and in the fiftieth year since he became a solitary, he was attacked by an enemy, the monk Epiphanios 46, and others (see Makarios 8) who tried to burn him out; the others gave up and left but Epiphanios 46 remained implacable; this event had been foretold to him by the two hermits whom he had met long before on the heights of Korakos Kephale (see Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 9): Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 51. In old age and now very weak, he sought peace and quiet in the monastery of Antidios; accompanied by his attendant Theophilos 47 he passed unseen through a crowd of visitors: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 52, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 49 (while living at the monastery of Antidios, he ordered his attendant Theophilos 47 to hack a passageway for him from his cell; he made himself invisible to the crowds of monks and the poor who came to see him). Also while he was living at Antidios he made himself invisible to a group of visitors coming to see him from afar, as was attested by the monk Paulos 82 who witnessed the event: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 50.

He received a visit from the patriarch Methodios 1 on 1 November 846 (see below), when he was on his deathbed in the monastery of Antidios; the date is given by Sabas 1 as the fifth year of Michael 11 and Theodora 2 (= 846), the fourth year of orthodoxy (= 846), the ninety-fourth year of the life of Ioannikios 2, the fifty-second of his withdrawal from the world, in year 6355 since the creation (= 847) on 1 November of indiction 10 (= 847/848); at their meeting he foretold the death of Methodios 1: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 53, cf. Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 70 (he told Methodios 1 and his company to have nothing to do with the heretics or with the Stoudites or Kakosambas (see Ioannes 240) or the expelled bishop of Nikomedeia (Ignatios 6) or an unnamed "eunuch" (Anonymus 565) of the church of Kyzikos). Methodios 1 left and three days later, on 4 November 846 (so Sabas 1; Petros 126 gives the date as 3 November of indiction 10 = 847/848) Ioannikios 2 died; he was buried at the monastery of Antidios by the hegoumenos Ioseph 19 and the funeral was attended by a huge crowd of monks and visitors; thereafter there were many miraculous cures among visitors to his tomb: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 54, Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 71.

According to Sabas 1 (see above) he died in his ninety-fourth year, in his fifty-second year as a solitary. Petros 126 also puts his death in his fifty-second year as a solitary, but in the eighty-fourth (sic) year of his age: Petrus, Vita Ioannicii 71. The chronological indications are inconsistent, but he died in November and he predeceased Methodios 1, who certainly died in 847; the correct year seems therefore to be 846. At his death a vision of his ascent into Heaven was observed on Mt Alsos: Sabas, Vita Ioannicii 54. For a reconstruction of the chronology of the two Lives and a suggested explanation of the discrepancies between them, see Mango, op. cit., pp. 395ff.

Allegedly visited by Eirene of Chrysobalanton, Ioannikios foretold that she would become abbess of the Chrysobalanton convent: Vita Irenae Chrys. 10, 1-22; 12, 23ff.; 28, 13ff; Akolouthia 13, 2 (p. 118) (BHG 952). On chronological grounds the association of Eirene (see PBE II) with Ioannikios 2 is impossible. He died within a year or two of her birth. Later, when Methodios 1 died, Ioannikios 2 is said to have responded to a request from the empress Theodora 2 by naming Ignatios 1 as the right man to become patriarch: Nicetas, Vita Ignatii 501B (προφητικῶς ὁ μέγας τοῦτον Ἰωαννίκιος ψηφίζεται). Since Ioannikios 2 died before Methodios 1 this story can not be true as it stands; however, since he foretold the death of Methodios 1 perhaps legend claimed also that he gave the name of Ignatios 1 as the successor of Methodios 1. He visited Gregorios 48 in the monastery of Agauron: Vita Eustratii 4 (p. 369, 24-370, 2). Petrus (Petros 126) took up residence with him: Synax. Eccl. Const. 792, 26ff (for 34 years), Menol. Bas. 517B (until the death of Ioannikios 2). He is probably to be identified with "our holy and common Father" (τοῦ ἁγίου καὶ κοινοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν (lines 36-37); also called "our angelic and common Father" - τοῦ ἰσαγγέλου καὶ κοινοῦ πατρὸς ἡμῶν (line 50) to whom Ignatius the Deacon (Ignatios 9) alluded in a letter to the hegoumenos of Antidion, Ioseph 19; Ioseph 19 is criticised for not seeking his help over a novice who decided to leave the monastery: Ignatius Diac., Ep. 33.

Called προφητικώτατος, he is included among those acclaimed for their support of icons in the Synodikon of Orthodoxy: Gouillard, "Synodikon", p. 53, line 128.

For Canones composed about him, see K. Krumbacher's review of J. van den Gheyn, "Acta Sancti Ioannicii monacho in Bithynia", AASS November II, pp. 311-435, in BZ 4 (1895), p. 198, and ed. A. Kominis, Analecta Hymnica Graeca III 111-121, 122-133, 134-145. For further references to Ioannikios 2, see Synax. Eccl. Const. 191, 3-193, 9 (4 November), 189/190, 47, 48, 57, 191/192, 42, 43, 44 (3 November), 382, 4ff. (9 January; Eustratios); Menol. Bas. 141C-D (3 November). See also ODB 2 1005ff.

(Publishable link for this person: )