Born in Sicily -probably Palermo- to the Kameti (or Camuto) family (later known as de Burgio), he and his brother Ferrandino joined the Hospitaller Order of the Knights of St John of Jerusalem.

[1] As lay brothers, they took the religious vows of Poverty, Chastity and Obedience and a fourth “to stay in arms”, for the protection of the poor, and for the defense of the Christian territory of the Holy Land.

Nicasius, a captain in the army, was captured during the battle of Hattin and decapitated in the presence of Saladin after refusing to convert to Islam.

However, the point of origin for the veneration of Saint Nicasius seems to have been Caccamo –which officially declared him patron of the city on May 31, 1625.

The priest Vincent Venuti in his Discorso storico-critico (1762) writes:"...now because of the dominions that the Burgio family had near Caccamo.