Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

Icon of St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

Our venerable and God-bearing Father Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, also Nikodemos the Hagiorite and Nicodemos the Athonite, was a theologian and teacher of the Orthodox Church, reviver of hesychasm, canonist, hagiologist, and writer of liturgical poetry.

Life

St. Nicodemus was born Nicholas Kallivourtzis c. 1749 in Naxos, Greece. According to his biographer, he was possessed of "great acuteness of mind, accurate perception, intellectual brightness, and vast memory", qualities which were readily apparent to those who furthered him along in his learning. He passed from the tutelage of his parish priest to that of Archimandrite Chrysanthos, who was the brother of St. Cosmas Aitolos. From there he made his way to Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey), where he studied at the Evangelical School. Here he studied theology, as well as ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. Persecution from the Turks, who ruled the Greek world at the time, cut his schooling short, and he returned to Naxos in 1770. He studied at Smyrna but was forced to abandon his studies during a time of Ottoman persecution.

In 1775 he became a monk of Dionysiou on Mount Athos. Upon being tonsured a monk, Nicholas' name was changed, as is the custom for those who had abandoned the world, to Nicodemos. He was initiated into the practice of hesychia, a method of prayer involving inner stillness, controlled breathing, and repetition of the "Jesus Prayer" (Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner). Nicodemos aligned himself with the monks known as Kollyvades, who sought a revival of traditional Orthodox practices and patristic literature, and he would spend the remainder of his life at work translating and publishing those works. He would also compose many original books of his own. He labored for restoration of the practice of Saturday commemoration services, for patristic ecclesiology, and generally for a synthesis of economy and strictness in the application of the canons.

St. Nicodemus reposed in the Lord on July 14, 1809, and was glorified by the Orthodox Church on May 31, 1955. He is a local saint of the Metropolis of Paronaxia and the Holy Mountain. His feast day is celebrated on July 14.

Writings

St. Nicodemus was a prolific translator and editor of texts. In addition, he wrote three original works that are commentaries on some of the Church's liturgical books: The Eortodromion (or Commentary on the Canons of the Dominical and Marian Feasts), the New Klimax (or Commentary on the Seventy-FIve Anavathmoi of the Octoechos), and The Garden of Graces (or an Elegant Interpretation of the Nine Odes of the Stichologia.

In 1777, Saint Makarius of Corinth visited him and gave him three texts to edit and revise: the Philokalia, a defining work on monastic spirituality, On Frequent Holy Communion and the Evergetinos, a collection drawing on the lives of the desert fathers. He also wrote original works such as Lives of the Saints. He also later compiled the writings of St. Symeon the New Theologian and the writings of St. Gregory Palamas, although the latter collection was sadly and mistakenly destroyed amid political controversy over Greek revolts.

The Orthodox theological professor Fr. Stanley Harakas, in his preface to the 1989 English translation of the saint's "A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel" in the Classics of Western Spirituality series, wrote that "He embodied the best traditions of Orthodox Christianity, which may be characterized as holistic and integrative." And Dr. George Bebis, in a survey of St. Nicodemus' prolific writings in the same volume, describes him as "A man who grasped both the letter and the spirit of the canons of the Church....also a pastor par excellence."

The Controversy Concerning Western Influence

An ongoing controversy concerns the extent of Western influence over the writings of St Nicodemus. What is not disputed is that some of his works are adaptations of Roman Catholic works, in particular (1) Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits, using an Italian edition with commentary by Giovanni Pietro Pinamonti (1632-1703); and (2) Unseen Warfare, which was a translation of Spiritual Combat by the Catholic priest Lorenzo Scupoli, He was not the first Athonite monk to translate a Catholic work as an Orthodox one: in 1641, Agapios Landros (17th c.) published The Salvation of Sinners, but it was simply a translation of Dialogus Miraculorum, written in the early 13th c. by a German Cistercian, Cæsarius of Heisterbach Abbey. Such works were influential at least in part due to the assumption that they were products of the Athonite monks who published them, rather than works by Roman Catholics.

There is continued disagreement about the provenance of Nicodemus' Exomologetarion, his manual for confession. Like most of his writings, and many of those from pre-modern Orthodox authors who saw themselves as writing in a tradition rather than originating new work as with the saint’s work in compiling the Philokalia, it is not an original work. Nicodemus says he compiled the “Exomologetarion” from "various teachers." In his Introduction to the work, Protopresbyter George Metallinos argues that his sources were Eastern, alleging that "he had no direct contact with Western sources” for it. Metropolitan Kallistos Ware holds that the Exomolgetarion is "mostly a direct translation" of two books on confession by the Italian Jesuit, Paolo Segneri (1624-1694) Bishop Basil of Wichita in his introduction to the “Exomologetarion” (linked under sources below) argues for the edifying value of St. Nicodemus’ work from an Orthodox perspective.

The twentieth-century scholar Christos Yannaras is perhaps the severest critic of St Nicodemus' influence, seeing the negative effects of the West not only in his adaptation of Catholic books, but alleging the saint’s use of Roman canon law in The Rudder (Πηδάλιον,Pedalion), adoption of the Anselmian view of the Atonement, and acceptance of the Catholic practice of indulgences. (There is an extant letter by St. Nicodemus to Bishop Paisios of Stagai that Yannaras construes as requesting an indulgence, and promising financial payment for it.) Yannaras also sees the influence of Western pietistic moralism in Nicodemus; Chrestoethia of Christians (1803), in which he condemns musical instruments, dancing, (non-liturgical) singing, the telling of jokes, etc., and tells Christians that such conduct will lead not only to their own punishment, but to the death of their unborn children. Yannaras points to both the Exomologetarion and Nicodemus' other compilation of canons, The Rudder, as imposing a Western, juridical approach to the Mystery of Repentance (Confession), saying that "This pastoral approach, however, provoked opposition, contempt or indifference in the laity: one traumatic confession in the new judicial format might make people cut their ties with the Church." At least one Athonite elder, St. Porphyrios (Bairaktaris) the Kapsokalivite, also found using the Exomologetarion harsh and counter-productive and ceased to use it for that reason.

Metallinos defends the Orthodoxy of Nicodemus' writings, in his introduction to the Exomologetarion,” but admits that its language "appears intensely scholastic" and in certain phrases "is repugnant to today's believer." "Admittedly, if these phrases are detached from their context, they immediately take on a cruel, sadistic character, overturning the theology of divine love which permeates the spirit of Orthodox (ecclesiastical) soteriology (see Jn. 3:16, Rom. 5:8, etc.). For this reason, it is necessary to place them in the entire context of St. Nikodemos’ thought and activity.” Metallinos also rejects Yannaras’ allegation that the saint held a Western view of the Atonement overall, while noting that the saint’s canonical collection expressed that “Penances (that is, penitential canons or rules of prayer) are a small punishment whereby the penitent appeases the great wrath that God has towards him.”

In his introduction to the 2012 edition of Chrestoethia of Christians, publisted under the tile Christian Morality, the commentator remarks on how that handbook on moral behavior reflects Orthodox ascetic tradition and Athonite "monastic propriety of his age," responding at times to "conventions upheld by the civil authorities" for a populace under a Muslim colonial regime, rather than Catholic or Pietist influence, including for example provisions about dancing.

Defenders of Nicodemus' writings have argued that his use of Western sources is a feature of the cosmopolitan context of Christian texts in the early modern period, and that his use of them has been misunderstood due to a lack of proper context for his work among scholars (Maidones). They see Nicodemus' use of the Western sources as an Orthodox alternative, from Mount Athos, to a variety of eighteenth-century cultural movements in Europe, including not only the Enlightenment, but also the aftermath of the Counter-Reformation, Pietism, and the beginning of Romanticism. That the same saint could be a prime compiler of “The Rudder” and “The Philokalia” may seem counter-intuitive to some people in the modern Western world, but the saints’ defenders argue that this is part of the complex yet rich history of Orthodox Christianity, in which any writings need to be considered in the context of the whole tradition.

Books

• Christian Morality. With Scholarly Introduction and Commentary by Archbishop Chrysostomos of Etna. Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, 2012. ISBN 9781884729973
• Concerning Frequent Communion of the Immaculate Mysteries of Christ (The Works of St Nikodemos the Hagiorite, vol. 2). Uncut Mountain Press, 2006. This Is a popularization of the earlier edition complied by St Makarios of Corinth. Preface by Archimandrite Chrysostom Maidones. ISBN 9789608677852
• Confession of Faith (The Works of St Nikodemos the Hagiorite, vol. 3). Uncut Mountain Press, 2004. Translated with an Introduction By Fr. George Dokos with a Preface by George S. Bebis. ISBN 9789608677890
• Exomologetarion: A Manual of Confession (The Works of St Nikodemos the Hagiorite, vol. 1). Uncut Mountain Press, 2006. Preface by Bishop Basil (Essey) of Wichita and Introduction by Protopresbyter George Metallinos. ISBN 9789608677845
• A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel, published as Nicodemos of the Holy Mountain: A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel (Classics of Western Spirituality). Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1988. Translated by Peter a. Chamberas, with Introduction by George S. Bebis and Preface by Stanley S. Harakas. ISBN 9780809130382

Sources

• In addition to twentieth-century English editions of Philokalia, Unseen Warfare, and The Rudder, new twenty-first century English translations of St. Nicodemus' writings (some of them collaborations with St. Makarius of Corinth), often with new prefaces by Orthodox scholars, include the Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies' Christian Morality or Chrestoethia of Christians, the Uncut Mountain Press editions of Exomologetarion--A Manual of Confession, Concerning Frequent Communion, and Confession of Faith, and the English translation of the Synaxarion adapted by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonos Petra.
• The account of St. Nicodemus in the above-mentioned translation of the Synaxarion, compiled by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonos Petra and an adaptation of St. Nicodemus' work, "July 14," pp. 146-153, includes helpful footnotes by the editor. Trans. Mother Maria Rule and Mother Joanna Burton. Holy Convent of the Annunciation of Our Lady Ormylia (Chalkidike), 2008. Vol. 6.
• Preface by Bishop Basil of Wichita to the English translation of the Exomologetarion from Uncut Mountain Press, http://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/exo_preface.aspx.
• Modern Orthodox Saints (Vol. 3) by Constantine Cavarnos. Published by the Institute for Byzantine & Modern Greek Studies, 1994 (ISBN 0914744410)
• Christos Yannaras, Orthodoxy and the West: Hellenic Self-Identity in the Modern Age. Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 2007. (ISBN 978-1885652812)
• Kallistos Ware, "St Nikidimos and the Philokalia" in D. Conomos and G. Speake, Mount Athos the Sacred Bridge: The Spirituality of the Holy Mountain. Peter Lang, 2005. (ISBN 978-0820468808)
• "Nicodemus the Hagorite." Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicodemus_the_Hagiorite
• Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (Roman Catholic)

See also

• Canon law
• The Rudder
• Metropolis of Paronaxia

External link

• Repose of the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite (OCA)

In his "St Nikodimos and the Philokalia," in Graham Speake, Mount Athos, the Sacred Bridge: The Spirituality of the Holy Mountain, p. 91. The two books by Segneri are Il confessore istruito and Il penitence istruito.

See Yannaras, pp. 128-137.

Yannaras, p. 135.

Wounded by Love: The Life and the Wisdom of Elder Porphyrios, pp. 43-44.