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Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain

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In 1777, [[Saint]] [[Macarius Notaras of Corinth|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.
While some modern scholars have criticized his writings for influence from [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholic]] spirituality, canon law, and theology, his life work clearly focused on reviving traditional Orthodox texts and ascetic practices, making use of limited materials at hand amid the Turkish occupation of the Greek world, which involved sometimes adapting Catholic materials. He translated and revised "The Spiritual Combat " (1589) by Lorenzo Scupoli, a Catholic priest of Venice, renaming it "Unseen Warfare," as well as the "Spiritual Exercises" of J.P. Pinamonti (sometimes wrongly thought to have been Ignatius Loyola's work), probably via a Greek translation by Emmanuel Rominantes. While "The Rudder" centered on canons of the Ecumenical Councils and important local councils of the Orthodox Church, he drew also in it on Roman canon law. He articulated the Atonement at times in Anselmian terms, although upholding the Orthodox hesychastic sense of salvation in his writings. There is an extant letter by St Nicodemus to Bishop Paisios of Stagai requesting an [[Absolution Certificates|indulgence]], and promising financial payment for it. His , and his manual on sacramental confession, the "Exomologetarion" is a reworking of two books on confession by Paulo Segneri, a Jesuit. However, as revised by him in Orthodox terms, it has become the latter became a standard confessional guide in Greek Orthodoxy. The influence of Western pietistic moralism has been alleged in his "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 can lead not only to their own punishment.
However, recent Recent new attention to the Saint's works in their primary Orthodox context has reflected reflects the expanded availability of English translations of his major works, as well as greater awareness of the cosmopolitan contexts of Christian sources in the early modern period, the latter including involving both careful scholarship on the sequences of translation and adaptation of Roman Catholic texts in the East, and understanding of the influence of the Orthodox ascetic texts of the Macarian homilies on Protestant pietism Pietism in the Eighteenth Century. In this light, the main context of his works can be appreciated as firmly in the tradition of Orthodox asceticism (as --exemplified by the influence of his compilation of "The Philokalia"), --applicable in varying ways to monastics, clergy, and laity alike. The legacy of St. Nicodemus' voluminous scholarship thus can be understood from a larger perspective in part as an Orthodox response 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 Romanticism.
St. Nicodemus reposed in the Lord in 1809 and was [[glorification|glorified]] by the Orthodox Church in 1955. He is a local saint of the [[Metropolis of Paronaxia]] and the [[Mount Athos|Holy Mountain]]. His [[feast day]] is celebrated on [[July 14]].
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