Glorification and Feast

The repose and glorification of St. Nicodemus: his peaceful death on the Holy Mountain on 14 July 1809, worn out by his labors, at the kelli of the iconographers who cared for him; the formal glorification (canonization) by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on 31 May 1955, together with his fellow Kollyvades St. Makarios of Corinth; the establishment of his feast on July 14; and his veneration across the Orthodox world as “the Hagiorite,” teacher of the neptic life.

Tradition: Greek Orthodox / Athonite (canonized 1955)

The Repose (14 July 1809)

Nicodemus died as he had lived — quietly, on the Holy Mountain, in poverty and labor. By the last years of his life he was worn down by a lifetime of ceaseless work, by illness, and by the privations of his ascetic life; the unending labor of the pen had spent him. Needing care, he went to live at the kelli of the iconographers, the hieromonks Stephen and Neophytos Skourtaioi, who looked after him in his infirmity (Repose of the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Orthodox Church in America, oca.org, July 14). There he reposed peacefully on 14 July 1809, at the age of sixty (Repose of the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite, oca.org; Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Wikipedia). [Disputed: most sources, computing from a birth in 1749, give his age at death as sixty; the OCA synaxarion’s “age of sixty” is consistent with a birth in 1748/1749, the one-year variance noted in Naxos and the Holy Mountain].

The tradition records that he met death with the serenity of a man prepared, having received the Holy Mysteries — the frequent Communion he had labored to restore to the Church (see The Treatise on Communion). His last years and death are reported, per METHODOLOGY §3.5, as the synaxarion and biographical tradition attest them.

The Glorification (31 May 1955)

For nearly a century and a half Nicodemus was venerated on the Holy Mountain and in the Greek world as a holy man and a teacher, his books read and his memory kept, though he had not been formally glorified. The formal glorification (canonization) came from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople on 31 May 1955, when the Patriarchate, under Patriarch Athenagoras, entered Nicodemus into the calendar of the saints (Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Wikipedia; Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, OrthodoxWiki). He was glorified together with his fellow Kollyvades and collaborator St. Makarios (Notaras) of Corinth — fitting, since the two had labored together on the Philokalia and the Communion treatise, and the glorification set the Church’s seal jointly on the renewal they had led (see The Athonite Renewal).

The glorification was, in effect, the Church’s vindication of the Kollyvades. The men who in their lifetimes had been censured, opposed, and (some of them) exiled for their causes — frequent Communion, the integrity of the liturgical tradition, the return to the Fathers — were now enrolled among the saints, their causes substantially triumphant across the modern Orthodox world (see Tradition Against Innovation and The Controversy). As noted in the treatment of his Western sources, the glorification is the Church’s judgment on his sanctity and his service, made in full awareness of the scholarly debates about his editorial choices (see Unseen Warfare and Spiritual Exercises).

The Feast (July 14)

St. Nicodemus is commemorated on July 14, the day of his repose (Repose of the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite, oca.org; Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Wikipedia). On his feast the Church honors him as Nikodemos the Hagiorite — “of the Holy Mountain” — the title that fixes him forever to the Athos he served, and celebrates him as teacher of the neptic life, editor of the Fathers, and luminary of the Orthodox spiritual revival. A service (akolouthia) and hymns were composed for his commemoration, fittingly for a man who had himself supplied the services of so many other saints (see Christian Morality and Hymnography).

Veneration Across the Orthodox World

Though glorified by Constantinople and most at home in the Greek and Athonite tradition, Nicodemus is venerated across the Orthodox world, and his cultus follows the diffusion of his works. Where the Philokalia and the Dobrotolyubie are read — which is to say, throughout the Orthodox Church and far beyond it — Nicodemus is honored as their architect (see The Philokalia and Its Diffusion). The Slavic Churches, whose spiritual revival drank so deeply from the Paisian Dobrotolyubie and from Unseen Warfare, hold him in particular honor as a co-laborer with their own St. Paisius Velichkovsky and St. Theophan the Recluse (see St. Theophan the Recluse). On the Holy Mountain his memory is cherished as one of the greatest of the Athonite fathers of the modern age, and his icon — often showing him with a book or pen, the emblems of his vocation — is widely venerated.

His relics and his cell on Athos are objects of pilgrimage, and his intercession is sought especially by those engaged in the study and translation of the Fathers, the spiritual life of watchfulness, and the labor of Orthodox publishing — the very works to which he gave his life.

A Death Reported by the Synaxarion

The circumstances of Nicodemus’s last years and repose come to us through the synaxarion and biographical tradition, and they are reported here, per METHODOLOGY §3.5, as those sources attest them rather than as independently certified fact (Repose of the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Orthodox Church in America, oca.org, July 14). The tradition draws the portrait of a man undone by his own labors: spent by a lifetime at the pen, weakened by illness and ascetic privation, he could no longer care for himself and was taken in by the hieromonk-iconographers Stephen and Neophytos Skourtaioi, who tended him at their kelli to the end (Repose of the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite, oca.org). It records that he met death with the composure of a man prepared, having received the Holy Mysteries — the frequent Communion he had labored to restore (see The Treatise on Communion). Constantine Cavarnos’s life-and-works preserves the same tradition of an ascetic worn out in the Church’s service and dying in poverty on the Mountain he never left (Cavarnos, St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite, Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1974). These details belong to the genre of the saint’s life and are pinned to their attestation, not advanced as certified biography.

The Glorification of 1955 in Context

The formal glorification of 1955 is best understood against the moment of the Church that pronounced it. It came from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople under Patriarch Athenagoras, who had ascended the throne in 1948 and presided over a period in which the modern Orthodox world was consciously recovering and re-asserting its patristic and hesychast inheritance (Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Wikipedia; Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, OrthodoxWiki). To enroll Nicodemus among the saints in 1955 was, in this light, an act of the Church reading its own modern history: the very man whose Philokalia and editorial labors had seeded the spiritual revival then gathering force was now set, by name, among those whose holiness the Church proclaims. The act crowned a century and a half during which Nicodemus had already been venerated informally on the Holy Mountain and throughout the Greek world, his books read and his memory kept, his glorification confirming a cultus the faithful had long maintained (Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, OrthodoxWiki).

The Joint Glorification with St. Makarios

That Nicodemus was glorified together with St. Makarios (Notaras) of Corinth is no accident of the calendar but a fitting seal upon a shared labor (Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, OrthodoxWiki; see The Athonite Renewal). The two had worked side by side on the Philokalia and on the cause of frequent Communion; Makarios had brought Nicodemus manuscripts and set him to editing, and the renewal each advanced was one renewal, not two. By glorifying them jointly the Church set its seal on the Kollyvades movement as a whole — a movement whose leaders had in their lifetimes been censured, opposed, and in some cases exiled for the very causes (frequent Communion, the integrity of the liturgical tradition, the return to the Fathers) that were now substantially triumphant across the Orthodox world (see Tradition Against Innovation; The Controversy). The glorification was thus the Church’s vindication of the Kollyvades, pronounced in full awareness of the scholarly debates about Nicodemus’s editorial choices and resting its judgment on his sanctity and his service (see Unseen Warfare and Spiritual Exercises).

The Service, Veneration, and Icon

For his commemoration on July 14 the Church possesses a service (akolouthia) and hymns — a fitting return, since Nicodemus had himself supplied the services of so many other saints whose offices were lacking (Repose of the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite, oca.org; see Christian Morality and Hymnography). On that day the Church honors him as Nikodemos the Hagiorite — “of the Holy Mountain” — celebrating him as teacher of the neptic life, editor of the Fathers, and luminary of the Orthodox spiritual revival (Commemoration of Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite, Orthodox Times, orthodoxtimes.com). His iconography, as the tradition has shaped it, typically shows him as a monk holding a book or a pen — the emblems of the vocation by which he served the Church — and his icon is widely venerated wherever his works are read (Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain, OrthodoxWiki). These features of his cultus, like the account of his death, are reported as the hagiographic and liturgical tradition attests them, per METHODOLOGY §3.5, and they show how the Church has chosen to remember him: not as a ruler or a wonderworker of the usual kind, but as the holy editor whose pen was his ascesis.

See Also

• Influence and Scholarship — the worldwide influence and the modern study of his life and works.
• The Athonite Renewal — the movement whose vindication the glorification sealed.
• Naxos and the Holy Mountain — the life that began on Naxos and ended on Athos.
• Christian Morality and Hymnography — the hymnographer for whom hymns were in turn composed.
• St. Theophan the Recluse — the Russian co-laborer who transmitted his work.

References

• Repose of the Venerable Nicodemus the Hagiorite. Orthodox Church in America, oca.org, Lives of the Saints, July 14. (Death at the kelli of Stephen and Neophytos; reposed peacefully 14 July 1809 at age sixty.)
• Nicodemus the Hagiorite. Wikipedia (used to locate the glorification date, cross-checked against OrthodoxWiki): died 14 July 1809; canonized by the Patriarchate of Constantinople on 31 May 1955; feast July 14.
• Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain. OrthodoxWiki, orthodoxwiki.org. (Glorification on 31 May 1955; feast July 14; veneration.)
• Commemoration of Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite. Orthodox Times, orthodoxtimes.com. (The feast and commemoration.)
• Cavarnos, Constantine. St. Nicodemos the Hagiorite (Modern Orthodox Saints, vol. 3). Belmont, MA: Institute for Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies, 1974. (The tradition of his last years, ascetic labors, and repose; reported per METHODOLOGY §3.5.)