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In 1775 he became a [[monk]] of [[Dionysiou Monastery (Athos)|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 akribeia (adherence to traditional principles and canons) and oikonomia in Orthodox practice.

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 The Orthodox theological professor Fr. [[Roman Catholic ChurchStanley S. Harakas|Roman CatholicStanley Harakas]] spirituality, canon law, and theology, in his life work clearly focused on reviving traditional Orthodox texts and ascetic practices, making use of limited materials at hand amid preface to 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 1989 English translation of Venice, renaming it Unseen Warfare, as well as the Spiritual Exercises of J.P. Pinamonti (sometimes wrongly thought to have been Ignatius Loyalasaint's work), probably via a Greek translation by Emmanuel Rominantes. While "The RudderA Handbook of Spiritual Counsel" centered on canons of in the Ecumenical Councils and important local councils Classics of the Orthodox ChurchWestern Spirituality series, he drew also in it on Roman canon law. wrote that "He articulated the Atonement at times in Anselmian terms, although upholding embodied the best traditions of 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]]Christianity, which may be characterized as holistic and promising financial payment for itintegrative." And Dr. His manual on sacramental confessionGeorge Bebis, the Exomologetarion is in a reworking survey of two books on confession by Paulo Segneri, a JesuitSt. HoweverNicodemus' prolific writings in the same volume, describes him as revised by him in Orthodox terms, it has become a standard confessional guide in Greek Orthodoxy. The influence "A man who grasped both the letter and the spirit of Western pietistic moralism has been alleged in his Chrestoethia the canons of Christians (1803), in which he condemns musical instruments, dancing, (non-liturgical) singing, the telling of jokes, etcChurch...., and tells Christians that such conduct can lead not only to their own punishmentalso a pastor par excellence."

HoweverAlthough some critics have criticized his writings for alleged 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, while 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 original work), probably via a Greek translation by Emmanuel Rominantes. Accusations of Catholic and Pietistic influences on his work, a topic of controversy going back to divisions over the Kollyvades ascetic reform movement with which St. Nicodemus was associated in the Greek Church in his day, have been disputed. For a recent detailed discussion, see the introductory materials to "Christian Morality," a 2012 English translation of his 1803 "Chrestoethia of Christians." A current commentator in the new attention translation 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. Likewise, although it was alleged that the saint drew on Catholic sources for his manual of confession (which became standard in Greek Orthodoxy), this is disputed in Fr. George Mellitos' introduction to the most recent English translation of the book. Archimandrite Chrysostom Maidones, Chancellor of the Metropolis of Hierissos in Greece, in a recent English translation of St Nicodemus' "Concerning Frequent Communion," suggests how past neglect by academic theology of the "Fathers of the Philokalic movement," including St. Nicodemus, contributed to a lack of proper context for the Saint's works work among modern scholars. Recent renewed attention in their the West to the primary Orthodox context has reflected of the Saint's writings reflects the expanded availability of English translations of his major worksbooks in the past decade, as well as greater awareness of the cosmopolitan contexts of Christian sources in the early modern period--through, for example, the latter including both careful scholarship on the sequences of translation and adaptation of Roman Catholic texts in the East, and better understanding of the influence of the Orthodox ascetic texts of the Macarian homilies on Protestant pietism in the Eighteenth CenturyPietism. In this light, the main context of his St. Nicodemus' works can be appreciated as firmly in the tradition of Orthodox asceticism (as --exemplified by the sources and 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 also be understood from a larger perspective in part as an Orthodox response Christian 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.

*In addition to twentieth-century English editions of "The 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 SynaxrionSynaxarion," compiled by Hieromonk Makarios of Simonos Petra (and an adaptation of St. Nicodemus' work), "July 14," pp. 146-153, including includes helpful footnotes by the current editor's footnotes. Trans. Mother Maria Rule and Mother Joanna Burton. Holy Convent of the Annunciation of Our Lady Ormylia (Chalkidike), 2008. Vol. 6.*[The Introduction to the translation of St. Nicodemus' "A Handbook of Spiritual Counsel" in the Classics of Western Spirituality series from the Paulist Press (1989), written by Dr. George Bebis, contains a helpful survey of the saint's writings.as well as a brief preface by Fr. Stanley Harakas on the importance of the saint's life and work to Orthodox history.* Preface by Bishop Basil of Wichita to the English translation of the "Exomologetarion" from Uncut Mountain Press, http://www.catholic-forumorthodoxinfo.com/saintspraxis/saintn63exo_preface.aspx.htm Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain] ([[Roman Catholic]])