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[[Image:StNicodemusOfTheHolyMountain.jpg|160px|thumb|right|Icon of St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain]]Our venerable and God-bearing Father '''Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain''' (or , also '''Nikodemos the Hagiorite) ''' and '''Nicodemos the Athonite''', was a great theologian and teacher of the [[Orthodox Church]], reviver of [[hesychasm]], [[Canon Law|canonist]], [[Hagiography|hagiologist]], and writer of liturgical poetry. His life and works helped provide (among other things) an experiential Orthodox response to contemporary Western Enlightenment culture.

St. Nicodemus was born Nicholas Kallivourtzis c. 1749 in [[Metropolis of Paronaxia|Naxos, Greece]]. In 1775 According to his biographer, he became a [[monk]] 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 [[Dionysiou Monastery St. Cosmas Aitolos. From there he made his way to Smyrna (Athosnow Izmir, Turkey)|Dionysiou]] on [[Mount Athos]], where he studied at the Evangelical School. In 1777Here he studied theology, as well as ancient Greek, Latin, French, [[Saint]] [[Makarios Notaras of Corinth|Makarios of Corinth]] visited him and gave him three texts to edit and revise: Italian. Persecution from the Turks, who ruled the Greek world at the [[Philokalia]]time, a defining work on [[monastic]] spiritualitycut his schooling short, ''On Frequent Holy Communion'' and the ''Evergetinos''he returned to Naxos in 1770. He also wrote original works such as ''Lives studied at Smyrna but was forced to abandon his studies during a time of the Saints''Ottoman persecution.

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 wassadly and mistakenly destroyed amid political controversy over Greek revolts. The Orthodox theological professor Fr. [[Stanley S. Harakas|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, howeverwrote that "He embodied the best traditions of Orthodox Christianity, influenced significantly by 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." Although 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 edited ''revised "The Spiritual Combat'' " (1589) by Lorenzo Scupoli, a Catholic priest of Venice, renaming it ''"Unseen Warfare'', and " 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 Ignatius Catholic and Pietistic influences on his work, a topic of Loyolacontroversy 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 founder new 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 Jesuitscivil authorities" for a populace under a [[Muslim]] colonial regime, rather than Catholic or Pietist influence. He made use Likewise, although it was alleged that the saint drew on Catholic sources for his manual of Roman canon law confession (which became standard in Greek Orthodoxy), this is disputed in Fr. George Mellitos''The Rudder'', and held introduction to the Anselmian view most recent English translation of the Atonmentbook. There is an extant letter 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 work among modern scholars. Recent renewed attention in the West to Bishop Paisios the primary Orthodox context of Stagai requesting an indulgencethe Saint's writings reflects the expanded availability of English translations of his major books in the past decade, as well as greater awareness of the cosmopolitan contexts of Christian sources in the early modern period--through, for example, scholarship on the sequences of translation and promising financial payment for it. adaptation of Roman Catholic texts in the East, and better understanding of the influence is also found in his manual of the Orthodox ascetic texts of the Macarian homilies on sacramental confessionPietism. In this light, the main context of St. Nicodemus''Exomologetarion''. The works can be appreciated as firmly in the tradition of Orthodox asceticism--exemplified by the sources and influence of Western pietistic moralism is perhaps seen best "The Philokalia"--applicable in his ''Chrestoethia varying ways to monastics, clergy, and laity alike. The legacy of ChristiansSt. Nicodemus'' (1803)voluminous scholarship can also be understood from a larger perspective as an Orthodox Christian alternative, from Mount Athos, to a variety of eighteenth-century cultural movements in which he condemns musical instrumentsEurope, dancing, (non-liturgical) singingincluding not only the Enlightenment, but also the telling aftermath of jokesthe Counter-Reformation, etc.Pietism, and tells Christians that such conduct will lead not only to their own punishment, but to the death beginning of their unborn childrenRomanticism.

*[http://wwwIn 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.catholicMakarius 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-forum-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.com/saints/saintn63*The account of St.htm 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 Mountain] 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 ([[Roman Catholic]]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://orthodoxinfo.com/praxis/exo_preface.aspx.