St. Nikodemos of the Holy Mountain (1749-1809)

Nicholas Kallivourtsis from Naxos, who came to the Holy Mountain at twenty-six and spent the rest of his life there editing, and did more than anyone of his century to put the Fathers back into Greek hands. With St Makarios of Corinth he published the Philokalia in Venice in 1782; with the monk Agapios, the Rudder, the canons with a commentary still used; and he edited the Evergetinos and wrote the Exomologetarion for confessors. He was a leader of the Kollyvades, who defended frequent communion and the keeping of memorials on Saturday rather than Sunday, and were persecuted for it. His Unseen Warfare and Spiritual Exercises are adaptations of Western Catholic devotional books, reworked for Orthodox readers, a fact his critics raise and his admirers do not hide. Glorified in 1955. Feast: July 14.