NICODEMUS THE HAGIORITE. - Celebrated Greek writer of the modern era (1748-1809) who owes much of his fame to the fact that he used the vernacular language for the majority of his works. Born on the island of Naxos, he spent almost the entire period of his literary activity, as a monk, on Mount Athos, from 1775 until his death. Hence his better-known name of A. The character of his works is not polemical, although he also took part in the disputes of his time concerning frequent communion and the offerings of the so-called κόλαβα. He likewise defended and propagated Palamite Hesychasm (v. PALAMISMO). His works have led to a more accurate knowledge of the Greek East in not a few respects. The catalogue of his output is very rich. Lampros (in Νεὸς Ἑλληνομνήμων, 1913, p. 315) lists 18 published works and 58 unpublished. More recently V. Grumel enumerates 32 that have appeared in print. The principal ones are:
1. Ἰηδάλιον τῆς νεητῆς νηός (Rudder of the intelligible ship), Leipzig 1800 (other editions at Zante and Athens). It is the best-known work of A.; in it, with numerous notes and commentaries, he illustrates the collection of canons of the Greek Church. He elaborated this repertory in collaboration with Agapios, and the author's spirit is plainly not a little averse to the Roman Church. Some wish to attribute this animosity, at least in part, to the monk Theodoretos, charged with correcting the proofs, who is said to have made very many interpolations. These certainly exist, but there is no need to have recourse to them, since it is manifest from more reliable evidence that A.'s sentiments toward the Latin institutions were anything but favorable (cf. the letter he addressed to the patriarch Gregory V, published in the review Τρηγόριος ὁ Παλαμάς, 2 [1918], p. 435). Nevertheless, in the field of ascetics he had no difficulty in reproducing Catholic writings for the Greeks, as his works Ἀόρατος πόλεμος (Invisible War), Venice 1796, and Γυμνάσματα πνευματικὰ (Spiritual Exercises), Venice 1800, demonstrate — adaptations, the first of Scupoli's Spiritual Combat, and the other of Pinamonti's explanation of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius (cf. M. Viller, Nicodème l'Aglorite et ses emprunts à la littérature occidentale, in Rev. d'Asc. et Myst., 5 [1924], pp. 174-77).
2. Φιλοκαλία τῶν ἱερῶν νηπτικῶν, Venice 1782. A collection of ascetic writings, concerning νηφία (mental sobriety), very useful for knowledge of Byzantine spiritual doctrine. It contains Hesychast documents.
3. Ἐνχειρίβιον συμβουλευτικὸν (Manual of Counsel), Venice 1801, which is perhaps Nicodemus's principal ascetic work. In it is set forth the doctrine of the custody of the five external senses, of the imagination, of the mind and of the heart.