NICAETAS OF REMESIANA. — So named from the city to the east of Niš in Serbia. Bishop and friend of Paulinus of Nola (v. Fabre, St Paulin de Nole et l'amitié chrétienne, Paris 1949, pp. 221 sg). Author of ecclesiastical hymns, interested in church music.
Of his principal work: six booklets of “instructions” (ad competentes), only the first book, De symbolo, has been entirely preserved (ed. Burn, V. BIBLICA., pp. 38 sg.), important for the history of the interpretation of the Symbol (v. F. Kattenbusch, Das apostolische Symbol, Leipzig 1894-1900, V. index). Of the first book, “Qualiter se debeant habere competentes” (Burn, p. 6 sg.), three fragments survive; of the second, “De fide unicae maiestatis” (Burn, p. 10 sg.), two long fragments (polemic against Arians and Macedonians). Of the fourth, “Adversus genethilologiam,” and of the sixth, “De agni paschalis victima,” no fragments remain. Gennadius (De viris illustribus, 22) praises the author’s “simplex et nitidus sermo.” Two sermons, “De vigiliis servorum Dei” and “De psalmodiae bono,” and the short treatise “De diversis appellationibus [Christi]” are also attributed to N. Gennadius also knows of N.’s “Ad lapsam virginem.” Many identify him with the pseudo-(?)Ambrosian work, De lapsu virginis consecratae (PL 16, 367-84, ed. I. Cazzaniga, Incerti auctoris, De lapsu Susannae [de lapsu virginis consecratae], Turin 1948). The attribution to N. of the hymn Te Deum laudamus (hypothesis of G. Morin and Burn) does not seem justified.