Nicetas of Remesiana

NICETAS OF REMESIANA. - So called from the city to the east of Niš in Serbia. Bishop and friend of Paulinus of Nola (v. P. Fabre, St Paulin de Nole et l'amitié chrétienne, Paris 1949, p. 221 ff.). Author of ecclesiastical hymns, interested in ecclesiastical chant.

Of his principal work, 6 little books of "instructions" (ad competentes), only the first survives complete. The De symbolo (ed. Burn, v. bibl., p. 38 ff.) is important for the history of the interpretation of the Creed (v. F. Kattenbusch, Das apostolische Symbol, Leipzig 1894-1900, v. index). Of the first book, "qualiter se debeant habere competentes" (Burn, p. 6 ff.), 3 fragments exist; of the second, "de fide unicae maiestatis" (Burn, p. 10 ff.), two long fragments (polemic against Arians and Macedonians). Of the fourth, "adversus genethliologiam," and of the sixth, "de agni paschalis victimi," not even fragments exist. Gennadius (De viris illustribus, 22) praises the author's "simplex et nitidus sermo." Moreover, two sermons "de vigiliis servorum dei" and "de psalmodiae bono" and the short treatise "de diversis appellationibus [Christi]" are to be attributed to N. Gennadius knows of N.'s "Ad lapsam virginem." Many identify it with the pseudo (?) Ambrosian work De lapsu virginis consecratae (PL 16, 367-84, and the edition by 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 of Burn) does not seem justified.