NICETA STETHATOS. — Also called by the Latins “Pectoratus,” a monk of Studion, born circa 1000, died after 1054. He carried out his activity in the fields of spirituality and controversy against the Jews, Armenians, and Latins. His spiritual doctrine draws its inspiration from the tradition of St. Massimo il Confessore. As a polemicist, N. took part in the struggle against Cardinal Umberto and the Roman legates at the time of Michele Cerulario, in 1054. His intervention is often underestimated more than is justified; indeed, it seems that N. was the first and principal anti-Latin theologian of this period.
N. left numerous writings, some of them still unpublished; a complete list is found in Th. Disdier (v. BIBLICA). Among his works on spirituality, the principal ones are: Vita di Simeone il Nuovo Teologo (ed. I. Hausherr, op. cit. in bibl.); Capita practica, physica et gnastica (PG 120, 815–1009); Il Paradiso spirituale (recently ed. by M. Chalendard, Paris 1943).
As a polemicist, he wrote at least four treatises against the azymes, of which only the following are known: one, Sul pane fermentato ed azzimo, contro gli Armeni e contro i Latini (in J. Hergenröther, Monumenta graeca ad Photium eiusque historiam pertinentia, Regensburg 1869, pp. 129–44); the Libello contro i Latini, transmitted in Latin by Cardinal Umberto (PL 143, 973–84), in Greek by A. Demetrakopoulos (Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη, I, Leipzig 1866, pp. 18–36), and in a critical edition under the title Antidialogo by A. Michel (Humbert und Kerullarios, II, Paderborn 1930, pp. 322–42); and the Sintesi contro i Latini
sulla Processione dello Spirito Santo, made known by A. Michel (ibid., pp. 371–409).