NILLES, NIKOLAUS

Having entered the Order in 1858 after completing his studies at the German College in Rome and receiving priestly ordination, he was immediately elected professor of canon law at the University of Innsbruck, where he remained until nearly the end of his life. From 1870 to 1895 he also served as rector of the theological college, for which he composed its *Consuetudines*. A man of great energy, besides numerous articles contributed to the *Zeitschrift für katholische Theologie*, he left two fundamental works that earned him distinction in the promotion of devotion to the Sacred Heart and in the reconciliation of the separated Eastern Churches: *De rationibus festorum sacratissimi Cordis Jesu et purissimi Cordis Mariae libri IV* (2 vols., Innsbruck 1867; 5th ed. 1885) and *Kalendarium manuale utriusque Ecclesiae orientalis et occidentalis* (2 vols., 1879–81; 2nd ed., 1896–97). Both works were received with acclaim, especially the second, not only by Catholics but also by Protestants (Nestle, Harnack, etc.) and by the official Russian Church, which, almost as a commentary, published a series of 48 polychrome plates for the individual saints of the year and for the feasts of Christian mysteries: *Ephemerides figuratae graeco-slavicae, Festbilder-Atlas zu Nikolai N. S. J., ‘Εορτολόγιον πρόγευρον: Kalendarium manuale* (Moscow 1897), sending him a copy in homage. Also worthy of mention is his: *Commentarius in Concilium plenarium Baltimoreense tertium* (2 vols., Innsbruck, 1884–91).