NILO DOXAPATRIS. — A Greek monk of Sicily, author of two geographical treatises on the patriarchates, born toward the end of the 11th century and probably died in the second half of the 12th. Called Nicola before entering religious life, he served as a deacon of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, exercising ecclesiastical functions and, at the same time, as nomophylax of the Empire, civil functions, in accordance with the practice of other clergy of Hagia Sophia who held such a dual position.
It is also known that he was a notary of the patriarchate and, as such, must have acquired a profound knowledge of the patriarchal archive. He nevertheless abandoned his career and entered monastic life in his native country, Sicily, under the Norman king Ruggero II (1101–54), a patron of Greek monasticism. At his request, N. composed two treatises of geographical-ecclesiastical statistics: an Epitome of the boundaries (jurisdictional), of the most holy
Works: Of this abbot of Galatia there is a copious correspondence (1061 letters, according to PG 79, 81–582, although these contain many duplicates and passages improperly detached; e.g., letters 106–113 of book II form a single letter). The Narrationes (ibid., 589–694) belong to a different writer, but seem to romanticize a story recounted in the last letter of the collection mentioned. As for the other writings contained in PG 79, some of the more important may perhaps be by Evagrius Ponticus, e.g., the Tractatus ad Eulogium (ibid., 1093–1140); more probably the De diversis malignis cogitationibus (ibid., 1200–34), and almost certainly the De oratione (ibid., 1166–99), one of the most celebrated brief works written on prayer. To clarify all these problems, one must await the results of the studies undertaken by J. Muyldermans. The De octo vitiosis cogitationibus (ibid., 1435–72), on the other hand, is a summary of Cas-
patriarchs and enumeration of the apostolic sees, composed at Palermo ca. 1142–43, and the Treatise on the five patriarchs, drawn up in the first months of the year 1142–43. While the epitome has no anti-Roman character, the second treatise contains observations against the primacy of the pope.
NILO il GIOVANE, saint. — Also called of Rossano, where he was born ca. 910. Of illustrious birth, N. received a very careful education; he soon entered the service of the Cathedral as a simple cleric. By a young woman of very humble condition, whom he married, he had a daughter.
Wishing to withdraw from the world, he went to the region of Mercurion, where for many years he led a solitary and penitential life in the grotto of S. Michele. Because of the continual Saracen incursions, he first moved to the mountains north of Rossano, organizing around the oratory of S. Adriano a first community of his own, which he later led to Valleluce near Montecassino, and then to Serperi, near Gaeta. He made frequent pilgrimages to the tombs of the Apostles, also with the purpose of obtaining parchments and taking books there. In 998 he went there to intercede on behalf of the unfortunate antipope Filagato (Giovanni XVI), his fellow countryman. In 1004 he left Serperi and, moved by divine inspiration, arrived in the Tusculanum, where he received from Count Gregorio, as a gift, the territory of Grottaferrata for his last and most enduring foundation; but that same year, on the evening of 25 September, he died.
In addition to being the most representative figure of Italo-Greek cenobitic monasticism in the 10th century, St. N., who also knew Latin, was an accomplished calligrapher and the author of that particular shorthand system known as Italo-Greek, of which his manuscripts, together with those of his immediate disciples, formed the first nucleus of the Cryptensian Library and provide an excellent example. He was also a hymnographer, and a Greek office in honor of St. Benedict, sung during one of his visits to Montecassino, and a hymn to St. Nilus of Sinai have been preserved. The biographer expressly mentions some of his letters: to the judges of Bisignano, to the notary of the emir of Palermo, to Leo, abbot of S. Alessio on the Aventine, and to the antipope Filagato. His feast in the Roman Martyrology and in the Italo-Greek Synaxaria is observed on 26 September.