Saint Nilos of Mount Athos

The Life of
SAINT NILOS
THE MYRRH-GUSHER OF MOUNT ATHOS


SAINT NILOS OF MOUNT ATHOS

Commemorated May 7 and November 12

TROPARION, TONE 1

Having lived the monastic life on Athos in a manner pleasing to God, O thrice-blessed one,+ thou didst seek out God with prayers and fastings, and becamest a pure vessel of the Spirit,+ shining with rays of virtue upon the faithful, and thou dost enlighten those that cry to thee, O Nilos:+ Glory to Christ Who hath glorified thee;+ Glory to Him Who hath sanctified thee;+ Glory to Him Who worketh healings for all through thee.+

Icon by Photios Kontoglou


Although the "monks' republic," the Holy Mount of Athos, is known throughout the world, little is known of its undying treasures the holy lives and writings of its Saints. The texts below, presented here for the first time in English, may serve to shed one more ray of light on the unknown treasures of the Holy Mountain. The Life has been translated from the Greek Synaxaristes, with a few additions from a Russian translation of a Greek manuscript Life from the Saint's kellia (ed. Mt. Athos, 1912).

THE HOLY AND BLESSED NILOS, who has shone forth in recent times, surpassed by his ascetic deeds many even of the ancient ascetics. This is a new demonstration that virtue, piety, and love for God are not determined by times and seasons, but have their foundation in our free will.

St. Nilos was born to pious Orthodox parents in the town of Aghios Petros (Saint Peter) of Kynouria, which is in the Peloponnesus in Greece. When he was yet a youth he was orphaned, but he found a father in his uncle, the priest-monk Makarios, who was a vigilant and loving overseer of every movement of the mind and heart of this future vessel of the grace of the Holy Spirit, instructing him in the sacred letters and the virtues. Together they came to dwell at the sacred monastery called Malevi, which was nearby, and which was honored with the name of the Dormition of the Theotokos.

At this monastery they stayed but a short time, living in holy silence. Afterwards Makarios, the uncle of Saint Nilos, invited the local bishop and had the Saint ordained hierodeacon and then priest-monk, there in the monastery of Malevi.

Yet because they longed to find a more divine life, they left their native land and friends and relatives, and went to the Holy Mountain of Athos. Having gone about to all the sacred dwellings that were on the Mountain, they came to the parts where there was the cave in which St. Peter the Athonite had lived in asceticism. Thus, even as their native land was named Saint Peter, so also now, by divine dispensation, they dwelt in the parts where Saint Peter the Athonite had lived. This area is known as "Aghia Petra." At that time, those parts were totally deserted and uninhabited, because the Skete which is called Kavsokalyvia came into being later, in the vear 1740. Not even the cells of Kerasia existed then, except for those of the hesychast fathers of Saint Symeon, which were distant one from another.

When they saw this place, therefore, the Saint and his uncle rejoiced, and went to the Lavra of St. Athanasios and bought the land for one gold coin. As for the labors which they undertook in order to clear the place of undergrowth and briars, one can find them in the testament of the blessed Makarios. There they built a temple to the Most Holy Mother of God, and in honor of Sts. Peter and Athanasios of the Holy Mountain. Since they knew the art of iconography, they adorned the temple and also furnished and completed it with the necessary sacred vessels, vestments, and books, using the last of the money they had taken from home.

Before his death Makarios wrote a spiritual testament, by which he gave the kellia and everything in it, as his own personal property, to his disciple, Hieromonk Nilos. Soon, after the completion of the kellia, the divine Makarios peacefully reposed in the Lord from the burden of his righteous labors, having made his nephew his successor, heir in everything and worthy director of the kellia.

But the divine Nilos, who was all aflame with holy zeal, sought a more isolated place and found a cave that was on a sheer cliff, frightful even to behold because of its precipitousness. Devising various means, the ever-memorable one was able to descend to the cave, where he dwelt alone, praying to God alone and rapt in divine vision. No one else knew of him except for the one who had guided him and helped him descend to the cave, where the blessed one remained unknown in his ascetical labors till the end. In a depression within the cave St. Nilos built an altar in honor of the feast of the Meeting of the Lord in the Temple.

As to how many tears he shed like rivers, how many struggles, vigils, prostrations, standings in prayer, and fasts he endured, and how many illusions and threats he underwent at the hands of the demons who sought to drive him away from there, and again, how many angelic visions and consolations he received, it is impossible for one to tell. Wherefore the all-good God, Who beheld his heart and the patience which he had, glorified him and deemed him worthy to stand with the angels after his righteous repose, which took place in the year 1651, on the twelfth of November.

Having fled human glory during his lifetime, St. Nilos did not desire it either after his death. Therefore, on his deathbed he made a sworn testament that no one dare to remove his remains. In accordance with this, those who revered the Saint buried his holy body in a small cave underneath his cave, declaring by an inscription an interdiction against removing the body of the Saint.

But the Lord, Who by His unlying word places lamps upon lampstands, glorified His Saint in this way: his virgin body, consecrated to God from youth, purified and refined by fasts, cleansed by tears, made fragrant by prayer – this most sacred body God transformed into myrrh and granted it to flow out in the sight of men from the grave, through a small aperture, and to flow down along the perpendicular cliff to the sea. The unheard-of miracle of such an unprecedented flowing of myrrh became soon known to the entire Orthodox East; from everywhere ships began to come to draw myrrh from the miraculous current. The faithful received the myrrh as though it came from an ever-flowing fountain. By it all manner of illness was cured. The place there came to be called Karavostasion ("the boat-stop"). This was also the place where the ship that was carrying St. Peter the Athonite stopped and was unable to sail until the sailors allowed him to disembark there, as is narrated in his life.

Thus St. Nilos was also called "Myrrh-gusher" because of the holy myrrh that came forth from his holy relics. For many years, the location of his grave was unknown.

One time, two monks from a certain kellia (hermitage) wished to seek out the relics of the righteous one. They came with pick-axes and had begun digging up the place when, suddenly, a large boulder fell from above the cave and crushed the foot of one of them. Suffering great pain, he fell to the earth like one dead. Unable to help him, nor even to carry him out of that fearsome place, the other set out to bring a mule and return with another brother in order to lift him from the cave. Moaning and groaning from the pain, the brother remained there alone, when behold! Saint Nilos appeared to him like an ordinary monk and asked him what the matter was with him, and what he wanted there and what had happened to him. The brother explained what they had set out to do, and how he had been hurt. The Saint said to him, "How did you dare, poor man, to attempt such a dangerous undertaking without the express wish of the Saint? Yet behold, the Saint heals you; but take care henceforth, that you do not dare ever to undertake a labor that is beyond your strength and without the divine will." After he had said these things, he touched the brother's broken leg, and he was made well immediately, and the Saint vanished from before his eyes. Filled with joy, the brother set out for his kellia. On the way, he met his companion, who was returning with a mule to carry him. When that brother saw him well, he stood in astonishment, and both glorified God and thanked the Saint with a great voice. Henceforth no one else ever dared to search for the relics of Saint Nilos.

In the year 1815, a certain monk called "Prisoner," who suffered from an oppressive demon and also had a rupture, was healed by Saint Nilos. The Saint appeared to him many times and foretold many things to him, how the Holy Mountain would fall into many perils, how the Greek Revolution (1821) would take place, how the Hagarenes would invade, and many other prophecies which are recorded and fill a whole book.1 In many of his admonitions to this monk, the Saint commanded him to lay a path to the cave, so that the brethren could go to worship there for the benefit of their souls, and also so that the Liturgy might be served in the Saint's church, which he had built by himself there in the cave.

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1. Some excerpts from this book will be found at the end of this Life.


When the fathers heard this, they came together and cleared the place. Having done this, they wished to build a new church in honor of the Saint. While they were digging in order to lay the foundations, the grave of the Saint was found, as well as his all-venerable relics, which breathed forth an ineffable fragrance. This occured in the year 1815, on the seventh day of May, which is also the date on which his memory is celebrated.1

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1. A relic of the Saint is found in Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Boston, Mass.


Filled with boundless joy, the fathers informed the Monastery of of Grand Lavra, and the fathers of that monastery came with lighted candles and incense and translated the Saint's relics to Lavra, leaving only his jaw at the kellia, for the sanctification of those who came to worship there. Many miracles took place for many different people during the time of the transfer of the Saint's sacred relics, and many of those who recieved portions of relics were healed of various illnesses. The Saint's tomb, which is behind the Holy Tribune, was beautified even as it appears today. By the intercession of our righteous Father Nilos, may we be deemed worthy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen.