Venerable Nicholas, Abbot of the Stoudite Monastery in Constantinople, passed away on this day in 868. The following account is adapted from the King’s College London project Prosopography of Byzantine Empire and is based entirely on primary sources. It serves as an example of how serious scholarship can enrich our knowledge of a saint’s life and personality.
A Life of Nicholas the Stoudite was written in the early tenth century by one of the Stoudite monks. He was a native of Kydonia in Crete. His parents were of humble origins. He was the brother of Titos. There were also apparently other brothers or sisters. He was born between February 793 and February 794 (see below). He learned grammar and was instructed in Christian piety. At the age of ten (in 803), when he was judged ready for further studies, he was sent to Constantinople to his uncle St. Theophanes, a monk in the Stoudite monastery under St. Theodore. He was placed in a school close to the monastery to continue studying letters with boys his age. A clever and quiet boy, who did not join in the sports of his contemporaries, he made quick progress. He became proficient in the studies that prepared him for more advanced work and, in particular, in shorthand for which his natural quickness made him apt; he advanced in spiritual studies and outstripped his contemporaries in his devotions and in his study of the Scriptures and the Lives of Saints. On arriving at manhood, he was tonsured by St. Theodore the Stoudite and became a monk. Later, since he was judged eminently suitable, he became a priest. He continued to work as a scribe, and many copies of books attested to his work. Mentioned in a letter of St. Theodore written in 809/811 to the monks Silouanos and Eurepianos, St. Nicholas was one of many about whom St. Theodore (who was then in exile) wanted news. When Crete fell to the Arabs, Nicholas’ brother Titos came to him at Constantinople, and he made him a monk also in the same monastery. The date of this was presumably around 828; it is therefore out of sequence in the narrative of the Life of Nicholas. Under Iconoclast, Emperor Leo V Nikolaos was exiled as an iconophile together with St Theodore, Patriarch Nikephoros, and other venerators of icons. The date was spring 815 (see below). He and St. Theodore were exiled together to the fort of Metopa close to Lake Apollonias (in Bithynia), where they remained for a year, during which they were covertly visited by disciples from the monastery and others, whom they encouraged to support the veneration of icons; eventually the emperor Leo V found out and they were then exiled to another fortress in the Anatolikon thema called Bonita and forbidden all visitors. However, a letter from St. Theodore the Studite fell into the hands of the emperor Leo. Thereupon he sent an agent who had St. Nicholas and then St. Theodore given a hundred lashes each and then shut them both up and ordered them to be starved. They were kept with hardly any food or water for days at a time and suffered greatly. Then, yet another document fell into the emperor's hands, and another agent was sent out, and he had both men severely beaten again and tortured; they both nearly died from the effects. They were held in close confinement here for three years in all and suffered mistreatment and hardship. They were then transferred to Smyrna to suffer further imprisonment and beatings; there they remained for twenty more months, fettered with wooden blocks, until the death of the emperor Leo V. St. Nicholas is frequently mentioned in the letters of St. Theodore from this period. He was St. Theodore’s companion, often his only companion, during his exile under Emperor Leo, and in many letters St. Theodore added his greetings to his own. I’m winter 815/816, they left Smyrna and made their way on foot to the district of Prousa and then to Chalcedon where they met and spent some time in the company of the exiled St. Patriarch Nikephoros, winning his admiration when he saw the visible marks of their suffering. St. Nicholas probably accompanied Sts. Patriarch Nikephoros and Theodore and others when they had an audience with the emperor Michael II and tried in vain to convince him of the correctness of the veneration of icons. Afterward, since they were all forbidden to remain in Constantinople, St.Nicholas and St.Theodore left to live in Prousa; they remained there until the rebellion of Thomas the Slav when they were ordered unwillingly back to Constantinople by the emperor; they soon left there to live on the peninsula of St. Tryphon near Cape Akritas. It was at St Tryphon that St. Theodore died (in 826); his body was taken for burial to the nearby island of Prinkipos; St. Nicholas took up residence near the tomb and devoted himself to a life of asceticism; his fame spread, and he received many visitors, including high ranking persons from Constantinople who came to him for spiritual guidance. It was presumably during this period that he made his brother Titos a monk.
When the persecution resumed under the emperor Theophilos, St. Nicholas escaped by traveling from place to place. Eventually, he met Eirene, a pious lady, who gave him a secluded property in Thrace not far from Constantinople where he was able to live in peace. He later gave the property, called Phirmoupolis, to his monastery (the Stoudios monastery). He chose to remain on this property after the restoration of the Stoudios monastery in Constantinople following the triumph of the iconophile cause under the St. Empress Theodora (in 843), visiting his fellow-monks infrequently, as he preferred to follow a quiet life of contemplation and asceticism. After the death of St. Naukratios, Theodore’s successor (in 846), St. Nicholas was unanimously elected hegoumenos of the Stoudios monastery at Constantinople. He is described as in every way comparable to his excellent and virtuous predecessors. St. Nicholas governed the monastery for three years and then chose to retire (in 849) to the quietness of Phirmoupolis, leaving Sophronios I as his successor. Sophronios died after four years, on November 3, and the monks insisted that St. Nicholas return as their hegoumenos in late 853. After the expulsion of the St. Patriarch Ignatios from his see by Caesar Bardas in late 858, St. Nicholas withdrew from the monastery accompanied by his brother Titos and went to live on Prainetos in one of the properties belonging to the Stoudios monastery; he rejected attempts by the Caesar to persuade him to return, including, according to the Vita, a personal visit from the emperor and the Caesar. Finally, he was expelled from all properties owned by the monastery and replaced as hegoumenos as a consequence of dissension in the Church (unspecified, but presumably the removal of Patriarch Ignatios) and also, it is suggested, because the burdens of administration were proving too heavy, St. Nicholas left the monastery after delivering a strong exhortation to the monks on their conduct; many of the monks also left the monastery with him and dispersed to various places.
St. Nicholas now traveled from place to place. After a while, he fell ill and refused to let anyone care for him except Evarestos, who hurried to his side as soon as he heard; then, while still a sick man, St. Nicholas was summoned to an interview with the emperor Michael III; he made a good impression and was allowed to go. He suffered much through poverty and old age while traveling from place to place and was eventually given a place to live at Constantinople, in the district of Liba, formerly known as the district of Kokkorobion. This place, situated in a peaceful and quiet spot, became a small monastery, thanks in part to the efforts of St. Nicholas’ disciple, Evarestos whom St.Nicholas summoned there. While staying there, he received approaches from the new St. Patriarch Photios, who wanted to win his support. He eventually fled, going first to Prokonnesos and then to Mitylene and then, after some time there, went accompanied by his brother Titos to Xamelion in the Chersonesos, in modern-day Crimea. He remained there for seven years, suffering partly from old age and partly from shortages of essentials, before he was taken back to the Stoudios monastery on orders from the Caesar Bardas and was held in custody there for two years, while Sabbas was hegoumenos. Only after the deaths of Bardas and the emperor Michael III and the accession of Basil I in 867 St. Nicholas was released. He was then persuaded, in spite of his age, to resume his position as hegoumenos of the Stoudios monastery, supposedly by the emperor Basil himself; thereafter he was a frequent visitor to the palace.
He appointed Evarestos I as hegoumenos of the monastery of Kokkorobion, with Paphnoutios I as oikonomos, and then was carried back to the Stoudios monastery where, a few days later, feeling the approach of death, he summoned the monks together, appointed Klemens IV as his successor and, after some words of exhortation, died. He was buried beside his predecessors in the Church of the Prodromos at the Stoudios monastery. He died on February 4, 868, during his seventy-fifth year (year of the world 6376, during a first indiction, on February 4).
Adapted from:
https://pbe.kcl.ac.uk/data/D59/F38.htm. |
