The Righteous Nicholas Kabasilas (d.c. 1397), Orthodox theologian, liturgist and hesychast, is celebrated today in the Orthodox Church. The exact year of Nicholas Kabasilas’ birth is unknown. We know for sure that he was born in the fourteenth century in “the eleventh hour” of the Byzantine Empire’s existance. Nicholas’s father bore the family name Chamaëtos, and his mother belonged to the Kabasilas family. Nicholas preferred to use the later aristocratic name well known in Thessalonica and abroad. In his youth, Nicholas was close to representatives of the hesychast circles of Thessalonica. Particularly to the Thessalonian ascetic Dorotheos Vlatis, who founded in the city the Blatadon monastery. In one of his letters to his father, Nicholas wrote with great respect about Dorotheos, writing that he was ready to obey his slightest call. Having received his primary education in Thessalonica, Nicholas went to Constantinople to continue his studies under the supervision of his uncle, the future Metropolitan of Thessalonica Nilos. While studying there Holy Scripture and patristic works, there, Nicholas did not neglect mathematics, astronomy, laws, philosophy, and other areas of secular culture. He considered education “development of the mind” and a necessary condition for true spiritual perfection. This solid education left an imprint on his writing, especially in the style of his homilies and speeches. In 1342, the anti-aristocratic and so-called Zealot movement demanded the autonomy of Thessalonica and seized power in the city, while simultaneously opposing both Constantinople and the Serbian troops of Stefan Dušan the Mighty that surrounded the city. During 1347-1348 all Greek lands were engulfed by plague. In 1349, the Zealots finally decided to surrender to Byzantine Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and his Turkish mercenaries. They were persuaded to this decision by the Patriarch of Constantinople and especially the Athonite hesychast monks. (The final winners of the confrontation were numerous Turkic tribes that flooded Thrace and Macedonia, who, realizing their power, captured the city in 1387.) Since 1341, like many representatives of Thessalonian elite of the time, Kabasilas become closely connected to John VI. Despite belonging to the camp hostile to the Zealots, Kabasilas even during these years of civil war enjoyed the respect and even support of the townsfolk having a reputation as a defender of the disadvantaged (in particular, from the tyranny of archons and moneylenders). In 1345, Kabasilas, who was then about 23 years old, participated in negotiation of the surrender of the city to Manuel Kantakouzenos, who represented his father, Emperor John Kantakouzenos. After a short time, unrest resumed in Thessalonica, leading to massacres of nobility, and Kabasilas managed to escape thanks only to the respect that some of the ordinary townspeople had for him. In 1345-1354 Kabasilas served as the closest associate and adviser to Emperor John Kantakouzenos. In this capacity he continued defending the rights of the disadvantaged and oppressed. In 1347, Kabasilas accompanied St. Gregory Palamas, elected to the Thessalonian See, to the city. However, the Zealots prevented the new metropolitan from entering the city (who had a reputation as a staunch supporter of Emperor John Kantakouzenos). As a result, Kabasilas together with St. Gregory spent a year on Mount Athos. Here Kabasilas took part in the trial against the Protos Hesychastes of the Holy Mountain Niphon Scorpios, who was accused by the monks of the Hilandar monastery in the hersey of Messalianism (those who experience God do not have to follow common rules of Christian discipline). Kabasilas played an important role in the acquittal of Niphon. This rather long stay among the Athonite monks had a decisive influence on the formation of Kabasilas’ spirituality and on the development of his theological thought. In 1349, together with Demetrios Kidonis, Kabasilas intended to follow the emperor John Kantakouzenos to the Holy Mountain, where the emperor planned to become a monk, but for an unknown reason this plan did not come true. In February of 1354, Kabasilas delivered a speech in honor of the crowning (as co-ruler) of Matthew Kantakouzenos, the eldest son of Emperor John VI. In the same year, John abdicated the throne, became a monk and entered the monastery of St. George of Mangana (now within the walls of Sultan’s Topkapı Palace), which marked the end of Kabasilas’ activities in the field of governmental services. Since that time, the only source containing scant information about the life of Kabasilas remains the latter’s letters and a few messages addressed to him. After the death of his uncle Metropolitan Nilos Kabasilas (1363), Nicholas began preparing the publication of his works. In the same year his father died, and his mother became a nun in the monastery of St. Theodora. Apparently, Nicholas spent all subsequent years in Constaninople, where his most important works were written (On Life in Christ and Interpretation of the Divine Liturgy, as well as, probably, the Mother of God homilies). He lived in the Mangan quarter. It is impossible to accurately determine the year of Righteous Nicholas’ death, but the terminus post quem is 1391. Considering that in his youth Kabasilas was associated with a circle of lay hesychasts, it is quite possible to assume that he spent the last decades of his life in close interaction with the monastic communities of Constantinople, although as an ascetic in the world. The glorification of Nicholas Kabasilas of the Church of Greec took place in June 1983. Nikolai Gogol in his Reflections on the Divine Liturgy (published in 1857) refers to Kabasilas’ Interpretation of the Divine Liturgy. Source: O.A.Rodionov, "Nikolai Kavasila," Pravoslavnaia Entsiklopedia. |
