Nicodemus the Hagiorite
Athonite editor, translator, and spiritual writer whose work helped circulate the Philokalia and other ascetical, liturgical, and canonical texts.
Historical context
The Philokalia is an anthology of earlier authors edited with Macarius of Corinth; its writings must not all be attributed to Nicodemus himself.
Key points
- Separate his own prefaces and treatises from works he edited or translated.
- His activity belongs to eighteenth-century Orthodox renewal under Ottoman rule.
Scripture
- 1 Thessalonians 5:17 — Prayer without ceasing is a recurring ascetical theme in texts he helped transmit.
Primary sources
Nicodemus writes in the Philokalia's prologue:
Nicodemus describes the deification of humanity as part of God's everlasting divine design.
having predetermined according to His divine design from everlasting to deify man
Passage context and translation
Nicodemus opens the Philokalia by placing prayer and ascetic teaching within humanity's creation for deification; this is his prologue, not the wording of every author collected in the anthology.
Before the excerpt
God, the blessed Nature, the most perfect perfection, the Creative Beginning of all good and of all beautiful
After the excerpt
and having deigned this purpose for man within Himself from the beginning before all things, created him when He deemed appropriate.