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Icon of St. Nilus of
Grottaferrata, abbot (also called St. Nilus of Rossano)
Feast:
Sept. 26
This
St. Nilus is named "the Younger" or "the New" to distinguish him from
the 5th c. St. Nilus. He was a Calabrian Greek who married (or, by some
accounts, lived unlawfully) and had a daughter. Urged to profound
repentance by a grievous illness, he became a deeply pious monastic. He
moved the sites of his monastic labours to the environs of Orthodox
Rome to escape the depredations of the Hagarenes (Muslims). There, in
1004 A.D., at the place which now is called Grottaferrata, the Most
Holy Mother of God appeared to him and bade him establish the famed
Eastern rite monastery (which later fell into the hands of the
separated Roman Church). St. Nilus was renowned for his ascetic life,
his gifts in the realm of theology, and for founding or re-establishing
monastic life in many different locations, working with Eastern and
Western rite communities alike (in that respect, he resembles the
equals-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius). The Saint spent some time
living at Monte Cassino at the Western rite monastery founded by St.
Benedict. In 1005, on Sept. 26 (some say Dec. 27), at the holy
monastery of St. Agatha in Tusculum, the holy monastic founder and
father to many reposed in sanctity. O Holy Father Nilus, pray to God
for us!
Icon is of unknown provenance
and bears an inscription in Greek.
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