Nicodemus the Hagiorite

Saint Nicodemus of The Holy Mountain
Icon of St. Nicodemus from the "Great Synaxarion," published in Venice in 1819.
Born	1749 Naxos
Died	July 14, 1809 (age 60) Mount Athos
Venerated in	Eastern Orthodox Church
Canonized	May 31, 1955 by Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople
Major shrine	Mount Athos; Church of the Naxian Saints, Naxos.
Feast	July 14; First Sunday of September (with the other Saints of Paros and Naxos)
Attributes	Long white beard, monastic garb, often writing on a scroll, or in a book.

St. Nicodemus the Hagiorite or St. Nicodemus of the Holy Mountain (Greek: Ὃσιος Νικόδημος ὁ Ἁγιορείτης; 1749 – July 14, 1809) is a saint of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He was an ascetic monk, mystic, theologian, and philosopher. His life's work was a revival of traditional Christian practices and patristic literature. He wrote ascetic prayer literature and influenced the rediscovery of Hesychasm, a method of contemplative prayer from the Byzantine period. He is most famous for his work with St. Macarius of Corinth on the anthology of monastic spiritual writings known as The Philokalia. He was canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople in 1955.

St. Nicodemus was born Nicholas Kallivroutsis (Νικόλαος Καλλιβρούτσης) in 1749 on the Greek island of Naxos, which was at the time part of the Ottoman Empire. According to his biographer, he was possessed of "great acuteness of mind, accurate perception, intellectual brightness, and vast memory", qualities which were readily apparent to those who furthered him along in his learning.

He passed from the tutelage of his parish priest to that of Archimandrite Chrysanthos, who was the brother of St. Cosmas. From there he made his way to Smyrna (now Izmir, Turkey), where he studied at the Evangelical School. Here he studied theology, as well as ancient Greek, Latin, French, and Italian.

Persecution from the Turks, who ruled most of the Greek world at the time, cut his schooling short, and he returned to Naxos in 1770.

He studied at Smyrna but was forced to abandon his studies during a time of Ottoman persecution. Instead he entered the Dionysiou monastery on Mount Athos in 1775.