Saint Nilus the Myrrh-Streamer of Mount Athos

Saint Nilus the “Myrrh-Streamer”(Myrovlitis) was a very great ascetic and hesychastic figure of the 17^th century. He was born in the town of Agios Petros of Kynouria at the end of the 16^th century. 

At a young age he became a monk in the Holy Monastery of Panagia Malevi. Due to his spiritual progress and advancement, a few years later he was ordained a deacon and then a priest. Along with the rest of his solitary sermons, he developed his inclination towards the sacred art of hagiography, and to this day, both in the Monastery of Malevi and his hermitage on Mount Athos, portable icons or murals which he had painted, are preserved. 

Wanting more exercise and quiet, he left with his uncle, hieromonk Makarios, from the Monastery of Malevi for the Holy Mount of Athos. They settled there with the permission of the Monastery of Megisti Lavra, in the inaccessible and deserted cave of Saint Peter the Athonite, which is 1 hour away from the area of Kausokalyvia. There they performed the Divine Liturgy and the rest of the night and day services. After the repose of his uncle, our Saint left for the site that is today called the area or cave of “Saint Nilos”. It is a small cave at the top of a stiff cliff that ends vertically in the sea. There he shaped the space and built a rudimentary church dedicated to the Apostole and Evangelist John The Theologian. There our saint emerged as a worthy follower of hesychastic tradition of the great Mount Athos Father and teacher of our Church Saint Gregory Palamas. In the inaccessible and steep cave, the grace of God called him to heaven on the day of remembrance of the holy and godly Nilus of Sinai, whose name he bore on November 12, 1651. 

The holy relic of the Saint was buried near the cave of his practice. His holiness was established after the burial of the Saint. Almost after his sleep, God honored him with the gift of myrrh-washing and fragrant myrrh gushed from the tomb, which from the burial site reached the sea. This is the reason why the Saint Nilus received the nickname “Myrrh-Streamer” or “Myrrh-gusher” (Myrovlitis). In the following years, Mount Athos experienced great destruction and desolation which contributed to the forgetting of the exact burial place of Saint Nilus the Myrrh -Streamer. At the beginning of the 19^th century, a miracle of the Saint to a monk became known on Mount Athos, resulting in crowds of pilgrims flocking to the cave of the Saint. This prompted the Kausokalivite Fathers to clear the old path, which was full of bushes and to tidy up the cave so that the Divine Liturgy could be performed again. As they dug to shape the area, on May 7, 1815, they discovered the tomb and the relics of the Saint from which an unspoken fragrance poured out. The relics in the Monastery of the Great Lavra were received by the martyre Patriarch of the Nation, Saint Grigorios the Fifth who was in exile on Mount Athos that time. 

 

Troparion — Tone 8

By a flood of tears you made the desert fertile, / and your longing for God brought forth fruits in abundance. / By the radiance of miracles you illumined the whole universe! / O our holy father Nilus, pray to Christ our God to save our souls!