The Controversies and Accusations Against Saint Nicodemus

 

The orthodoxy of Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite (1749–1809), one of the most important figures of the Kollyvades revival movement, was vigorously challenged both during his lifetime and afterward. The accusations against him came chiefly from two quarters: from the anti-Kollyvades (the opponents of the Kollyvades movement on the Holy Mountain) and from ecclesiastical circles that accused him of Western/Roman Catholic influence because of the books he translated and adapted.

The first and most immediate challenge came from the monks of the Holy Mountain who opposed the movement. Representatives of this side, such as Theodoret of Ioannina (former Prohegumen of Esphigmenou Monastery), supported the celebration of memorial services on Sunday rather than Saturday. They accused Saint Nicodemus, Saint Makarios Notaras, and Christophoros Papoulakos of being “innovators,” “schismatics,” and “heretics” because they insisted upon the strict observance of tradition (the celebration of memorial services only on Saturdays) and upon frequent Holy Communion. Indeed, Saint Nicodemus’s book Concerning Frequent Communion provoked a storm of reactions, with his opponents accusing him of diminishing the Mystery of Confession.

The Accusation of “Latin-mindedness” and Western Influence

This was perhaps the most serious theological accusation leveled against him, since Saint Nicodemus used Western spiritual writings as the basis for some of his most popular works. The works in question were Unseen Warfare (based on the Combattimento spirituale of the Roman Catholic priest Lorenzo Scupoli) and the Spiritual Exercises (based on the work of the same name by Ignatius of Loyola, the founder of the Jesuits).

His critics accused him of introducing “Western, papal spirituality” into the Orthodox Church. They considered the method of “imagination” and meditation described in the Spiritual Exercises to be foreign to the hesychastic tradition of Orthodoxy, which explicitly rejects the use of the imagination in prayer. Because of these denunciations, Saint Nicodemus suffered persecution. Under pressure from his opponents, the Ecumenical Patriarchate examined his works, and in 1807 Saint Nicodemus was even compelled to write apologetic texts and make corrections in order to demonstrate his Orthodox faith.

The Case of The Rudder and Theodoret

Another major focus of controversy concerned The Rudder (the collection of the Sacred Canons of the Orthodox Church), which Saint Nicodemus compiled together with the monk Agapios. The manuscript was sent to Leipzig for printing, with the monk Theodoret responsible for its publication. Theodoret, however, proceeded to make arbitrary alterations and falsifications, adding notes of his own that expressed extreme positions, such as the complete rejection of the baptism of Roman Catholics [sic], to such a degree that they conflicted with the official position of the Church.

When the book was circulated in its falsified form, Saint Nicodemus was accused both by the Patriarchate (because of the extreme positions that appeared under his name) and by Theodoret himself, who accused him of “innovations” when the Saint attempted to restore the authentic text. Despite the slanders, persecutions, and temporary condemnations he endured during his lifetime, the Orthodox Church fully recognized his work. His official canonization by the Ecumenical Patriarchate took place in 1955, definitively confirming the orthodoxy of his teaching and establishing him as one of the greatest Fathers of the modern Church.

Theology between East and West: The Method of the “Transference” and “Grafting” of Ideas

Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite’s adaptation of Western spiritual writings constitutes a unique chapter in theological literature. Saint Nicodemus did not produce a simple translation, but carried out a profound theological “transfusion” (filtering), cleansing the texts of the scholastic and legalistic influences of the West and grafting onto them the hesychastic and patristic tradition of the East. This process was termed by later theologians the “ecclesiastical grafting” or “expatriation” of the texts, which he accomplished through very specific axes of transformation.

First, he proceeded to replace “Imagination” with “Watchfulness.” In Western spirituality (especially in the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola), the imagination is used as a fundamental instrument of prayer, whereby the faithful person is called to represent mentally and in detail scenes from the life of Christ, Hell, or Paradise, stimulating his senses. In the Orthodox hesychastic tradition (as expressed in the Philokalia), the imagination is regarded as the principal “bridge” through which temptations and delusions enter the mind. Thus, Saint Nicodemus removed all instructions that encouraged fictitious mental representations. In their place, he introduced watchfulness (spiritual vigilance), pure prayer (without forms or images), and the monologistic prayer (“Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me”).

From Legal Justification to the Healing of the Soul and the Life of the Mysteries

Second, Saint Nicodemus shifted the focus from legal justification to the healing of the soul. The Roman Catholic theology of the period viewed salvation in a rather juridical manner (satisfaction of divine justice, guilt, punishments). Saint Nicodemus transferred the center of gravity from the judicial/legal level to the therapeutic. He presented Christ not as an angry judge who must be appeased, but as the “Physician of souls.” In his books, the spiritual life is not described as an effort to accumulate “merits” (as was the case in the West), but as a path of purification of the heart from the passions, illumination of the nous, and, ultimately, theosis.

Third, he proceeded to introduce Patristic passages and material from the Philokalia. In order to ground these texts in Orthodoxy, he provided extremely extensive commentary. He enriched the texts with hundreds of footnotes, citations, and references to Holy Scripture and, above all, to the Eastern Fathers of the Church (such as Basil the Great, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, and Saint Gregory Palamas). In this way, even when the structure or subject matter of a chapter remained Western, its interpretation and spirit became entirely Patristic and Orthodox.

Fourth, he led the reader from “Individualism” to Ecclesiology and the Holy Mysteries. Western manuals of the spiritual life often possessed a strongly individual-centered character, focusing on the believer’s personal relationship with God in relative isolation from liturgical life. Saint Nicodemus inseparably connected the inward spiritual struggle with the life of the Holy Mysteries of the Church. He emphasized that the “unseen warfare” is not won through individual techniques, but through frequent participation in the Holy Mysteries of Confession and the Divine Eucharist.

The Motive and Cultural Necessity of the Undertaking

Saint Nicodemus consciously chose this method because he saw that, during the period of Ottoman rule, there was an enormous lack of accessible, practical spiritual guides for Orthodox laypeople living in the world. The classical ascetical texts (such as, for example, The Ladder of Saint John) had been written primarily for monks and in language that was particularly difficult for the broader public of that period.

Finding in Western books an excellent, methodical, and practical structure, he chose to “capture” their methodology, cleanse it of doctrinal errors, and offer it to the suffering Orthodox people as a powerful spiritual weapon. As he himself characteristically wrote, he did what the ancient Israelites had done: they took the golden vessels of the Egyptians, cleansed them of foreign admixtures, and used them for the worship of the true God.

 

Greek source: https://fdathanasiou-parakatathiki.blogspot.com/2026/07/blog-post_14.html