Saint Nilus the Elder

However, the Lord was calling him to a more perfect life and preparing him for it day by day. Docile to the merciful impressions of grace, and entirely disgusted with the court and the world, he resolved to abandon the century and embrace the solitary life. His virtuous wife consented to this and wished to imitate his example. She retired with her daughter to a monastery in Egypt; the refuge that Saint Nilus chose with his son Theodulus, to save himself from the dangers of the centur mont Sinaï Site of the first monastic life of Simeon. y, was Mount Sinai, where a great number of anchorites lived a life entirely heavenly. There, stripped of everything that could flatter him—wife, relatives, friends, riches, dignities—he took God alone as his portion and the lot of his inheritance, and applied himself with uncommon ardor to the acquisition of religious virtues. God favored him with the gift of prophecy and a profound knowledge of the paths of perfection.

Saint Nilus was not only the zealous defender of the persecuted Saint Chrysostom, but also of the Catholic faith, which was often attacked by the errors of innovators. His excellent letters on various dogmatic points prove evidently that he was no less skilled and enlightened in avenging the doctrine of the Church than in establishing the rules of morals. He died at a very advanced age, during the reign of the Emperor Marcian, around 450. His relics were carried from Moun t Sinai to Con Constantinople City where the saint exercised his ministry and patriarchate. stantinople, during the reign of J Justin le Jeune Byzantine emperor who ordered the translation of the relics of Nilus. ustin the Younger, and deposited under the altar of the church of the apostle église des apôtres saint Pierre et saint Paul Site of the deposition of the relics of Saint Nilus in Constantinople. s Saint Peter and Saint Paul, according to Nicephorus and the Greek Menaia.

Saint Nilus was gifted with much erudition and eloquence; his style is pure, ornate, delicate, and sometimes sententious; it reveals abundance. We have from this Saint several learned works, of which the following are the principal and most authentic: 1° Epistles in great number; 2° a treatise on Monastic Life, and one on the Flight from Vices and the Practice of Virtue; 3° the book on Prayer; 4° a treatise on Voluntary Poverty; 5° a treatise to Eulogius; 6° a treatise on the eight Spirits of Malice; 7° a treatise on Orison, distributed into one hundred and fifty-three articles; 8° a treatise on Evil Thoughts; 9° Sentences; 10° finally, on the Massacre of the Solitaries of Sinai and the Captivity of Theodulus.

As for the other writings that one seeks to attribute to him, sound criticism disavows t hem. Joseph-Marie S Joseph-Marie Suarez Bishop of Vaison and editor of the works of Saint Nilus. uarez, former bishop of Vaison, Father Pierre Poussines, a Jesuit, and Leo Allatius, have provided various editions of his works. The latter is the most esteemed and the most complete.

Excerpt from the Spirit of the Saints, by Abbé Grimes.