Georgios Martzelos

Saint Nicodemus the Hagiorite was one of the greatest figures on Mount Athos in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was born on Naxos in 1749, and his baptismal name was Nikolaos. He received his elementary education on his native island, going on to the Evangelical School in Smyrna. In 1775, he retired to the Holy Mountain, where he lived a strictly ascetic life as a monk. Here he was closely associated with Saint Makarios Notaras and Saint Athanasios of Paros, and was the author of many works on ecclesiastical and spiritual matters.

When in 1801 the Athonite School was passing through a difficult period, the Holy Synaxis of the Athonite Fathers appointed Saint Nicodemus a member of a three-man committee to be responsible for the financial management of the School. He did valuable work in improving the School’s affairs at an administrative, spiritual, and moral level. He died in 1809, on 14 July, which is observed as his feast day.

Source: pemptousia.com


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Pemptousia Partnership

Pemptousia and OCN have entered a strategic partnership to bring Orthodoxy Worldwide. Greek philosophers from Ionia considered held that there were four elements or essences (ousies) in nature: earth, water, fire and air. Aristotle added ether to this foursome, which would make it the fifth (pempto) essence, pemptousia, or quintessence. The incarnation of God the Word found fertile ground in man’s proclivity to beauty, to goodness, to truth and to the eternal. Orthodoxy has not functioned as some religion or sect. It was not the movement of the human spirit towards God but the revelation of the true God, Jesus Christ, to man. A basic precept of Orthodoxy is that of the person ­– the personhood of God and of man. Orthodoxy is not a religious philosophy or way of thinking but revelation and life standing on the foundations of divine experience; it is the transcendence of the created and the intimacy of the Uncreated. Orthodox theology is drawn to genuine beauty; it is the theology of the One “fairer than the sons of men”. So in "Pemptousia", we just want to declare this "fifth essence", the divine beaut in our life. Please note, not all Pemptousia articles have bylines. If the author is known, he or she is listed in the article above.

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