Nikephoros of Mount Athos

Venerable Nikephoros the Hesychast of Mount Athos, teacher of Saint Gregory Palamas.

Nikephoros was of Italian birth and, having embraced Orthodoxy, became a monk on Mount Athos in the thirteenth century. He lived in stillness in the wilder parts of the Mountain and wrote a treatise on watchfulness and the prayer of the heart.

He was a guide to Saint Gregory Palamas, who defended his teaching, and he reposed before the year 1300.

Feast day

On the New Calendar, Nikephoros of Mount Athos is commemorated on May 4. Churches on the Old (Julian) Calendar keep the feast on May 17 of the civil calendar.

Who celebrates a name day

People with these names keep their name day on this feast:

Nikiforos, Nikephoros, Nicephorus

Also commemorated on May 4

• 

  Pelagia

  Holy Woman, Πελαγία

  Holy Martyr Pelagia of Antioch.

  Name days: Pelagia, Pelayia, Pela

• Monica, Mother of Augustine

  Holy Woman, Μόνικα

  Saint Monica, whose years of prayer and tears brought her son Augustine to Christ.

  Name days: Monica, Monika, Monique

• Aphrodisios and Companions

  Martyr, Αφροδίσιος, Λεόντιος και Αντωνίνος

  Holy Martyrs Aphrodisios, Leontios, Antoninos and their companions, who suffered at Scythopolis in Palestine.

  Name days: Aphrodisios, Afrodisios, Leontios, Leontius

• Athanasios of Corinth

  Hierarch, Αθανάσιος Κορίνθου

  Venerable Athanasios, Bishop of Corinth, an ascetic hierarch of the Byzantine period.

• Florian the Martyr

  Martyr, Φλωριανός

  Holy Martyr Florian, a Roman officer drowned for his faith at Lorch in present-day Austria.

  Name days: Florian

• Hilarion the Wonderworker

  Venerable, Ιλαρίων ο Θαυματουργός

  Venerable Hilarion the Wonderworker, an ascetic honored in the Greek synaxarion.

  Name days: Ilarion, Hilarion