Niphon Kausokalybites

Saint Niphon Kausokalybites (1316 to 1411) was a Greek monk of Mount Athos, a hesychast, a disciple of Neilos Erichiotes, Theognostos and Saint Maximos Kausokalybites, and protos of Athos. The Church commemorates him on 14 June (27 June New Style). The sources do not agree with one another about his birthplace, the years of his life and some of the events, and below we say what can be said.

Beginnings

According to the English and Greek sources, he was born in the village of Lukovo, in the Epirus of the time, today in southern Albania: the English source places it in the municipality of Himara, while the Greek one also discusses an older Lukovo between the villages of Dimokori and Lavdani in the Ioannina region. The Serbian source says only that he was born in the region of Argyrokastron, of a priest father. From childhood he went to the monastery of Geromerion, near Filiates, where he became a hesychast, and then to the neighbouring monastery of Mesopotamon, where he was tonsured a monk.

On Mount Athos

He came to the Holy Mountain after 1335 and gave himself to ascetic labour under the guidance of the elders Neilos Erichiotes, Theognostos and Maximos Kausokalybites. The Serbian source adds that he first struggled in the cave of Saint Peter the Athonite, then in the desert of Saint Anne, that he ate grass and roots, and that some envious men accused him of despising bread, from which he easily cleared himself. At last he joined Saint Maximos at Kapsokalyvia, where they struggled together.

In 1345 Niphon was protos of Athos. At that time Athos passed under the protection of the Serbian tsar Stefan Dušan, who accused him of heresy and Bogomilism, but he was successfully defended by Saint Gregory Palamas. In 1347 to 1348 Niphon was tried and removed from the office of protos, accused of heresy by other monks, and the Serbian monk Antony took his place. His fall is explained either by struggles between religious parties older than the Serbian rule, or by the attempt of Stefan Dušan to take control of Athos by placing a Serbian official at its head. The intervention caused serious divisions between the Greek leaders and the Serbs of Hilandar monastery.

In 1355 to 1363 he was accused again, when his servant Bardarios confessed before dying that he had joined the Euchite movement, but he was defended by Patriarch Callistus. From the sources of the time it is not clear whether Niphon was then a Euchite or a hesychast. He spent the rest of his life as a hesychast, to the end.

Miracles and writings

The tradition kept in the Serbian source says that, for his love of God, he received the gift of working miracles and of foresight, that he healed the sick by prayer and anointing with oil, and that he foresaw what had happened and what was to come. He foretold his death in the Fast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and told the brothers not to weep but to rejoice, for they would have in him an intercessor before God. He wrote the first Life of his spiritual teacher, Saint Maximos Kausokalybites.

The years of his death

The sources do not agree on his end either: the English and Greek sources give his death in 1411, while the Serbian source says he reposed on 14 (27) June 1330. We cannot choose between the two dates. In February 2013 a church in honour of Saint Niphon was built at Gjirokastër in southern Albania. The Serbian Orthodox Church keeps his feast on 14 June Old Style, that is, 27 June New Style.