Nikitas Stithatos

Nikitas Stithatos born c. 1000 died c. 1090

Life

Eastern Orthodox saint, Byzantine mystic, Greek theologian, and outspoken critic of the Latin West. Nikitas in the 11th-century wrote a polemic articulating the Greek Orthodox–Latin Roman Catholic church controversy of his time. This conflict culminated into the East-West schism of 1054.

Hesycast controversy

Niketas was an ascetic or monk of the Monastery of Stoudios in Constantinople (now Istanbul). In c. 1020 Niketas allied himself with his spiritual tutor, Saint Symeon the New Theologian, who as Symeon's biographer. Niketas became Symeon's apologist when Symeon was attacked for his defense of the system of contemplative prayer known as hesychasm. In his biography of Symeon, Niketas incorporated his own views on the inner experience of beatifying illumination. He also wrote a treatise and several commentaries on ascetical practices of which are now contained in the fourth volume of the English editions of the Philokalia.

Polemetical

In the 11th-century conflict between the Greek Orthodox and Latin Roman Catholic church, Nicetas served as theologian-polemist to Constantinople’s patriarch Michael Cerularius, who, during 1053–54, disputed sharply with the papal legate Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida. During the administration of Abbot Simeon, Niketas (also known as Nicetas Pectoratus), made a virulent attack on the Latins in a book which he wrote on the use of unleavened bread, the Sabbath, and the marriage of priests. In 1054 he was obliged to recant in the presence of the emperor and of the papal legates and to throw his book into the fire, but he renewed his dispute later.

ee Also

*Kallistos Ware

References

*Encyclopedia Britannica article [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/414013/Nicetas-Stethatos]