St Nicodemus, Archbishop of Pec.

Commemorated May 11 in the Orthodox Christian Menaion

From the Prologue

This great hierarch was a Serb by birth. He lived in asceticism on the Holy Mountain, and was abbot of Hilandar. After the death of Sava the Third, he was chosen as archbishop of 'all the Serbian lands and those bordering the sea', in 1317. He crowned King Milutin in 1321. He also translated the Jerusalem Typikon* into Serbian. In the Preface of this book he says: 'Almighty God, who knows our weaknesses, will give us spiritual strength, but only if we first make an effort.' He sincerely loved the ascetic life, and laboured to deepen it in the land of Serbia. He laboured tirelessly to uproot the Bogomil heresy and confirm the Orthodox faith. He entered into rest in the Lord in 1325 and his wonderworking relics are preserved in the monastery at Pec.

*A Typikon is a book of rubrics for the ordering of church services and of monastic life - Translator.

From The Prologue From Ochrid by Bishop Nikolai Velimirovich
©1985 Lazarica Press, Birmingham UK