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St. Nilus The Younger





BIOGRAPHY

Born in of Rossano , Calabria , for a time he was married (or lived unlawfully) and had a daughter. Sickness brought about his conversion, however, and from that time he became a monk and a propagator of the rule of Saint Basil in Italy.

He was known for his ascetic life, his virtues, and theological learning. For a time he lived as a hermit, later he spent certain periods of his life at various monasteries which he either founded or restored. He was for some time at Monte Cassino , and again at the Alexius Monastery at Rome . When Gregory V (966-999) was driven out of Rome, Nilus opposed the usurpation of Philogatos Of Piacenza as antipope. Later when Philogatos was tortured and mutilated he reproached Gregory and the Emperor Otto III for this crime. Nilus' chief work was the foundation of the famous Greek monastery of Grottaferrata , near Frascati , of which he is counted the first abbot. He spent the end of his life partly in St. Agata monastery in Tusculum and partly in a hermitage at Valleluce near Gaeta .

He died in the St. Agata monastery in 1005.

His feast is kept on 26 September , both in the Byzantine Calendar and the Roman Martyrology .