Nicholas Cabasilas

Cabasilas is revered as a saint within the Eastern Orthodox Church. His feast day is 20 June. The Catholic Church uses extracts from his Life in Christ as readings in the Liturgy of the Hours (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of the Fifth Week of Easter in Year II of the provisional two-year cycle for the Office of Readings). He is known for his two most famous texts, Life in Christ and Commentary on the Divine Liturgy.

• Honorific Prefix — Saint • Name — Nicholas Kabasilas • Born — c. 1319 • Birthplace — Thessaloniki, Byzantine Empire • Died — c. 1392 • Feast Day — 20 June • Venerated In — Eastern Orthodox Church Eastern Catholic Churches

Little of his life is known with certainty, including the dates of his birth and death. Cabasilas was the nephew of theologian and clergyman Neilos Kabasilas. He was on intimate terms with the emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, whom he accompanied in his retirement to a monastery. He was once thought to have succeeded his uncle Neilos Kabasilas as archbishop of Thessalonica; however, contemporary records of that see do not show Nicholas as serving as archbishop. It is more likely that he served as a priest at the Mangana Monastery in Constantinople. In the Hesychast controversy he supported the monks of Mount Athos and Gregory Palamas.

His chief work is Περὶ τῆς ἐν Χριστῷ ζωῆς ("On the Life in Christ"), in which he teaches that union with Christ is achieved through the three great mysteries of baptism, chrismation, and the Eucharist. Cabasilas's Commentary on the Divine Liturgy displays a profound understanding of the sacramental and liturgical life of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He also wrote homilies on various subjects and a speech against usurers, printed with other works by Jacques Paul Migne in Patrologia Graeca. He also wrote an encomium on the ninth-century nun and saint Theodora of Thessaloniki. A large number of his works survive in manuscript form.