Serbian archbishop and saint (d. 1325)
Nikodim I of Peć and Nikodim of Hilandar (Serbian: Никодим I Пећки) was a monk-scribe at Hilandar before becoming the 10th Serbian Archbishop from 1316 to 1324, he died in the year 1325. He is a Serbian saint and the Eastern Orthodox Church celebrates his feast day on May 11/24.[1] Nikodim is the author of Rodoslov: srpskih kraljeva i vladika (The Lives of Serbian Kings and Bishops).
Life
In 1314, heir apparent Stefan Uroš III was exiled to Constantinople after quarrels with his father, king Stefan Milutin. In 1317, Uroš III asked Nikodim to intervene between him and his father. Nikodim's autobiographical note was inscribed in a manuscript entitled "A Visit to Constantinople" in the year 1318 and 1319. In 1320, Milutin allowed Uroš III to return upon the persuasion of Nikodim. Stefan Konstantin, Uroš's half-brother and heir to the throne, was crowned king upon the death of Milutin in 1321. Civil war erupted when Konstantin refused to submit to Uroš III, who then invaded Zeta, and in the ensuing battle, Konstantin was killed. After the victory, on January 6, 1322, Nikodim crowned Uroš King and Dušan Young King.
While he was the Abbot of his alma mater Hilandar,[5] Nikodim requested that a certain protos (monk-priests) of Mt. Athos by the name of Theophanes issues an edict (gramma) wherein he grants to the monks of the Kelion of Saint Sava in Karyes, Mount Athos, a piece of land and an abandoned monastery. With the statement of the month, indiction, year, and the signatures of the Protos and the witnesses. Although the language is coarse and abounds in solecisms and "barbarisms", making it difficult to read, it was copied in skilled handwriting.
He co-founded 14th century Serbian Orthodox Vratna monastery alongside Serbian king Stefan Milutin (1282–1321) of the Nemanjić dynasty.[6]
