Venerable Nicholas Cabasilas

Life and Career

Cabasilas belonged to the cultivated lay society of late Byzantine Thessalonica and Constantinople. He was the kinsman—described as the nephew—of Neilos Cabasilas, himself a theologian and clergyman, and the family was firmly opposed to union between the Greek and Latin churches.

In his earlier years he engaged in the public and political life of the empire and stood on intimate terms with the emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, accompanying him when the emperor laid down his throne and retired to a monastery. The precise nature of his own ecclesiastical standing remains uncertain in the sources: he was once thought to have succeeded his uncle as archbishop of Thessalonica around 1355, but it is now considered more likely that he served rather as a priest at the Mangana Monastery in Constantinople and remained, in the main, a layman. He is commemorated in the Church under the rank of the Righteous.

Theological Writings

Cabasilas is best known for two principal treatises. The Life in Christ expounds how union with Christ is effected through the three great mysteries of baptism, chrismation, and the Eucharist, tracing the whole Christian life as a participation in the sacramental gifts of the Church.

His Commentary on the Divine Liturgy—also titled an Exposition of the Divine Liturgy—displays a profound understanding of the sacramental and liturgical life and stands, together with the Life in Christ, among the classics of Eastern sacramental theology. Beyond these he composed homilies on various subjects, a discourse against usurers, and an encomium on the ninth-century nun Saint Theodora of Thessaloniki.

The Hesychast Controversy

In the great theological dispute of his century over the prayer of the heart and the uncreated light, Cabasilas took the side of the monks of Mount Athos and of Saint Gregory Palamas, the chief defender of the Hesychasts. His sacramental theology is of a piece with this allegiance, presenting the Christian life as a real and transforming union with Christ.

Veneration

Nicholas Cabasilas was glorified as a saint in the Eastern Orthodox Church in 1983, and his feast is kept on June 20. He is honored as a Righteous father whose writings continue to be read as foundational expositions of the sacramental life.