Saint Nicodemus of Tismana

Nikodim Tismanski, also known as Nicodemus the Sanctified, Nikodim Osvećeni, Nikodim Vratnenski, Nikodim Grčić, and in Romanian, Nicodim de la Tismana, (Prilep, today in North Macedonia, then Byzantine Empire, c. 1320 – Tismana, Walachia, now Romania, 26 December 1406), was a Christian monk scribe and translator who was the founder of monasteries, one in Serbia and two in Romania. In Serbian medieval history he is remembered for conveying hesychastic monastic traditions and as a member of a diplomatic and ecclesiastical mission to Constantinople in 1375. He was one of the followers of St. Gregory of Sinai. Sanctified in 1767 by the Eastern Orthodox Church, he is commemorated on 26 December. Also, he was glorified by the Romanian Orthodox Church in 1955. Nicodemus who was born most probably in Prilep, was of mixed Greek-Serbian origin to a Greek father from Kastoria and a Serbian mother. Other researchers point to an Aromanian father and a Bulgarian mother. Serbian historian and academician Djordje Spase Radojičić (1905–1970), who wrote about Serbian medieval history, believes that Nikodim was born in Prilepac, near Novo Brdo, now in Kosovo, the birthplace of Prince Lazar of Serbia, to whom he was related. This fact explains that Prince Lazar chose Nikodim to participate in resolving the dispute between the Serbian Orthodox Church and the Patriarchate of Constantinople, as well as the fact that Lazar financed the construction of monasteries on both sides of the Danube. The late Romanian Metropolitan Nestor Vornicescu writes that Nicodemus was a Serb, and that he was fluent in Serbian, Church Slavonic and Greek. Romanian historian Alexandru Piru states that Nikodim Tismanski's first written works were in Serbian, and that the manuscripts were reworked and translated into Romanian by Hieromonk Stefan de la Tismana in 1839. He also mentions that Nikodim's father was a Greek from the town of Kostur and that Nikodim was a relative of Prince Lazar.