Venerable Neilos the Ascetic of Sinai

From Prefect to Ascetic

Neilos received an excellent education and, while still young, was appointed to the important post of prefect (eparch) of Constantinople. He was married with two children during these years in public life.

His decisive spiritual formation came through Patriarch John Chrysostom, whom he served as a disciple and who directed him in the study of Scripture and in works of piety. Sometime between roughly 390 and 404, Neilos and his wife mutually resolved to abandon worldly life: she and their daughter entered a women's monastery in Egypt, while Neilos and his son Theodulos departed for Mount Sinai.

Life on Mount Sinai

On Sinai, father and son settled in a cave they dug out with their own hands, which remained Neilos's dwelling for some forty years. He devoted himself to fasting, vigil, and prayer, and was sought out for counsel by visitors of every station, including the emperor.

By tradition, Saracen raiders captured Theodulos, intending to sacrifice him to pagan gods, and eventually sold him into slavery; the bishop of a Palestinian city (named as Elusa or Emessa in differing accounts) ransomed him and made him a church doorkeeper. After Neilos found his son, the bishop ordained both men to the priesthood and permitted their return to Sinai.

Writings

Neilos left an extensive body of writing. His compositions are commonly grouped into four categories: treatises on the virtues and vices; works about monastic life, including accounts of the Saracen invasion; a collection of roughly two hundred precepts called the "Admonitions"; and a large correspondence numbering over a thousand letters addressed to emperors, bishops, and religious leaders.

Among his letters is a sharp denunciation of the Emperor Arkadios for the unjust exile of John Chrysostom. His best-known work, the Ascetic Discourse, is included in the first volume of the English Philokalia. In the modern printed tradition, Possinus published 355 of his letters and Allatius 1,061.

Relics & Shrines

Neilos's relics were transferred to Constantinople during the reign of the Emperor Justin II (565–578) and deposited in the Church of the Holy Apostles.

Veneration

Neilos is commemorated on November 12 in the Eastern Orthodox Church, and his feast is also observed on that day in the Roman Catholic calendar. He is venerated as well in the Armenian Apostolic Church.