Reverend Nil the Myrrh-streaming: life and prophecies

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

In our days, when there is an unceasing struggle between the bearers of true spiritual values and those who are trying to replace them with new-fangled and sometimes far from Christian trends, the prophecies made several centuries ago by the great ascetic and ascetic ─ the Monk Nil the Myrrh-streaming have gained particular relevance. His words, born from personal experience of knowing God, may help the current generation of people to find the right spiritual guidelines.

Orphan from St. Peter's Village

From the history of the life of St. Nile it is known that he was born at the end of the 16th century (the exact date is unknown) in the southern part of the Balkan Peninsula. The village where the house of his parents was located ─ pious and deeply pious people, was called Agios Petros tis Kinourias. In Russian, it is customary to simply call it the village of St. Peter.

Orphaned as a teenager, Nil was brought up by his uncle, hieromonk Macarius, who managed with the heat of his heart to fill the boy with the lost warmth of parental love. Sensitively tracing all the movements of the soul of his pupil, he skillfully directed them on the path of serving God, while helping to enrich hismind with the knowledge that would help him in this difficult field.

Beginning of monastic service

The works of Hieromonk Macarius were not in vain, and the young man in a short time comprehended not only the grammar of the Greek language, thanks to which he thoroughly studied the books of Holy Scripture, but also imbued with the wisdom of the works of the holy fathers of the church. Having reached the proper age, Neil decided to forever reject the joys of the perishable world and devote himself to monastic service.

Fulfilling his intention, he took monastic vows and soon after that was ordained first as a hierodeacon, and then as a hieromonk. Having taken this decisive step, which determined his entire future life, Nil the Myrrh-streaming, together with his venerable uncle, asceticised in one of the local monasteries, serving the Lord and exhausting the flesh with strict asceticism.

First time on holy mountain

However, the thirst for spiritual achievement that dried up their souls was so great that the life they led within the walls of the monastery could not quench it. Both were irresistibly drawn to where the mountain world found its earthly incarnation. One of these places was Mount Athos, for many centuries, revered as the lot of the Most Holy Theotokos, or Her "vertograd" (vineyard), as she herself told St. Nicholas about this. It was there that the pious monks directed their steps.

Arriving at Athos, they first of all went around the monasteries, sketes and deserts located there, choosing a place that fully met their spiritual needs. Soon the Lord led the monks to the then uninhabited and covered wildthe vegetation of a part of the mountain, which since ancient times has been called the Holy Stones.

Legal Aspect of Desert Living

There, far away from the world filled with sin and temptations, they could fully indulge in silence and prayer feat. However, before building cells, my uncle and nephew went to the Lavra and asked for the blessings of its rector, who was in charge, among other things, of the distribution of land among those who sought salvation on the holy mountain.

Seeing the sincerity and purity of the intentions of his petitioners, the hegumen generously blessed them, backing up the words with a document on the right to use the land. In turn, Hieromonk Macarius gave him a certain amount of money, as if expressing his deep gratitude and humility to his sons.

Departure to the Lord of Hieromonk Macarius

Having thus become the owners of the land, Nil the Myrrh-streaming and his companion set about clearing it from the forest that densely covered the mountainside. God-loving relatives had to put in a lot of work before their cells appeared in the place where until recently an impenetrable wall had been a forest. But perseverance, backed up by unceasing prayer, is known to be able to work true miracles.

Shortly after the completion of the work, the Lord called Hieromonk Macarius to His heavenly abode, and the nephew was left alone, becoming his worthy heir and successor on the path of acquiring spiritual perfection. He spent long days and nights in prayer, making efforts to finally merge in spiritual unity with the Heavenly Father. For this, in addition to the internal mood,external factors were also needed, the first of which was complete seclusion from people, and this was often not enough.

Thirst for total loneliness

The news of the new ascetic, who was fleeing among the forest thickets, quickly spread around the Athos monasteries, and monks reached out to him, full of reverence for the ascetic life of the newcomer, and wishing to share spiritual experience with him. This greatly distracted Nil the Myrrh-streaming from his prayerful stay in the Heavenly World, and the enemy of the human race sent irritation, the manifestation of which, as you know, is a great sin, and nullifies many labors on the path of spiritual growth.

To avoid the devil's nets and clear the path to salvation, the pious hermit decided to move to another place ─ one where his solitude would not be disturbed by anyone's presence. Leaving the barely inhabited cell, the hermit set off again, and very soon found what he wanted.

On the mountain steep

It was a completely wild place, which was a small cave, the entrance to which was barely visible among the wild rocks. Its location, as well as the abyss, which began a few meters from the entrance to the cave, made the shelter impregnable not only for people, but also for wild animals. Just as many Christian saints looked for the greatest possible difficulties on the paths of earthly life, the overcoming of which brought them closer to the gates of paradise, so the Monk Nil, despising all dangers, chose a cave as the place of his further stay, morereminiscent of a mountain bird shelter than human habitation.

It was in it that he spent the rest of his earthly days, pouring out warm tears of love for God and accomplishing great feats in the fight against devilish temptations. Until his last breath, the Athos hermit endured crowding, hunger and various other bodily torments, contemplating heavenly visions and the standing of angels in front of him. Forever hidden from us is the story of how much he had to endure. Only the all-seeing Lord and the holy Mount Athos know the price that the ascetic paid in this life for the keys to the gates of heaven.

Myrrh-streaming rocks

Finally, in 1651, the earthly life of the holy hermit came to an end, and the all-merciful Lord called him into His Heavenly Kingdom. The rector of the Lavra learned about this event from his night vision, and the next morning he sent monks to bury the mortal remains of the holy righteous man. With great difficulty, the brothers climbed the steep slope of the mountain to the shelter, where a lifeless body lay on the stones, and, having dug a grave in a cave, made a burial.

The Life of Myrrh-Streaming Nile, compiled shortly after his canonization, tells that soon after his blessed Assumption, he was glorified by the Lord, who revealed the miracle of myrrh-streaming from the walls of the cave that served him as a refuge for many years.

The fragrant oily liquid, which had healing properties, poured out so abundantly that, flowing down the mountain slope, it rushed to the coastal strip and mixed with the sea waves there. To collect the miraculous composition onAthos in those days pilgrims came from all over the Orthodox East. From that time on, the Monk Nil was called Myrrh-streaming, and his official canonization soon followed. The Russian Orthodox Church celebrates his memory twice a year: on May 7 (20) and June 8 (21).

The gift of God-given insight

Having spent many years in cave solitude, the holy hermit left behind a rich literary heritage, devoting his free time from prayers to writing ascetic works. A special place in them is given there to Divine revelations, which he perceived as a reward for his asceticism.

As it often happened in the history of Christianity, the Lord sent down to His faithful servant a great gift of clairvoyance, which allowed the inner eye to embrace the pictures of the future life prepared for people. Many of them served as the basis for writing the famous prophecies of Nile the Myrrh-streaming.

But the Athos desert dweller made his main prophecies, more than a century and a half after his death. In the period from 1813-1819. he repeatedly appeared in a night vision to the pious Svyatogorsk monk Theophanes, who each time, rising in the morning, conscientiously wrote down what he heard. Thus, a collection of prophecies became the property of the Orthodox world, repeatedly published as a separate book, and called “The Posthumous Broadcasts of the Myrrh-streaming Nile.”

On the intercession of the Queen of Heaven

Among them are, in particular, the statements of the saint that the times that the Lord spoke about are already near,that, having come into the world, it may not find believers in it. But even in such disastrous times, the Monk Nil proclaimed to everyone who seeks the salvation of the soul, about the inexhaustible power of the Veil extended over the world by the Most Holy Theotokos.

The key to salvation, according to him, was the miraculous Iberian image of the Queen of Heaven, kept on Mount Athos. The Monk Nilus commanded the brethren not to leave the holy mountain as long as this icon was with them. If, for any reason, she leaves the Lavra, then all pious monks must immediately leave her. Unfortunately, the life of modern society has largely become a confirmation of what the prophecies of the Myrrh-streaming Nile contain.

The Antichrist is closer than ever

The Athos ascetic reveals in great detail to us the time of the appearance of the Antichrist into the world and informs us about those social phenomena that will precede his arrival. He devotes a significant place in his prophecies to describing the anarchy that is destined to engulf the world in its last times, about the general depravity that has ousted the good beginnings of morality from human hearts, as well as the bitterness that the acceptance of the Antichrist seal will bring to people.

Forerunners of the Antichrist

One of the most important thoughts of the monk is the assertion that the forerunner of the appearance of the Antichrist on earth will be the love of money and the thirst for carnal pleasures, which overwhelmed the hearts of people and ousted from them any desire to acquire eternal life.

The Monk Nil the Myrrh-streaming in his reasoning reminds his descendants of the appearance on the banks of the Jordan of the Forerunner of the LordJohn the Baptist, who for many years exhausted the flesh in the wilderness and rejected all earthly joys before proclaiming to people about the nearness of the One Who will take them out of the hands of eternal death.

Following this, he draws pictures of how greed and voluptuousness conquer the world, being the heralds of the Antichrist and thereby creating the ground for the rejection of the Law of God and the denial of the Savior. But even in this case, according to the monk, not everyone will perish, but only those who voluntarily submit to the power of the antitype (by this term he means everything that precedes the appearance of the Antichrist).

Son of the Progenitor of Lies

Having appeared in the world, the Antichrist will begin to show people all sorts of signs and wonders, striking their imagination, forcing them to believe in their divinity. Outwardly, this enemy of the human race will be like a meek and humble lamb, while in its inner essence it will be like a predatory wolf, thirsting for blood. His food will be the spiritual death of people who gave preference to the passions of this world and closed the gates of the Kingdom of God for themselves.

At the end of the world, vices such as oblivion of faith, covetousness, envy, condemnation, enmity, hatred, adultery, boasting of fornication, virility and a whole series of similar sinful aspirations of crippled human souls will reach a special scale at the end of the world. All this evil will become life-giving food, giving the Antichrist new strength.

In contrast to how Jesus Christ came into the world to do the will of God the Father who sent Him, so the Antichrist will be on earth to fulfill the will of his father, who, withoutdoubt is the devil. From him, the progenitor of lies, he will receive the ability to overshadow the eyes of people by deceiving his flattering words. This will ultimately lead him to the pinnacle of earthly power, and will give him the opportunity to rule over humanity, or rather, that part of it that succumbs to his cunning fabrications. Being on the verge of death, they will naively believe that Christ the Savior is leading them forward.

Prediction of future Russian tragedy

Very much of the predictions of Nil of Athos (as he is often called in church literature) come true today, and gives us the opportunity to see firsthand the truth of his statements. It suffices to give just such a very typical example.

At the end of October 1817, during one of his nocturnal appearances to the monk Theophan, the saint said that four twenty-five years would pass, and monasticism would dry up in a significant part of the Orthodox world. At that time, contemporaries in no way could imagine how accurately the events that followed exactly a century later in Russia, engulfed in the fire of the Bolshevik coup, were foretold.

There are many such examples. All of them illustrate clairvoyance ─ a great gift of God, acquired for deeds that are described in detail in the life of the Myrrh-streaming Nile, and have been passed from mouth to mouth for many generations.