Stethatos, Niketas (ca. 1005–1085)

JOHN A. MCGUCKIN

Niketas is an important but neglected Byzantine writer who composed treatises on mystical prayer, as well as being invol­ved with the troubled relations between Patriarch Michael Caerularios and the papal legates leading up the rupture of com­munion between Rome and Constantinople in 1054. Niketas entered the Stoudios monastery as a young man and eventually became its higumen (after 1076). In his youth he met St. Symeon the New Theolo­gian (d. 1022). After the latter’s death in exile, he became a dedicated follower, attributing the change to a vision he had of the saint (ca. 1035). He zealously defended Symeon’s memory and teaching, publishing and editing his Discourses and Hymns, as well as composing a Life of the Saint, and arranging for the return of the saint’s relics to the capital. In his own spir­itual teachings (Three Centuries of Practical and Gnostic Chapters) Niketas largely follows Symeon in laying stress on the importance of the gift of tears, and on the role of the spiritual father. He also com­posed apologetic works against the Latins, the Armenians, and the Jews. In his minor works he often discusses the nature of the soul and the afterlife, and is thought to be part of the wider reaction to controversies initiated by Michael Psellos. Niketas’ theol­ogy is very aware of the concept of hierar­chy as mediated by Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite, and in this sense (emphasizing the parallels between heavenly and earthly hierarchy) he moderated Symeon’s public hostility to the patriarchate and court. He is influenced by the spiritual tradition of Evagrios Pontike and St. Maximos the Con­fessor, mixing metaphors of divine union as brilliant illumination, with references to the Dionysian darkness of unknowing. He also has resonances from some of the teaching of Isaac the Syrian. Some think that he gained his nickname Stethatos (“big-heart” or “courageous one”) because of his criti­cism in ca. 1040 of the relations between Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos and his mistress Skliraina.

SEE ALSO: Caerularios, Michael (d. 1059); Pontike, Evagrios (ca. 345–399); St. Maximos the Confessor (580–662); St. Symeon the New Theologian (949–1022)

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Niketas (1928) “Vie de s. Symeon le Nouveau Theologien,” ed. I Hausherr. Orientalia Christiana 12, 45.

Niketas (1961) Opuscules etlettres, ed. J. Darrouzes. Sources Chretiennes, vol. 81. Paris.

Niketas (1995) Centuries of Practical and Gnostic Chapters, ed. G. Palmer, P. Sherrard, and K. Ware. London: Faber and Faber.

Solignac, A. (1982) “Niketas Stethatos,” in Dictionnaire de spiritualite, vol. 11. Paris: Beauchesne, pp. 224–30.

VanRossum, J. (1981) “Reflections on Byzantine Eccl- esiology: Niketas Stethatos’ On the Hierarchy,” St. Vladimir’s Theological Quarterly 25: 75–83.

Volker, W. (1974) “Nicetas Stethatos als mystischer Schriftsteller und sein Verhaltnis zu Symeon dem Neuen Theologen,” in Praxis und Theoria bei Symeon dem Neuen Theologen. Wiesbaden, pp. 456–89.