Our Venerable Father Nikodemos, Hermit of the Khozyuga River and Abbot of Kozhe Lake
Life
Nikodemos of Kozhe Lake was a seventeenth-century Russian monastic who, after years of laboring in the world as a peasant's son and a blacksmith, withdrew to the forests of the Russian North and spent more than three decades as a hermit on the Khozyuga River near the Kozhe Lake (Kozheozersk) monastery. Born Niketas in the village of Ivankovo near Rostov, he is remembered as one of the solitaries of the Russian North whose ascetic life drew the notice of Moscow even as he himself sought obscurity.
His life is preserved chiefly through the Russian synaxarion tradition and an account attributed to his disciple, the hieromonk James. He reposed on July 3, 1640, the date on which he is commemorated, and was buried at the Kozhe Lake monastery, where his relics were later venerated.
Timeline 5 moments
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Before 1602From the fields to the forgeBorn Niketas into a peasant family at Ivankovo near Rostov, he worked the land alongside his father. After his parents died he learned the blacksmith's trade at Yaroslavl and afterward moved to Moscow, where, according to his Life, an encounter with a holy fool named Elias at Kulishka confirmed his calling to the monastic life.
c. 1591–1602Tonsure at the Chudov MonasteryHe gave away his possessions and entered the Chudov Monastery in Moscow under Archimandrite Paphnutius, receiving the monastic name Nikodemos. His Life records about eleven years there marked by humility, obedience and brotherly love before his superior was raised to the episcopate.
1602–1607Journey to the Russian NorthWhen Paphnutius became Metropolitan of Sarsk in 1602, Nikodemos accompanied him but longed for solitude. With his bishop's blessing he traveled north and, by the synaxarion's account, entered the cenobitic monastery at Kozhe Lake (Kozheozersk), where he lived for a time within the community.
1609The Khozyuga hermitageHe left the monastery for a remote site on the Khozyuga River, by one account some distance of several versts (roughly 14 kilometres) from Kozheozersk, and built a small forest cell with his own hands. There he remained in strict seclusion.
July 3, 1640ReposeAfter roughly thirty-five years in the wilderness he reposed and was buried at the Kozhe Lake monastery. By the account of his Life, two figures identified as Saints Alexis and Dionysius appeared to announce his death.
Contributions & Legacy
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Hermit Life on the Khozyuga
The defining period of Nikodemos's life was his long solitude on the Khozyuga River, which the synaxarion likens to the example of Saint Paul of Thebes. Sources record that he lived by his own labor, kept vigil in nocturnal prayer, slept little, and was credited with the gift of tears and of unceasing prayer; tradition further attributes to him clairvoyance and gifts of healing.
His ascetic reputation is said to have spread as far as Moscow, where Patriarch Joasaph I reportedly sent him a fox-fur coat as a mark of respect, which Nikodemos declined and forwarded instead to the monastery. By the synaxarion's account he returned from his cell to the monastery at the brethren's request in his final months.
Relics & Shrines
Nikodemos was buried at the Kozhe Lake (Kozheozersk) monastery in the Russian North. According to the Lives of the Saints his relics were enshrined beneath a crypt in the Theophany (Epiphany) church of the monastery, which became the focus of his local veneration.
Identity
He is distinct from Saint Nikodemos the Hagiorite, the eighteenth-century Athonite compiler of the Philokalia; the two are unrelated despite the shared monastic name.
