Nectarius of Bitolya, also called Nectarius of Bitel, was a sixteenth-century Bulgarian monk of Mount Athos. According to the synaxarion he was named Nicholas in the world and was born in the small town of Bitel, also given as Butili, in Bulgaria. He is commemorated on December 5 and December 15, both dates referring to the same monk.
The tradition relates that before a Turkish invasion his mother received a vision in which the Most Holy Virgin appeared and told her to flee into hiding with her husband and children. His father afterward withdrew to a monastery dedicated to the Holy Unmercenaries Cosmas and Damian, near Bitel, where he became a monk under the name Pachomius. Nicholas was raised in this monastic setting.
On reaching adolescence Nicholas travelled to Mount Athos, where the elder Philotheus, a clairvoyant ascetic, received him and tonsured him into the monastic schema with the name Nectarius. He carried out his monastic obedience under experienced spiritual guides, named in the sources as Saint Philotheus and the elder Dionysius. The synaxarion records that he bore patiently the envy of one of the novices and distributed to the poor whatever money he earned from his handicraft.
The synaxarion compares his endurance to that of Job, noting that he suffered exceptional bodily afflictions. He reposed on December 5, in the year 1500. According to the tradition his relics were uncovered four years after his death and were found to exude a fragrance.
