Venerable Nilus the Myrrh-streaming of Athos

Saint Nilus the Myrrh-streaming of Athos was a seventeenth-century Greek ascetic renowned for a posthumous miracle in which fragrant, healing myrrh flowed from his bones. He was born around 1601 in the village of Ayios Petros in the diocese of Kynouria in the Peloponnese, and was raised by his uncle, the hieromonk Macarius, who instilled in him a love of monastic life. After receiving tonsure and priestly ordination, Nilus withdrew with his uncle to Mount Athos, settling in a remote, cliffside spot at the southern tip of the Holy Mountain near the cave once inhabited by St. Peter of Athos. There he spent decades in silence, fasting, and prayer. Following his death on 12 November 1651, his remains, buried beside his cave, began to stream fragrant myrrh so abundantly that it flowed down the rocks to the sea; pilgrims gathered it by boat and received healing from many ailments, earning him the title "the Myrrh-streaming." Nearly two centuries later, between 1813 and 1819, he appeared in visions to the Athonite monk Theophanes, delivering prophetic teachings that were later recorded and became widely known.