Saint Nicodemus of Tismana was born in the central region of Macedonia. His father was Greek, and his mother was Serbian. Having received an excellent education, he was fluent in Serbian and Greek, and he worked as a translator and writer. He accepted monasticism on Mount Athos in the Serbian monastery of Hilandar, where he was ordained a priest and later elected as abbot.
From Athos, Saint Nicodemus came to the lands of Prince Lazar and settled in the locality of Kladovo on the Danube. A large brotherhood gathered around him, including monks from Athos and Serbian monasteries. Through their efforts, a church was built in honor of the Holy Trinity. By divine revelation, he crossed the Danube and founded the Monastery of Vodica, dedicated to Saint Anthony, near the present-day Romanian city of Turnu Severin.
The second monastery founded by Saint Nicodemus was built in honor of the Holy Mother of God on the Tisza River. Both monasteries became major centers of Orthodox spirituality in Romania. In 1375, Saint Prince Lazar and the Serbian Patriarch sent a group of monks led by Elder Isaiah to reconcile the Serbian and Constantinople Patriarchates, which included Saint Nicodemus as a translator and wise diplomat.
Saint Nicodemus peacefully reposed on December 26, 1406. He is especially venerated for bringing the communal monastic Rule to the Romanian Church and for reviving monastic life based on the hesychastic tradition in Orthodoxy.
