The Life of Niphon contains one important nugget of historical information, in its report of an Ottoman attach on Athos, in 1372 or 1373, that was thwarted decisively by a Venetian flotilla (Chapter 18). The treat of Turkish piracy is a relatively persistent theme in this Life, more so than Maximos, but otherwise the narrative is entirely focused on the holy man's relatively mundane interactions with the largely anonymous members of the extremely local and enclosed Athonite world that immediately surrounded him.

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Telegram episode:

https://t.me/athoniteaudio/9126