Nikolaus Nilles
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Nikolaus Nilles (21 June 1828–31 January 1907) was a
Life
Nilles was born into a wealthy peasant family of
When he left Rome in 1854, he took with him, in addition to the double doctorate of
Nilles lectured throughout his life — after 1898 usually to the North American theologians, to whom he gave special instructions on canonical conditions in their country, for which task no one was better qualified than he. He was not only a distinguished university professor, but also a director of ecclesiastical students. For fifteen years (1860–75) he presided over the theological seminary of Innsbruck, an international institution where young men from all parts of Europe and the United States were trained for the priesthood.[1]
Works
Nilles's Commentaria in Concilium Baltimorense tertium (1884–90) and his short essay, Tolerari potest, gained him a wide reputation. Martin Blum enumerates in his by no means complete bibliography fifty-seven works, of which the two principal are: De rationibus festorum sacratissimi Cordis Jesu et purissimi Cordis Mariae libri quatuor (2 vols., 5th ed., Innsbruck, 1885) and Kalendarium manuale utriusque Ecclesiae orientalis et occidentalis (2 vols., 2nd ed., Innsbruck, 1896). Through the latter work he became widely known in the world of scholars. In particular Protestants and Orthodox Russians expressed themselves in terms of the highest praise for the Kalendarium or Heortologion.[1]
Of the second volume Harnack wrote (ibid., XXXIII, 1898, 112 sq.):
"Facts which elsewhere would have to be sought under difficulties are here marshaled in lucid order, and a very carefully arranged index facilitates inquiry. Apart from the principal aim of the work, it offers valuable information concerning recent Eastern Catholic ecclesiastical history, also authorities and literature useful to the historian of liturgy and creeds. ... His arduous and disinterested toil will be rewarded by the general gratitude, and his work will long prove useful not only to every theologian 'utriusque', but also 'cuiusque ecclesiae'".[1]
The Romanian Academy in Bucharest awarded a prize to this work. Soon after the appearance of the second edition of the "Kalendarium", the Russian Holy Synod issued from the synodal printing office in Moscow a "Festbilderatlas" intended to a certain extent as the official Orthodox illustrations for the work.[1]
Notes
References
This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Hofmann, Michael (1911). "Nikolaus Nilles". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
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