Nectarius of Jerusalem
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Nectarius of Jerusalem (1605-1680) was Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem from 1660 to 1669.
He was born in Crete in 1605, and died about 1680. He was educated by the monks of Sinai where he himself became a monk; but when thirty-five years of age he studied at Athens with the Neo-Aristotelian Theophilus Corydalleus. About 1660 he was in Constantinople on business connected with his monastery, and on his return to Sinai was chosen abbot. But on his way to Jerusalem to be consecrated he was informed that he had been chosen patriarch of the Holy City, and was consecrated in April, 1661.
As early as 1666 he sought to be relieved of his duties and by 1669 Dositheus had become his successor. He remained in Jerusalem, however, except when driven by the Latin monks for a short time to Sinai. He took part in the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672. In his doctrine of the Eucharist, Nectarius was strictly orthodox, and a zealous opponent of Cyril Lucar and the Calvinistic movement. Among the writings of Nectarius the most important is his refutation of the theses of a certain Peter regarding the papal supremacy (ed. Dositheus, with a life of Nectarius, Jassy, 1682). He is still better known by his recommendation of the Confessio orthodoxa of Peter Mogilas, 1643.
A letter to the monks of Sinai is also contained in E. Renaudot's Genadii patriarchae Constantinopolitani homiliae de sacramento eucharistiae (Paris, 1709).
This article includes content derived from the public domain Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914.