Miracle of St. Nilus. (From a Fresco at Grotta Ferrata.)
jeet for art. Crescentius was consul at this time, and John XVI, who was a Greek like St. Nilus, was pope. Then Otho III came to Kome and made a new pope, with the title of (Gregory V. He put out the e3'es of pope John, and laid siege to the castle of St, Angelo, to which Crescentius had retired. After a short siege the castle was given up on honorable terms; but not heed- ing these Otho ordered that Crescentius should be thrown headlong from the walls, and Stephania, his wife, given up to the outrages of the soldiers. So great was the in- fluence of Nilus in Kome at this time that the emperor and the new pope endeavored to conciliate him, but he fearlesslj^ rebuked them, and declared that the time would soon come when they should both seek mercy without finding it. He then left Kome, and went first to a cell near Gaeta, but soon after to a cave near Fras- cati, called the Crypta, or Grotta Ferrata. Tope Greg- ory died a miserable death soon after. Otho went on a pilgrimage to Monte Galgano. When returning he visited Nilus, and on his knees besought his prayers. He offered to erect a convent and endow it with lands, but this Nilus refused; and when Otho demanded what boon he could grant him, the saint stretched out his hand, and replied, " I ask of thee but this : that thou wouldst make reparation of thy crimes before God, and save thine own soul !" Soon after Otho returned to Rome he was obliged to lly from the fury of the people,
and was poisoned by Stephania, the widow of Crescen- tius. When St. Nilus died, Sept. 2G, A.D. 1002, he de- sired his brethren to bury him immediately, and to keep secret the place where they laid him. This they did; but his disciple, Bartolomeo, built the convent which Nilus had not wished to do, and received the gifts he had refused. The magnificent convent and church of San Basilio of Cirotta Ferrata was built, and St. Nilus is regarded as its founder. Their rule is that of St. Basil, and their mass is recited in Greek, but they wear the Benedictine habit as a dependency of Monte Cassino. The finest Greek library in all Italy was here, and is now in the Vatican, and Julius II changed the convent to a fortress. In IGIO, Domenichino was employed by cardinal Odoardo Farnese to decorate the chapel of St. Nilus, which he did with paintings from the life of the saint. — Mrs. Clement, Sacied and Legendin-y Art, s. v.
Nilus OF Rhodes, an Eastern prelate of note, flourished as me- tropolitan of Rhodes about A.D. 1360, and was a native of Chios. He was the author of several works, of which the most important is a short history of the nine oecumenical coun- cils, published by Jus- tellus as an appendix to the Nomocunon of rhotius (Paris, 1615, 4to), by Voelius and Justellus in Bihl. Juris Canonici (1661, fol.), ii, 1155, and by Hardouin, Concilia, v, 1479. Ni- lus also wrote some grammatical works, of which an account is given by Passow, De Nilo, grammatico ad- huc iff 710 to ejitsque fframmuiica a His que grammaiicis scriptis (Vratisl. 1831-32, 4to). —Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Biog. s. v.
Nimbus (from the Latin, cfoat?, hence glory) is the name given in sacred art to the disk or halo which encircles the head of the sa- cred personage who is represented. Its use is almost universal in those religions of which we possess any ar- tistic remains — the Indian, the Egyptian, the Etruscan, the Greek, and the Roman. It appears on Hindft mon- uments of the most remote antiquity. The Hindu god- dess ]\Iaya is surrounded by a semi-aureole of light, and from the top of her head-dress and the neighborhood of her temples issue groups of stronger rays. The coinci- dence of this decoration with the Christian cruciform nimbus may be accidental. It occurs likewise in Ro- man sculpture and painting. The emperor Trajan ap- pears with it on the arch of Constantine ; in the paint- ings found at Ilerculaneum it adorns Circe as she ap- pears to Ulysses; and there are manj' examples of it in the Virgil of the Vatican. Hence its origin is involved in some obscurity; but a consideration of its various changes of form leads to the conclusion that it was orig- inally meant to indicate light issuing from the head. The importance attached to an appearance of that kind, in re- mote times, as an augury of good, appears in many clas- sical legends. It is illustrated in the second book of the yEneid by the flame descending upon the head of the j-oung lulus, which Anchises, versed in Oriental sj'mbol- ism, saw with joy, and which proved to be an augury of good, though the other bystanders were alarmed at it :
NIMBUS
107
NIMBUS
" Ecce levis summo de vertice visus Iiili Fuiulere lunieu jipex, tactuque iuuoxia molles Lnmbere flamma comas, et circum tempora pasci. Nos pavidi trepidare metu, criuenique ttaj;rantem Excuteie, et sauctos lesliugueie fontibus igiies."
Ill the Hebrew Scriptures we trace, in the absence of representations, the same symbolized idea in the light which shone upon the face of Moses at his return from Sinai (Exod. xxxiv, 29-35), and in the light with which the Lord is clothed as with a garment (I'sa. ciii, 1, A'ulg. ; civ, 1, Aiith.Vers.); and in the N. T. in the transfigura- tion of Christ (Luke ix, 31), and in the " crowns" of the just, to which allusion is so often made (2 Tim. iv, 8 ; 1 Pet. V, 4 ; Apoc, iv, 4). Nevertheless, the nimbus, strictly so called, is comparatively recent in Christian art. It was originally given in Christian art to sovereigns and allegoric personages generally as the symbol of power or distinction; but with this difference, that around the heads of saintly and orthodox kings or emperors it is luminous or gilded; round those of Gentile potentates it is colored red, green, or blue. About the middle of the 3d century it begins to appear, and earliest on these glass- es, as the special attribute of Christ ; later it was given to the heads of angels, to the evangelists, to the other apostles, and finally to the blessed Virgin and all saints,