Raised in piety and honesty, early in his youth he met some traveling monks in Serbia from the Hilandar monastery, and went with them to Mount Athos, where he studied and labored patiently with perseverance. After the death of the then-Abbot of Hilandar, the monks voted precocious Nikodim in his place. Nikodim was a friend of many famous people of that time, such as Prince Lazar of Serbia, Isaija the Monk, the Anonymous Athonite (biographer of the...