If the name Neilos of Rossano does not immediately ring a bell, then a new book will remedy that most splendidly: The Life of Saint Neilos of Rossano, ed. and trans. by Raymond L. Capra, Ines A. Murzaku, and Douglas J. Milewski (Dumbarton Oaks/Harvard University Press, 2018), 388pp. In the past, I’ve interviewed one of the editors and translators, Ines Murzaku. She graciously agreed to an interview about this new book, and also brought in one of her colleagues, Douglas Milewski, to answer a few of the questions.
Milewski describes the period in which Neilos lived: “Within less than 100 years of Neilos’ death the Great Schism between Rome and Constantinople began, the Gregorian Reforms of the Western Church were initiated, and the First Crusade was launched. We still live with the enormous spiritual, theological, cultural, political and social transformations these events wrought. Neilos stands at the brink of those changes, unaware of what is coming even while it is obvious to us in hindsight where history was trending.”
Adam DeVille
Eastern Christian Books
