Nicephorus the Solitary (Italian) (XIII century) - Orthodox monk, spiritual writer, one of the authors of the spiritual collection “Philokalia”. He labored on Mount Athos during the reign of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos. Born into an Italian Catholic family, he rejected Catholicism, converted to Orthodoxy and became a monk on Mount Athos. For his refusal to follow the pro-Latin policy of Emperor Michael VIII, Palaiologos was imprisoned and exiled. Nikifor the Solitary left several instructive and moral works. Nikephoros is the direct predecessor of St. Gregory of Sinaite and St. Gregory Palamas, who was familiar with his works, in hesychast practice, although Gregory Sinaite and Gregory Palamas no longer found his students on Athos. Nikephoros, insisting on the need for a spiritual mentor in the practice of hesychasm, allowed for the possibility of independent practice for monastics and gave practical advice in this case. Brief information about Nikephoros the Solitary (from the Greek Philokalia): “Nicephorus, our most reverend father, who accomplished his ascetic deeds on the holy Mount Athos, died a little before 1340. He was a mentor and leader in the study of the highest ascetic philosophy for Gregory of Thessalonica (Palama), as he himself testifies to this nowhere. In carefree silence, listening to himself alone and inexpressibly uniting with the most worldly God, he blissfully received in his heart the enlightenment of grace. He himself, having richly tasted this divine gift, fatherly guides us to this with his present scroll, in which, having collected passages about sobriety, attention and prayer from the writings and lives of the holy fathers, and at the end, adding advice from his experience, he invites everyone through the kindhearted prayers ascend to the most sincere communion with the Lord.”