Very little information has come down to us about the life of St. Nilus. He was born in 1433 in the imperial city of Moscow and came from the noble family of the Maykovs. At a young age, he refused to marry and spent most of his life (about fifty years) as a monk. The monk began his monastic life in the Kirilo-Belozersk monastery, where he enjoyed the guidance of the wise and strict elder Paisii Yaroslavov, later abbot of the Trinity-Sergius Monastery. Some time later, he, along with his disciple and collaborator, monk Innocent, went on a pilgrimage to the holy places of the East. He spent several years on Mount Athos and in the monasteries of Constantinople, studying all kinds of monastic asceticism, especially the skete lifestyle, which had not been practiced in Russia until then. 
Very carefully, fr. Neil researched and experienced the teachings of the wise ancient fathers of the Church: Anthony the Great, Ephraim the Syrian, Isaac the Syrian, Barsonofy, John of the Ladder, Maximus the Confessor, Hesychius, Peter of Damascus and others. And having loved the skete way of life, the monk thought about how, upon arrival at his homeland, he would introduce this new order here, in the image of the Eastern ascetics. Before him, there were two types of monasticism in Russia: cenobitic and hermit. The Nile marked the beginning of the third, the middle path of asceticism: monks settled down from each other at such a distance that they could only hear each other's voices, and each asceticized separately, in solitude.
In the deep forests of the Vologda region, on the banks of the unknown Sorka River, the venerable elder erected a cross, first built a chapel and a secluded cell and dug a treasure trove with it, and when several brothers gathered to live with him, he erected a wooden church in the name of the Presentation of the Lord. The cells were built on an elevation: each one was separated from the other and from the temple by a stone's throw. The wanderers, following the example of the Eastern monks, gathered in the temple for common prayer only on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, on other days everyone prayed and worked in his cell. This is how the first Russian skete appeared with a new charter at that time, borrowed by St. Nile on Mount Athos.
When dying, the Monk Neil, in view of his extreme humility, left the following testament:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. I bequeath to my faithful masters and brothers the essence of my character. I beseech you, cast my body into the deserts, that the beasts and birds may devour it: for it has sinned against God to eat much, and it is unworthy of burial. If you do not create a ditch, then, having fossilized a ditch in the place where we live, bury me with all dishonor. Be careful of the words that the Great Arseny bequeathed to his disciple, saying: I will stand with you at the judgment, if to whom you give my body. For I was also careful, just according to my strength, that I might not be worthy of the honor and glory of this world, as in this life, so after my death. I pray to all, that they may pray for my sinful soul, and I ask forgiveness from all, and may there be forgiveness from me, may God forgive us all.
The great elder departed to the Lord on May 7, 1508, in the third week of Easter, the holy myrrh—bearing women, being 75 years old from birth. His relics, buried in the monastery he founded, became famous for many miracles.