Nikodim Milaš

Nikodim Milaš (Serbian Cyrillic: Никодим Милаш), born Nikola Milaš, (16 April 1845 – 2 April 1915), was a Serbian Orthodox Church bishop, theologian, university professor and academic. He was a writer, one of the most respected experts on Eastern Orthodox canon law, and less on church history. As a canon lawyer in Dalmatia, he defended the Serbian Orthodox Church against the state. He was an academic and polyglot. Milaš authored a number of books, including the criticized Orthodox Dalmatia (1901). His bibliography reportedly includes more than 180 works.

Beyond his work in canonical and ecclesiastical law, he was dedicated to countering Catholic proselytism and state efforts which downplayed the Serbian Orthodox heritage. He was one of the founders of the Serb Party in Dalmatia and served in the Diet of Dalmatia (1889-1901). However, in some of his historiographical writings, he portrayed the two denominations in a simplistic manner and fabricated certain historical statements about the history of the Orthodox Church, which was used during the rise of Serbian nationalism and breakup of SFR Yugoslavia.