He was born in Corfu in 1834 and died in Athens in 1910. He completed his secondary and university studies in Paris, where he was awarded a doctorate from the Paris Law School. He then practised law until 1865, when he was appointed temporary professor of French law at the National and Kapodistrian University, after one month he was promoted to full professor and in 1884, by unanimous decision of the Law Faculty, he was transferred to the chair of Commercial Law. He served five times as Dean of the Faculty of Law and Rector of the University during the academic year 1881-1882.

In Freemasonry, where he later developed a multifaceted activity, he entered Paris and was adopted when he came to Athens, by St. “Panhellenion”, which had been operating since 1863 under the auspices of the Grand Orient of Italy. As a regular member of the latter he contributed, together with Ad. Dem. Mavrokordatos, Spil. Antonopoulos and I. Γ. Papadakis, in the foundation in Athens of the Masonic Directorate, known for its activities from the Greek Masonic History, which, working in a spirit of national perception, managed to create in 1867 the Great Anatoli of Greece, which was recognized, after a short time, by the then Florence-based Great Anatoli of Italy. On 3 August 1867, the latter even appointed the University professor Adolfo Fr. Pilarinos.

Nikolaos Damaskinos, temporarily exercising the duties of Grand Master, addressed Prince Demetrios Rodokanakis, who was residing in England, proposing to him the position of Grand Master of the Great East of Greece, which he accepted on 10/22 July 1872, having previously been initiated into Freemasonry at the St. of “St. Andrew” in Edinburgh. After the descent to Athens of State Brother Prince Dem. Rodokanakis, at the end of 1871 and the definitive establishment of the Great Eastern Greece on 11/23 July 1872, Brother Nikola Damaskinos remained there as the First Proc. He took over later, when Br. Dem. Rodokanakis settled in Syros, he took over the position of the Grand Master from 09.06.1884 to 01.10.1895.