Nectarios of Aegina
Nectarios of Aegina, Metropolitan of Pentapolis and Wonderworker of Aegina, is one of the most renowned Greek saints, venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church. On 20 April 1961, Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople glorified him as a saint. His feast day is celebrated every year on 9 November.
Life
Anastasios Kephalas, later Nectarios, was born on 1 October 1846 in Selymbria, to a poor family. His parents, Dimos and Maria Kephalas, were pious Christians but not wealthy.At the age of 14, he moved to Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul, to work and further his education. In 1866, at age 20, he moved to the island of Chios to take a teaching post. On November 7, 1876, he became a monk, at age 30, in the Monastery of Nea Moni, for he had long wished to embrace the ascetic life.
Three years after becoming a monk, he was ordained a deacon, taking the name Nectarios. He graduated from the University of Athens in 1885. Following his graduation he went to Alexandria, Egypt, where he was ordained a priest and served the Church of Saint Nicholas in Cairo. He was consecrated Metropolitan bishop of Pentapolis by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Sophronios in 1889.
He served as a bishop in Cairo for one year. Nectarios was very popular with the people, which gave rise to jealousy among his colleagues. They were able to persuade his superior that Nectarios had ambitions to displace the Patriarch. Nectarios was suspended from his post without explanation. He then returned to Greece in 1891, and spent several years as a preacher. He was then director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School for the education of priests in Athens for fifteen years.
In 1904, at the request of several nuns, he established Holy Trinity Monastery for them on the island of Aegina. Nectarios ordained two women as deaconesses in 1911. Up to the 1950s, a few Greek Orthodox nuns also became monastic deaconesses. In 1986, Christodoulos, the Metropolitan of Demetrias and later Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece, ordained a woman as deacon in accordance with the "ritual of Saint Nectarios".
In December 1908, at the age of 62, Nectarios resigned from his post as school director and withdrew to the Holy Trinity Convent on Aegina, where he lived out the rest of his life as a monk. He wrote, published, preached, and heard confessions. He also tended the gardens, carried stones, and helped with the construction of the monastery buildings that were built with his own funds.
Nectarios died on November 8, 1920, at the age of 74, following hospitalization for prostate cancer and two months of treatment. His body was taken to the Holy Trinity Convent, where he was buried by his best friend Savvas of Kalymnos, who later painted the first icon of Nectarios. The funeral of Nectarios was attended by multitudes of people from all parts of Greece and Egypt.
Saint Nektarios is considered a patron saint for people who are suffering from diseases; such as cancer, heart trouble, joint pain, epilepsy, arthritis, etc.
Veneration
The relics of Nectarios were removed from his grave on 2 September 1953. On 20 April 1961, Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople glorified Nectarios as a saint in Saint George's Cathedral, Istanbul. The feast day of Saint Nectarios is celebrated every year on 9 November.Decision of Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria
On September 15, 1998, the Greek [Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa] restored the ecclesiastical order of Nectarios:Works
;Translated into English- ', .
- ', .
In popular media
The life of Nectarios was depicted in the 2021 film Man of God, written and directed by Yelena Popovic.Biographical accounts
- Sotos Chondropoulos. . Translated by Peter and Aliki Los. Publications "Καινούργια Γή", Greece.
- at www.serfes.org
- at www.st-seraphim.com
- at www.fatheralexander.org
- at www.aeginagreece.com
Selected writings
- at www.serfes.org
Some miracle accounts
- at www.sprint.net.au
St. Nectarios' miraculous relics
Other
Category:1920 deaths
Category:20th-century Christian saints
Category:20th-century Eastern Orthodox bishops
Category:Bishops of the [Greek Orthodox Church of Alexandria]
Category:People from Aegina
Category:Saints of modern Greece
Category:National and [Kapodistrian University of Athens alumni]
Category:Miracle workers
Category:People from Silivri
Category:Poet priests
Category:Greek saints of the Eastern Orthodox Church