Life of the Saint

Our holy Father Nectarios was born on 1 October 1846 at Selyvria in Thrace. His parents, Dimos and Maria Kephalas, were pious Christians but not rich in this world’s goods. Their son was baptized Anastasios and, from infancy, showed great piety and love for study. When his mother taught him Psalm 50, he liked to repeat the verse: I shall teach thy ways unto the wicked and sinners shall be converted unto thee. After finishing elementary school, he was sent by his parents to Constantinople to continue his education, at the same time as working in a shop. The boy did not become entangled in worldly cares, but fixed his mind entirely upon building up the inner man in the image of Christ by prayer and meditation on the writings of the holy Fathers.

When he was twenty, he left Constantinople for a teaching post on the island of Chios. The young people and villagers where he taught were encouraged to live in piety and virtue by his words and above all by the example of his ascetic, prayerful life. On November 7, 1876, he became a monk in the famous Monastery of Nea Moni, for he had long desired to embrace the ascetic life. Seeking only those things which are above, he was beloved by all the brethren as the very pattern of gentleness and obedience, and was ordained deacon after one year. Thanks to the generosity of a pious islander and to the protection of Patriarch Sophronius of Alexandria, he was able to complete his studies in Athens and to obtain the diploma of the Faculty of Theology. In 1885, he arrived in Alexandria where he was soon ordained priest, then consecrated Metropolitan of Pentapolis (an ancient diocese in Cyrenaica, in what is now Libya). He was appointed preacher and secretary to the Patriarch, whose representative he became in Cairo, where he had charge of the Church of Saint Nicholas.

Nectarios lost nothing of his humility through these honors, and was able to inspire his flock with zeal for the Gospel virtues. But the love and admiration of the people for him turned to his disadvantage. Certain members of the Patriarchate became jealous of his success and, led on by the Devil, put it about that he was currying favor with the people with the aim of seating himself on the patriarchal throne of Alexandria. The Saint made no attempt to justify himself but placed all his hope in the promise of Christ who has said: Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account (Matt. 5:11). He was dismissed from his Episcopal Throne; and he embarked for Athens. There he found himself alone, ignored, despised and even lacking his daily bread, for he would keep nothing for himself and gave away what little he had to the poor.

The meek and humble follower of Jesus Christ planned at first to withdraw to Mount Athos but gave up the idea, for he put the salvation of his neighbor before his own love of monastic retreat. He spent several years as a preacher (1891-1894) and was then appointed director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School for the education of priests. The School’s spiritual and intellectual standing rose rapidly under his direction. The students found in him a teacher with a deep knowledge of Scripture, of the holy Fathers, and even of secular learning, and a director who exercised his authority with great kindness and consideration. His administrative and teaching responsibilities — he taught pastoral theology — did not prevent him as a monk from living a life of ascesis, meditation and prayer, nor from fulfilling the high calling of preaching and serving regularly the holy Mysteries, at the School as well as in the Athens region.

However, there glowed in the depths of his heart a burning love for the peace and quiet of life in the monasteries; and this led him to respond warmly to the desire expressed by some of his spiritual daughters that he should found a women’s monastery on the island of Aegina. This he did between 1904 and 1907 and he retired there in 1908, on his resignation as director of the Rizarios School. Despite countless cares and difficulties, Saint Nectarios saw to the restoration of a type of life that was wholly in the spirit of the ancient Fathers. He gave his utmost bodily and spiritual strength to the construction of the buildings, to divine service and to the spiritual direction of each one of his disciples. They would often see him in his worn-out cassock working in the garden or, when he disappeared for many hours, they would guess he had shut himself in his cell to raise his intellect to God by bringing it down into his heart, to taste there the sweetness of the holy Name of Jesus.

Although he desired to flee all contact with the world and strictly limited visits to the Monastery, the fame of his virtues and of his God-given graces spread in the region, and the faithful were drawn to him like iron to a magnet. He healed many lay-people and nuns of their sicknesses, and brought rain to the island in a time of draught. He comforted, consoled and encouraged; he was all things to all men. He could do all things through Christ who dwelt in him by the Grace of the Holy Spirit. He kept company with the saints and with the mother of God, and they often appeared to him during the Divine Liturgy or in his cell. During the difficult years that followed the First World War, he taught his nuns to rely from day to day on the mercy of God. He utterly forbade them to keep any food in reserve for their use, instructing them to give away to the poor everything that remained over. Saint Nectarios also found time to write a large number of works on theology, ethics and Church history, in order to strengthen the Church of Greece in the holy tradition of the Fathers, which was often unknown in those days because of Western influences.

Saint Nectarios lived like an angel in the flesh with the rays of the uncreated light shining around him, yet once again he was slandered by certain members of the hierarchy who made malicious accusations about his monastery. He bore these latter trials with the patience of Christ, meekly and without complaint, as he did the painful illness which afflicted him for more that eighteen months before he spoke of it. He thanked God for putting him to the test in this way, and did his best to keep the pain he suffered secret until the last days of his life. After a final pilgrimage to an icon of the mother of God, he told his disciples of his coming departure for heaven and was taken to a hospital in Athens.

On November 9, 1920, St. Nectarios retired his spirit to the Lord. However, even in death St. Nectarios continues to perform miracles, the first of which occurred in the very hospital room in which he died. With the passing of St. Nectarios, a hospital nurse, assisted by a nun from the monastery, immediately began to change his clothes and threw his undershirt on the next bed. In this bed lay a paralytic, who once the undershirt landed upon him, was instantly healed and jumped out of bed praising God for his miraculous healing. This was the first of many miracles that St. Nectarios began to perform immediately after his repose.

The faithful of Aegina, the nuns of his monastery and all the Christians who had come close to him, mourned the loss of the meek and compassionate disciple of Christ who, in the likeness of the divine suffering of his Master, endured all his life slander, persecutions and false accusations. But God has glorified him, and miracles have abounded since his departure for those who approach his relics with faith or who rely on his powerful intercession. His body remained incorrupt for more that twenty years, distilling a delicate, heavenly scent, and then returned to the earth in the usual way. His relics were strongly redolent with the same perfume at the time of their translation in June 1953. This perfume has continued ever since to rejoice the faithful who come to venerate his precious relics with the assurance that Saint Nectarios has been received by God into the abode of the righteous. His veneration was formally recognized in 1961. The list of his miracles grows longer every day, and his shrine at Aegina has become the most popular place of pilgrimage in Greece.

Troparion of St. Nectarios

Tone 1: O faithful, let us honor Nectarios the divine servant of Christ, offspring of Selyvria and guardian of Aegina, who appeared as a true friend of virtue, pouring forth all manner of healing upon those who reverently cry: Glory to Him Who gave you strength! Glory to Him Who granted you a crown! Glory to Him Who through you grants healing to all!

Decision of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa

Alexandria 15th September 1998

The Holy Spirit has enlightened the gathered members of the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria and all Africa, under the leadership of H.B. Petros VII, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and all Africa, more than a century since Saint Nectarios, the great Teacher and Father of the Holy Eastern Orthodox Church was expelled from the Church of Alexandria, to reach the following decision:

Taking into account the resolution of the Church to rank Saint Nectarios amongst the saints because of his innumerable miracles and his acceptance within the religious conscience of Orthodox Christians throughout the world, we appeal to the mercy of the ever-charitable God.

We hereby restore the ecclesiastical order of the Saint of our Century, Saint Nectarios, and grant to him all due credits and honors. We beseech Saint Nectarios to forgive both us, unworthy as we are, and our predecessors, our brothers of the Throne of Alexandria, for opposition to the Saint and for all which, due to human weakness or error, our Holy Father, Bishop of Pentapolis, Saint Nectarios, suffered.

PETROS VII
By the Grace of God
Pope and Patriarch
of Alexandria and All Africa.

Beloved and faithful children of the Church,

In these modern times, when our way of life is constantly changing, when the products of technology and the numerous experiences of our daily life, confuse man’s spirit incurably, crushing the hope of our hearts and destroying man’s character, the Saints of our Church bear witness to man’s salvation, the majesty of man’s spirit and the ontological concept of hope and the recognition of human life.

One of the Great Saints of our Orthodox Church, who lived and experienced the joyful meeting and continuous coexistence with Christ our God, who aimed to build a new world, to separate man from his stained inheritance and to reform the human personality, is Saint Nectarios, Bishop of the ancient Kyrenian Pentapolis, the Wonder-worker.

All that our Church believes and experiences is to be found in the inner personality of Saint Nectarios. This is substantiated through our life-experience.

The whole Grace of the Church exists in his life, and the burning flame which is St. Nectarios, passes on to us the essence of the mystery of the Church.

He is truly formed by great experiences. He is able to transfuse us with holiness and grace because he himself was tested and saved.

Saint Nectarios lived in our Patriarchate and became the humble servant of the world, despite the difficulties caused by malicious intent, the atmosphere of contempt and defeat, enmity and injustice. He achieved absolute humility. In virtuous silence he endured the turmoil of his flaming soul. Like Noah in his ark, he relived the experience of humanity mixing the waters of deluge, the water of Baptism and the tears of his eyes. He overcame every trial and temptation through continuous prayer.

He became the vessel of God’s Grace. He is the poor, the unseen, the meek, the kind, the wonder-worker, the protector of God’s divine love for mankind.

In the life of Saint Nectarios, the world, mankind, every one of us finds his measure, the scale by which to compare, the truth. We realise the ugliness of our spiritual self-centredness; we see perfection in the fear that we might wound God’s love; we search for the only, the essential evangelical reality – that we must renounce ourselves and take up our cross in our daily lives. And the life of Saint Nectarios also reveals something completely different: the power of man, mobilized by the presence of God, freedom of choice and the deep desire to be a child of God.

110 years have passed since the ordination of St. Nectarios as Bishop of our Patriarchate, and over a 100 years have passed since St. Nectarios, the Great Father and Teacher of our Church, was cast out from the Patriarchate of Alexandria, because of human weakness, error and the influence of the evil one. We, Myself and the Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ancient Patriarchate of Alexandria and All Africa, calling upon the mercy of God Who so loves mankind, and witnessing by the grace of the Holy Spirit the conscience of the body of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church regarding the holiness of St. Nectarios, admit the injustice which was done against the Saint, restore the canonical order, ask the Saint to forgive us and the fathers and brothers who have passed away, for all that he endured and suffered, and dedicate the year 1999 to the sacred memory of our holy father Nectarios, Metropolitan of Pentapolis, the Wonder-worker.

The dedication of the year 1999 to the memory of Saint Nectarios is essentially an invitation to repent, to separate ourselves from the fallen world of destruction and death, and to join with the new risen world in Christ. This is an opportunity for us all to find God and the man of Paradise, to increase our awareness and goodness. This is the heritage and the precious gift of a holy man, who is one of us, St. Nectarios. This is how he overcame destruction, death and time. This is why he exists today.

May the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ through the intercessions of our Father Saint Nectarios be with you all.

With warm prayers to God for all of you.

In the Great City of Alexandria
10th September, 1998.