Nectarios of Aegina

Metropolitan of Pentapolis and Eastern Orthodox Saint

Nectarios of Aegina

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. He then returned to Greece in 1891, and spent several years as a preacher (1891–1894). He was then director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School for the education of priests in Athens for fifteen years. He developed many courses of study, and wrote numerous books, while preaching widely throughout Athens. 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" (the ancient Byzantine text Nectarios had used). 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.

The relics of Nectarios were removed from his grave on 2 September 1953. On 20 April 1961, Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople canonized Nectarios as a saint in Saint George's Cathedral, Istanbul. The feast day of Saint Nectarios is celebrated every year on 9 November.

The life of Nectarios was depicted in the 2021 film Man of God, written and directed by Yelena Popovic.

Father Demetrios Serfes St. Nectarios of Aegina at www. serfes. org

Saint Nectarios at www. sprint. net. au