Saints Nektarios and Amphilochios and the Establishment of the Monastery of Saint Menas in Aegina

Saint Nektarios and the Monastery of Saint Menas in Aegina

When Saint Nektarios went to Aegina, while he was researching to find the place where he would build a monastery, he was received in a vision by Saint Dionysios of Zakynthos, who had formerly been Metropolitan of Aegina, and said to him:

"Come, Nektarios, I have been waiting for you for years, to hand over the island to you."

As Saint Nektarios was talking with Saint Dionysios, he saw a soldier further on and asked Saint Dionysios:

"Who is he?"

"This," he said, "is Saint Menas; he lives here and has a monastery in Aegina!"

On Divine Eros (St. Nektarios of Aegina)

 By St. Nektarios of Aegina

Divine eros is perfect love of the Divine, manifested as an unceasing desire of the Divine. Divine eros is born in the pure heart, because in it divine grace descends. The eros for the Divine is a divine gift, which is bestowed upon the pure soul by the divine grace that descends and reveals itself to the soul. Divine eros without divine revelation is not born in any man. Because a soul that has not received revelation, has not received the influence of grace and remains apathetic towards divine eros. It is therefore impossible for eros to be born without a force acting upon the heart, whether divinea force or human.

The lovers of the Divine were drawn to divine eros by the divine grace which acted upon their hearts, revealed itself to their souls, and drew them to God. The lover of the Divine first was loved by the Divine, and then he fell in love with the Divine. The lover of the Divine first became a son of love, and then he loved the heavenly Father.

The Main Cause for the Schism Between Western and Eastern Christianity According to Saint Nektarios (St. Justin Popovich)

 

 By St. Justin Popovich

From the rich spiritual treasury of Saint Nektarios of Aegina, we have many precious pearls to present to pious readers. His Orthodox theology, his spiritual experience, soul-beneficial teachings and ascetic instructions, all this is abundantly present in his wonderful works, which he wrote following the Holy Fathers of the Orthodox Church in everything. But there is something new in his works, which today's Orthodox reader will find useful and necessary to know, so we will only mention it here. This is the opinion and assessment of Saint Nektarios, as a contemporary Father of the Church and as a Church historian (because he was also a learned theologian), about what were the causes of the split in the Church, that is, in fact, the causes of the separation of the Western Latin Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church.

The Legacy of Saint Nektarios of Aegina (St. Justin Popovich)

By St. Justin Popovich

 

Indeed, it is a great miracle that in our century of unbelief and lack of faith, this Metropolitan Nektarios, despised by many and humiliated to the point of death, becomes the cause of so many spiritual events and movements.

No matter where the faithful call upon him and invoke him in prayers with faith, he arrived and always arrives. He heals the demon possessed, strengthens the weak spiritually and physically, straightens and heals the lame, and saves those at sea in a storm.

In a very short time, his holy name became known everywhere: on the land, on the sea, and on the islands; in Europe and America and Africa; wherever there are Orthodox souls, his gracious presence is felt.

Synaxarion of the Translation of the Relics of Saint Nektarios the Wonderworker

 Synaxarion

By Monk Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis

On the 3rd of this month [September], we celebrate the translation of the honorable relics of our Holy Father Nektarios the Bishop of Pentapolis and Wonderworker, which took place in the year of our salvation 1953.

Verses

Your relics appeared from the earth Father,
Showing its hidden grace to all.
On the third the bones of Nektarios appeared out of the earth.

When Saint Nektarios Healed Saint Amphilochios Makris

 

By Fr. Demetrios Kabbadias

With his humility, Saint Amphilochios Makris won the trust of Saint Nektarios. He had been visiting him frequently since then. When Elder Amphilochios became a Deacon, they concelebrated many times.

Their souls were united even more during the last liturgy they performed a year before the death of Saint Nektarios. Their spiritual union became more intense when the Saint instructed him to take a sick nun to her cell.

Another time, due to the crowds in the small hostel of the Monastery, Saint Nektarios arranged for him to sleep in his own cell in the courtyard of the Monastery.

This spiritual friendship and love continued even after the repose of Saint Nektarios.

Saint Savvas of Kalymnos as the Iconographer Who Painted the First Icon of Saint Nektarios

The following was written by Elder Abimelech Mikragiannanitis (1860-1965), who was the first to propose the canonization of Saint Nektarios and was the first to compose a Divine Office in his honor.

Saint Savvas of Kalymnos was the one who painted the first icon of Saint Nektarios! In 1918 he went to Aegina, where he ministered to the Saint that we celebrate today until his repose. His cohabitation with Saint Nektarios contributed greatly to the further spiritual progress of the Saint.

He got to know the strict asceticism of our Saint, the confrontations he had with lesser people, but also His proverbial humility and simplicity.

The Nephew of Saint Nektarios

Anastasios Kephalas was the thirteenth and youngest child of the teacher Haralambos Kephalas, who was the brother of Saint Nektarios Kephalas. He was not only the nephew of the Saint, but also the godchild, since he was baptized by his uncle.

When Anastasios was 12 years old, he was the Saint's last relative to speak with him before his repose, which he did for three hours before he delivered his soul to the Lord at Aretaeio Hospital in Athens on November 8, 1920, at 22:30.

Saint Nektarios, Patron Saint of Athletes

Saint Nektarios, after a proposal of a committee of Physical Education Teachers in Greece, was proclaimed the Patron Saint of Athletes, as he blessed the establishment of an Athletics Association in Kymi as "something excellent", with the goal of such clubs being physical exercise and spiritual development, two poles around which the perfect education and upbringing revolves. Later, as the Director of the Rizareio School, he took special care of the students involvement in sports and the improvement of their nutrition. Also, in the same School, he established soccer as a sport for the students at their request. Thus he was the first to introduce soccer as a sport in the school environment.

We have preserved the discourse in praise of exercise and youthful involvement in sports at the inauguration of the Athletics Association in Kymi on August 21, 1893 titled "On Exercise". This text was published slightly adapted for general use on May 3, 1901 in a magazine of the time.

 

 

The Favorite Corner of Saint Nektarios

The favorite corner of Saint Nektarios in his Monastery in Aegina, under the pine tree in the back of his room.

 

In this chair he sat and on this table he wrote many of his books and the beautiful poetic hymns that he left us.

 

The Life of Saint Nektarios in Icons

 

 

Saint Nektarios the Wonderworker Resource Page

 

14 Attributes of True Faith (St. Nektarios of Aegina)

 

By St. Nektarios of Aegina

True faith has the following attributes:

1) It informs the believer secretly of the truth of his faith.

2) It directs his steps in the path of truth.

3) It fills him with hope that is eternal, undiminishable, pure from every fear and every regret and has in it the fullness of bliss.

4) It fills him with warm and active love for God and his neighbor.

The Apostolic Tradition of Venerating the Holy Cross (St. Nektarios of Aegina)

Detail of the Sarcophagus of Domatilla: Symbolic Representation of the Crucifixion and Resurrection (Mid-4th century, Museo Pio Christiano, Rome)

By St. Nektarios of Aegina

Great  was  the  veneration  of  the  Lord's  Life-giving  Cross  by  the  faithful directly from the beginning. The Apostle Paul commends the sign of the Cross to the  faithful  as  the  power  of  God,  declaring: "For  the  message  of  the  Cross  is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the  power  of  God"  (1 Cor.  1:18).  Faithfully  preserving  the  Apostolic  teaching, Christians  revered  the  sign  and  image  of  the Honorable  Cross,  believing  in  its redemptive  and  life-giving  power. The  depiction  and  sign  of  the  Cross  was attested  to,  and  was  for  them  an  unconquerable  weapon  against  the  attacks  of visible  and  invisible  enemies. From  that  time,  and  from  the  first  centuries  of  the Church, particular reverence and honor were rendered to it.

The Sad Story Behind a Famous Photo of Saint Nektarios

 

The body of St. Nektarios outside the locked doors of Holy Trinity Church in Piraeus.

In Piraeus, attached to the Church of the Holy Trinity, there is a Chapel of Saint Nektarios which, apart from being a place of worship, also has historical significance for the life of Saint Nektarios. When referring to the Holy Trinity Church at the time of Saint Nektarios, we mean the original church that was destroyed by the bombings of 1940. In this old church where today is the Chapel of Saint Nektarios, there was a small warehouse where they put the used candles and any useless object that they would soon throw away or give to a junk dealer.

When Saint Nektarios passed away on November 8, 1920 at the Aretaio Hospital in Athens, the nuns who cared for him during his hospitalization prepared the relic of the Saint to transport him for burial at the Monastery of the Saint, in Aegina. In 1920, coastal shipping to the islands of the Saronic Gulf was not as it is today. They were done in large boats, on a journey that lasted a long time, with sparse itineraries and that many times the rough seas made it difficult and tedious. This means that the nuns had to leave the relic of the Saint in a place near the port so that the next day it could be transferred to Aegina for burial.

The Close Bond Between Blessed Salome the Fool for Christ and Saint Nektarios

 

 

Salome took care of several churches in Thermo. However, her spiritual refuge was the Church of Saint Nektarios. There she experienced intensely the presence of the Saint.

With her simplicity and reverence for the Saint, she developed a personal holy spiritual communion. She often saw the Saint, consulted him on spiritual matters, and together they visited the homes of the poor and sick.

This was not a unique phenomenon of Salome, but we find it in other sanctified modern figures, such as that of Saint Sophia, the ascetic of Kleisoura.

The experiences of the blessed Salome seem incomprehensible and paradoxical to us and refer us to similar experiential situations of the Holy Fathers.

The Pine Tree at the Tomb of Saint Nektarios

 

 

In the ancient ruins over which Saint Nektarios later built his monastery in Aegina, there lived two nuns beforehand. During the reconstruction of the ancient monastery, one of these nuns, Anastasia, wanted to plant a pine tree.

The place she chose to plant the pine tree was to the right of the church on the lower ground.

Holding the tree in her hands as she went to plant it, she heard a voice say to her:

"Not there, but further over. Leave room for a tomb."

Coffee, Sugar and Saint Nektarios

 

Saint Nektarios, in the Regulations of his Monastery in Aegina, had appointed the Nuns to drink one coffee in the morning, and one in the evening.

But during the 1941-1945 German occupation, there was no sugar in the markets, and no coffee. The Abbess ordered the Sisters to drink coffee only in the morning, not in the evening, so as not to be deprived quickly.

That night, however, the Saint appeared to the Abbess and told her sternly:

The Stasidion of Saint Nektarios

When Saint Nektarios fled to Athens following being falsely accused of immorality in Egypt, where he served as the Metropolitan of Pentapolis, he began to preach and establish a name for himself in the area of Evia for a period of about three years. Then, in 1894, he was appointed dean of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens. Through his eloquent sermons, his untiring labors to educate fitting men for the priesthood, his generous philanthropy despite his own poverty, and the holiness, meekness, and fatherly love that were manifest in him, he became a shining light and a spiritual guide to many. He served as dean at Rizarios for fourteen years, from 1894 to 1908, before moving on to Aegina where he established a convent and guided some of his female spiritual children till his repose in 1920.

Synaxis of the Saints of Aegina

On July 30th the eleven Saints associated with the Greek island of Aegina are commemorated together. The celebration of this feast takes place in the Church of the Saints of Aegina which is in Livadi, often confused as the Church of Saint Thomas, which is wrong, because the adjacent chapel located in the courtyard of the church is alone dedicated to Saint Thomas.

On Fasting (St. Nektarios of Aegina)

By St. Nektarios of Aegina

Fasting is an ordinance of the Church, obliging the Christian to observe it on specific days. Concerning fasting, our Savior teaches: “When thou fastest, anoint thine head, and wash thy face; that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father Who is in secret: and thy Father, Who seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly” (Matt. 6:17-18). From what the Savior teaches we learn (a) that fasting is pleasing to God, and (b) that he who fasts for the uplifting of his mind and heart towards God shall be rewarded by God, Who is a most liberal bestower of Divine gifts, for his devotion.