“A healer for diseases such as cancer heart trouble joint pain epilepsy and arthritis.” This is how Saint Nektarios of Aegina is seen. Let’s explore the story behind \u0386\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u039d\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2.
\u0386\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u039d\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 is one of Greece’s most renowned saints. He is venerated in the Eastern Orthodox Church and Eastern Catholic Churches. The church commemorates him every year on November 9.
Nectarios’s birth name was Anastasios Kephalas. He was born on October 1 1846 in Selymbria. This was a small town near Constantinople. His parents Dimos and Maria Kephalas were pious but poor. At 14 he moved to Constantinople. There he worked to pay for his education. In 1866 at age 20 he became a teacher on the island of Chios.
Nectarios became a monk in the Monastery of Nea Moni at age 30. Three years later he became a deacon. He then took the name Nectarios. Nectarios graduated from the University of Athens in 1885. After graduation he went to Alexandria Egypt. There he was ordained a priest. He served at the Church of Saint Nicholas in Cairo. In 1889 he became Metropolitan Bishop of Pentapolis. Pentapolis was an ancient Diocese in Cyrenaica which is now Libya.
Nectarios served as a bishop in Cairo for only a year. He was popular. However some colleagues grew jealous. They falsely accused him of wanting to take the Patriarch’s place. Nectarios was suspended without any explanation.
In 1891 Nectarios returned to Greece. For several years he preached. From 1894 he directed the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens for 15 years. In 1904 he established Holy Trinity Monastery on the island of Aegina. This was at the request of several nuns. Nectarios ordained two women as deaconesses in 1911.
Nectarios resigned as school director in 1908 at age 62. He withdrew to the Holy Trinity Convent on Aegina. He lived there as a monk for the rest of his life. He wrote published preached and heard confessions. Nectarios also tended gardens carried stones and helped build the monastery. He used his own funds.
Saint Nectarios died on November 8 1920 at age 74. He had been hospitalized for prostate cancer for two months. His body was buried at the Holy Trinity Convent. Savvas of Kalymnos his best friend painted the first icon of Nectarios. Multitudes from Greece and Egypt attended Nectarios’s funeral.
The relics of Saint Nectarios were removed from his grave on September 2 1953. Patriarch Athenagoras I of Constantinople canonized Nectarios as a saint on April 20 1961. The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Alexandria restored Nectarios’s ecclesiastical order in 1998.
So the story of \u0386\u03b3\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 \u039d\u03b5\u03ba\u03c4\u03ac\u03c1\u03b9\u03bf\u03c2 reflects a journey of devotion slander and ultimate recognition as a miracle-working saint. His legacy inspires faith and healing.