Today is the feast day of St. Nectarios of Aegina, a relatively modern Saint who had to deal with many relatively modern problems. His holy way of life led to him being vilified by the liberal media in Greece and slandered by many who called themselves Christian.
St. Nectarios, pray to God for us!
"The Life of St. Nectarios
His Childhood Years
Anastasios Kephalas, son of Dimosthenis and Vassiliki, was born on October 1st, 1846, in Eastern Selyvria of Thrace (Now Turkey). He was one of six children. His parents were very poor but pious Christians who brought up their children according to the teachings of our Church. 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. His early years were spent at the local elementary school in Silivria. Upon completion of his school curriculum there were no schools in the area for him to continue his academic studies and he was too poor to study abroad. But he did have a thirst for knowledge and a love of God. This love urged him on for he wanted to become a theologian. He wanted to educate himself so that he could love the Lord even more, and as such, serve him better. Saddened by the state of poverty that his parents were in and urged by his ever-growing love for our Lord Jesus Christ, at the age of fourteen and with his parents’ blessings, Anastasios went to Constantinople to find work for their financial assistance and in hope that he would be able to continue his studies and fulfill his dreams.
The young Anastasios set off then for the seaport where he would board a boat to Constantinople. He was faced with a problem, however. Anastasios did not have the money to pay the required fare for the boat. Nevertheless, as the boat for Constantinople was ready to sail Anastasios bravely walked up to the captain and asked to take him along. The captain, however, seeing him so young, said to him jokingly, "Take a walk, my little one, and when you come back I will take you." The boy understood what the captain was actually telling him, and began to walk away sadly. The captain turned on the engines in order to sail. The engines were propelling, but the boat would not move. He increased the power to the engines, but to no avail. Even at full throttle, the ship still would not move. In his helplessness the captain glanced up, and his eyes met the gaze of the boy who was standing on the shore in sorrow. Against his will he was moved and, relenting, he told the boy to get on the boat. Anastasios jumped into the boat, and the captain again became engrossed in how to make the ship move. But he did not have a chance to worry long, for it began to move immediately, since it had received its "special passenger."
The ship rushed along now in open sea on route to Constantinople and the crew conducted a ticket inspection. The young boy became terrified since he did not have a ticket nor any money to purchase one. He looked about for the captain who knew his secret but he had stepped away. “I will tell the truth”, he thought to himself. When asked for his ticket he said, "I am poor. I have no money. I have left my poor parents to seek work, so that I can help them." His cheeks glowed red for Anastasios was very embarrassed. But, as our Lord does not abandon those who believe in Him, the sailors felt sorry for young Anastasios and let him go. Other passengers heard his story and went to his aid. They listened to his story, his problems. One man in particular, a cousin of a very rich man, John Horemis was particularly impressed by the young boy’s courage and dedication.
Sure enough, young Anastasios Kephalas reached the port of Constantinople and the very next day went looking for work. But he found mostly rejection and indifference. Eventually he found employment in a factory with a tobacco merchant. However, he was a young boy and his pay would barely be enough for his daily meals as he walked about barefoot and with ragged clothes. He found his comfort in prayer for he had much faith in God. 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. With his childlike mind and guileless heart, when he saw that his employer wrote and received many letters in his business, Anastasios also wanted to write a letter, for he had much to say. But to whom? He had no acquaintances. He could not write to his mother, because mail was not taken to the small villages. Yet he felt the need to write. He wanted to write grievances. To tell how he would work and they would not pay him. How he wanted to eat and be clothed and the money would not suffice. He did not abandon his hope in God, and one day in order to make his prayer more living, he thought of writing a letter to Christ and telling him of his needs. And truly, he lost no time. He took a pencil and paper and wrote:
“My Little Christ, I do not have an apron or shoes. Please send them to me. You know how much I love You. Anastasios “
He sealed the letter with confidence and wrote on the envelope: "To the Lord Jesus Christ in Heaven." He took his letter and went to mail it right away. On the way, by divine economy, he met the owner of a merchant shop that was opposite where he worked. This man knew him well and, knowing very well of the boy's innocence and diligence, had come to feel great compassion for him. He also was going to the post office. "Anastasios, where are you going?”, he said to the boy. Anastasios became troubled and whispered something, holding the letter in his hands. "Give it to me so I can mail it, and you won't have to go all the way." Frightened and unthinking, the little Anastasios gave him the letter. The merchant took the letter with much love, patted him on the head and told him not to worry while he put the letter in his pocket with his own other letters. He told Anastasios to go back and that he would take care to mail the letter safely.
Anastasios cheerfully returned to his work, and the merchant continued on his way full of happiness over that good and exceptional boy. As he was about to mail the letter the merchant noticed the address noted on Anastasios’s letter. Thunderstruck, he stopped and, conquered by the temptation of curiosity, opened and read it. He was overwhelmed with emotion as the man began to cry. He put an amount of money into an envelope and sent it, anonymously, to the boy along with fatherly advice on how the money could be spent wisely. Anastasios was filled with joy when he received it, and gave many thanks to God.
The next day Anastasios set out to purchase new clothes. Upon his return, his employer noticed him and thought that the boy had stolen the money from him. Therefore, he was going to beat him and fire him. But Anastasios cried: "I have never stolen anything in my life! Don't hit me! My little Christ sent them to me!" The merchant across the street overheard the commotion and took Anastasios' employer to the side in order to explain the matter to him.
Therefore, as a shop assistant of a tobacco merchant Anastasios spent long and hard hours. He started early and finished late but somehow made the time to continue his studies late at night. He read as much as he could the Holy Scriptures and Writings of the Holy Fathers, and made a collection of wise sayings, which he used to write on the paper used to wrap his customers' goods since he did not have the money to buy paper. Later he worked as a teacher of the lower grades in the orphanage of the All-Holy Sepulchre."
The account continues at the link since it is fairly long.
Here is a section from the end of the account of the Life of St. Nectarios, when God glorified him at the moment of his death, and put to shame the people who had vilified him throughout his life.
"Saint Nectarios lived like an angel in the flesh with the rays of the uncreated light shining around him, yet once again he was calumniated 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 venerated not far from the monastery, he told his disciples of his coming departure for Heaven.
Therefore, on the afternoon of September 20, 1920, a nun by the name of Euphemia brought a little rassa-clad old man, who was convulsed with pain, to the Aretaieion Hospital of Athens, a state hospital for the poor. The intern of the hospital asked the nun for information about the little old man so that he may register and enter into the hospital register. "He is a monk?"
"No. A bishop."
The intern laughed sarcastically. "Leave off the joking, Mother. Tell me his name so I can put it in the register."
"He is a bishop, my child. He is the Most Reverend Metropolitan of Pentapolis."
"For the first time in my life I see a bishop," muttered the intern to himself, "without Panagia, gold cross, and -- most significant of all -- without money!" "Indeed he is a bishop," repeated the nun. "The Metropolitan of Pentapolis. This metropolis belongs to the Patriarchate of Alexandria. He is the Most Reverend Nectarios Kephalas. Some time ago he left Egypt and came here, close to you, as a matter of fact, because he directed Rizarios School. For some years now, however, he has lived as a monk in the convent of the Holy Trinity on Aegina. There he became gravely ill and in spite of his protests, we brought him here." She then showed the intern his credentials which proved him to be the Metropolitan.
The intern of the hospital, amazed by everything he had heard and seen, shrugged his shoulders and told the nurses to place the sick man in a third- class room where there were several beds for the destitute. The doctors diagnosed that the sick little old man was suffering from severe systitis, a disease of the bladder. For two months the Hierarch Nectarios Kephalas lived in the midst of terrible pains, and at ten thirty in the evening of the eighth of November, 1920, in peace and at prayer he gave up his spirit unto God at the age of seventy-four.
In the final days of his life, the Saint was kept in the ward of the incurable in the midst of many poor, sick people who were about to die. Next to his bed there was a man who had been paralyzed for many years. As soon as the Saint gave up his spirit, a nurse of the hospital and the nun who had accompanied him prepared his sacred tabernacle for the transfer to Aegina for burial. For this purpose they dressed the Saint in clean clothing. When they took off the Saint's sweater, they placed it on the bed of the paralytic to get it out of their way and continued preparing the Saint's body. And O, strange wonder!, the paralytic immediately began to gain strength and arose from his bed healthy, glorifying God."
In the final days of his life, the Saint was kept in the ward of the incurable in the midst of many poor, sick people who were about to die. Next to his bed there was a man who had been paralyzed for many years. As soon as the Saint gave up his spirit, a nurse of the hospital and the nun who had accompanied him prepared his sacred tabernacle for the transfer to Aegina for burial. For this purpose they dressed the Saint in clean clothing. When they took off the Saint's sweater, they placed it on the bed of the paralytic to get it out of their way and continued preparing the Saint's body. And O, strange wonder!, the paralytic immediately began to gain strength and arose from his bed healthy, glorifying God."
Thanks. That was a great account of a humble servant of Christ.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:12)
Thanks. That was a great account of a humble servant of Christ.
I am glad that you were edified by it. Here is another incident that was recorded which showed St. Nectarios' great humility, and his own advice on how to battle the vices which attack us.
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"The following teaching is taken from the personal memoirs of one of Greece’s most celebrated and erudite holy elders, Fr Philotheos Zervakos. In the following account, Elder Philotheos recalls to memory his visit to Aegina to find his spiritual father, the blessed St Nectarios of Pentapolis. Upon his arrival to the monastery he observes an elderly man working outside in the dirt, not recognising that it was St Nectarios himself, but mistaking him for a worker or villager, he ordered him to summon the holy Bishop to attend to him. When it was revealed that the man he ordered about, was the holy Bishop, Fr Philotheos is remorseful for he had done and in the manner he had done it, beseeched the Saint’s forgiveness and sought his advice on how one can defeat and overcome pride which is so hateful to God:
“I saw that the man whom I thought to be a worker, a villager, or a peasant, and to whom I had spoken harshly and ordered around, was the Bishop himself! Neither had I even considered that this was the afternoon rest hour (siesta), when everyone slept? I should have never told him to do anything, but instead, waited patiently for the time of Vespers. No, I the disciple had shown my extreme pride while my teacher and spiritual father had shown his extreme and complete humility! I was struck speechless and knelt down, tearfully begging him to forgive me for my pride and bad manners. He being guileless, meek and humble of heart, of course, forgave me. We sat down and he began to guide me, as he always has, along the way of the Lord.
‘Father’, I asked, ‘How can I be delivered from this God-hated pride?’ And with love and humility (the two great virtues which God bestowed upon him), he responded”:
“My dear spiritual child in the Lord, our Holy Fathers have told us, that each sin, whether great and deadly, or small and pardonable, is defeated by the opposite corresponding virtue. That is, envy is defeated by love; pride by humility; avarice by poverty; greed and hard-heartedness by charity and compassion; negligence by diligence; gluttony and servitude to the stomach by fasting and restraint; idle talk by silence; criticism and slander by self- reproach and prayer; lewdness, fornication, adultery and other sins of the flesh by remembrance of death, the Last Judgement to come, and the recompense of Hell.
In general, every evil is defeated by every virtue. As Prophet David says, ‘Turn away from evil and do good’. If you wish to be delivered also from sin of pride, the mother and cause of all sin and evil, you will be delivered through humility.
Because we are not able to do anything on our own (as the Lord says, ‘Without Me, you can do nothing’), let us ask the All-good and lovingly philanthropic God with compunction and humility, with sighs and tears, to deliver us from demonic pride. Let us sigh like the Publican, cry like the adulteress, repent like the Prodigal Son, saying, ‘O All-good compassionate and lovingly philanthropic Father, we have sinned before Thee; accept our repentance and make us as one of Your paid servants’. Let us pray and beseech the Lord as the divine Chrysostom did in his daily prayers: ‘O Lord, grant us humility, a humble way of thought an obedience; O Lord grant us patience, long-suffering and meekness; O Lord, implant in our hearts the root of good, Thy fear; O Lord, grant us to love Thee with all our soul and heart and to keep Thy divine commandments’.
Likewise, so that we may be delivered from satanic and all-destructive pride, let us look to the example of our Heavenly Teacher, and to the lesson He gave to His disciples, to us and to all Christians of every generation and age: ‘Learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and you shall find rest unto your souls’, and ‘When you shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do’.”
My dear spiritual child in the Lord, our Holy Fathers have told us, that each sin, whether great and deadly, or small and pardonable, is defeated by the opposite corresponding virtue. That is, envy is defeated by love; pride by humility; avarice by poverty; greed and hard-heartedness by charity and compassion; negligence by diligence; gluttony and servitude to the stomach by fasting and restraint; idle talk by silence; criticism and slander by self- reproach and prayer; lewdness, fornication, adultery and other sins of the flesh by remembrance of death, the Last Judgement to come, and the recompense of Hell.
In general, every evil is defeated by every virtue. As Prophet David says, ‘Turn away from evil and do good’. If you wish to be delivered also from sin of pride, the mother and cause of all sin and evil, you will be delivered through humility.
Excellent.
But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name (John 1:12)
