St. Nektarios the Wonderworker,Bishop of Pentapolis of Aegina Commemorated on November 9

 

 

Every person must cultivate his own world, to train it, to make it [soft as] cotton. Among us, “our words should pour forth with honey, the hand should reach towards your sister like cotton…”, said St. Nektarios.

–Eldress Makrina of Portaria

 

 

 

Saint Nectarios, Metropolitan of Pentapolis, attained the same enviable level of sainthood as the great luminaries and Saints of our Church. He did not ascend upon pillars, nor did he withdraw to hermitages, nor did he contend with cruel persecutions and tragic tortures, like those great combatants of our holy religion, the Martyrs. What we can say is that his whole life was nothing else than a continuous doxology to God, and a tireless effort and assiduous concern to benefit suffering society morally and religiously. He lived in the world, but was not, as the Saviour says, of the world. He trod on the earth yet conducted himself like a citizen of heaven. He had the form of man, but lived like an angel. He was clothed with flesh, but was a strict keeper and guardian of chastity. He associated with various kinds of persons, but spoke as a spiritual man, alien to the present world. He was transported by sublime ideals and warmed by the aspiration for moral perfection, and hence he abided in a state of inner calm and blessedness. His was a peacemaking holiness, inspired by evangelical virtue and meditation on the eternal Kingdom of God.

 

However, there glowed in the depths of his heart a burning love for the peace and quiet of life in the monasteries.

In Aegina, about two hours by foot from the main city down by the sea, He founded a little church which was once a small monastery dedicated in honor of the Most Holy Trinity. He gathered a community of nuns, appointing the blind nun Xenia as abbess, while he himself served as Father Confessor. Since he had a gift for spiritual direction, many people came to Aegina to confess to him. Eventually, the community grew to thirty nuns. He used to tell them, “I am building a lighthouse for you, and God shall put a light in it that will shine forth to the world. Many will see this light and come here to Aegina.” They did not understand what he was telling them, that he himself would be that beacon, and that people would come there to venerate his holy relics.

 

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                                                                                                                            Νεκτάριος Αιγινης_St. Nectarios of Aegina_прп.Нектарий Аэгинский__797407931386603458_n_L

 

On September 20, 1920 the nun Euphemia brought an old man in black robes, who was obviously in pain, to the Aretaieion Hospital in Athens. This was a state hospital for the poor. The intern asked the nun for information about the patient.

 

“Is he a monk?” he asked.

 

“No, he is a bishop.”

 

The intern laughed and said, “Stop joking and tell me his name, Mother, so that I can enter it in the register.”

 

“He is indeed a bishop, my child. He is the Most Reverend Metropolitan of Pentapolis.”

 

The intern muttered, “For the first time in my life I see a bishop without a panagia or cross, and more significantly, without money.”

 

Then the nun showed the saint’s credentials to the astonished intern who then admitted him. For two months St Nectarius suffered from a disease of the bladder. At ten thirty on the evening of November 8, 1920, he surrendered his holy soul to God. He died in peace 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.

 

The day he reposed, the whole hospital was filled with such a fragrance that all the patients, nurses, and doctors would come out in the halls to ask where such a fragrance was coming from. For some days after, they could not use the room where they placed his relics because of the fragrance, even though they kept the windows opened, so strong was the fragrance. This room is now a chapel dedicated to the Saint.

 

By the will of God, years later the relics of the Saint dissolved, and what we have now are his Holy bones. The following story illustrates this:

“There was a rich old lady who had met Nektarios at the monastery and he was her confessor several times. She was now living in Piraeus alone, and cried both day and night over the fact that Nektarios’ body had dissolved. She hoped that Nektarios’ body would be eternally intact, like the relic of Saint Dionysios on her native island of Zakynthos. She thought that this would be a tribute to Orthodoxy. One night, the old woman saw Nektarios alive at her bedside. He smiled lovingly and sweetly at her. “Why are you so sad?” he asked her. “It was I who prayed to God to allow the decomposition of my body. I did this for all the pious Christians, for whose consolation the relics will now be able to be sent around Greece and around the world.” The old woman awoke a bit shaken, but was nevertheless filled with gratitude at seeing her beloved confessor alive and speaking to her.”

 

 

(from The Saint of our Century by Chondropoulos)]