By Fr. Bill Olnhausen, November 9, 2018
His Death
On November 8 in 1920, Saint Nektarios the Wonderworker died. The miracles began immediately. Today he is one of the most revered Orthodox saints of the 20th century.
Bishop Nektarios had been ill, so he was taken from the monastery on Aegina to a hospital in Athens. The intern at first could not believe that such a simply dressed man was really a bishop. He was diagnosed with incurable cystitis and placed in a ward for men who were destitute and dying. After about two months in pain, he died. As Saint Nektarios’ body was being prepared to be taken back to Aegina, his shirt was placed on the bed next to him, in which lay a man long paralyzed. The man quickly stood up and began to walk. The room was filled with a sweet fragrance for many days. It has since become a chapel.
His Life
But let’s go back to the beginning. This will be a quick summary of his life and miracles. Many more detailed accounts are available online. If you want the full story get the book Saint Nektarios: The Saint of our Century available from Amazon and many Orthodox sources.
Nektarios came from a poor family in the town of Selybria in Thrace, then part of the Turkish empire – born in 1846, baptized Anastasios. When he came of age he went to Constantinople to find work. There is a story that he had no money for a ticket, but the boat would not move till they let him aboard. And that there was a storm on the way, but when Anastasios let his cross down into the sea on a string (within it was a piece of the true Cross), the wind ceased. In the process he lost his cross, but later in the voyage there was a knocking beneath the ship, and when they docked they found the cross stuck to the bottom of the boat. These stories may sound legendary, but they are nothing compared to what would come later.
Young Anastasios loved to read and pray. When he was 29 he became a monk on the island of Chios, then deacon (when he took the name Nektarios) and then went to assist the Patriarch of Alexandria who ordained him as priest and soon made him a bishop. Apparently because the Patriarch recognized his brilliance and gave him “special treatment”, some clergy took a disliking to him and undercut him. I think Nektarios had little use for the intricacies of ecclesiastical politics. Finally, they convinced the Patriarch to anathematize him.
Nektarios went to study in Athens, where for a time he lived in poverty. Eventually he was appointed Bishop for Pentapolis on the island of Euboia. But again his enemies from Egypt spread stories about him, and he was removed from office. He returned to Athens, again lived in poverty for some years, till he was appointed head of the School of Theology in Athens. Still his enemies dogged him. Finally, in 1910, weary of all this, at the request of some devout young women he retired to the island of Aegina just off Athens, where he established Holy Trinity Women’s Monastery for them. There he wrote, preached, taught, counseled and heard the confessions of the many who came to him. Yet again some criticized him for this, and a succession of Metropolitans went back and forth about whether the monastery had been properly authorized.
Externally Saint Nektarios led not a very significant life. It was lived under a cloud of continual accusation and suspicion, all of which proved untrue and undeserved. These difficulties could have made him angry; instead he gained the virtue of humility. Once a janitor who worked at the School of Theology fell ill and was about to lose his job, which would have meant his family would fall into poverty. Lest that should happen, for an extended time Bishop Nektarios did his work for him secretly, even cleaning the toilets every night, till he recovered. The story came out later. Once his Archbishop came to the monastery on Aegina, saw an old man shabbily dressed, working in the gardens. When he discovered it was Nektarios, he chastised him for doing work “demeaning” to a bishop.
His Miracles
If you saw the 2022 movie “Man of God” about Saint Nektarios, this is what the movie didn’t cover.
After he died, Saint Nektarios’ body was taken to the monastery on Aegina for burial, while it continued to exude the fragrance. They buried him in a simple grave, planning to give him better burial in the spring. During the winter he appeared frequently to his nuns as if alive, greatly startling them at first. (In the same way, Saint Anthony still shows up at Saint Anthony’s Monastery in Egypt.) However, they got accustomed to it, as he counseled the gerontissa (abbess) and the others on how to continue in his absence – if you can call that absence! In the spring they opened his grave and were amazed to find his body and even his vestments perfectly preserved, and again the sweet fragrance. Lemon flowers which had been buried with him were still fresh, though they wilted after about 8 to 10 hours.
After a year and a half and again after three years, according to Greek custom of the time (which still continues in the monasteries), they exhumed his body which should have decayed by now, so that his bones could be put in a vault. But again his relics were found incorrupt and fragrant. After 10 years it was the same. About 20 years later, Saint Nektarios’ grave was again opened, and his body had disintegrated. A woman who had gone to him for confessions was disconsolate, thinking evidence that he was a saint was now gone, till one night she looked up and saw Bishop Nektarios. He explained: I prayed for this, so that some of my relics could be distributed in the world.
Later when his grave was opened again, this time the fragrance was so strong that it could be smelled even on the road way down below the monastery. According to the story, at the time a bus had a flat tire. While it was being changed, it is said that a woman (one account says of dubious reputation) asked what the lovely fragrance was. On being told she went up to the monastery, repented and never resumed her former ways.
There have been a multitude of miracles both at his shrine and elsewhere, in Greece and around the world. He has been seen from time to time, both in peoples’ dreams and when awake. On the internet, look up “Miracles of Saint Nektarios”, and you will find many testimonies. For example: testimonies.
1 http://www.sprint.net.au/~corners/Nov98/StNectarios.htm
2 http://www.saintsophiadc.com/2012/11/miracle-of-saint-nektarios-the-healing-of-fr-nektarios-vitalis-of-cancer/
3 Here is an account from a Byzantine (Eastern rite) Roman Catholic (!) source: http://www.byzcath.org/forums/ubbthreads.php/topics/396038/Appearance_of_St_Nektarios
It is said that if people don’t recognize him, he may identify himself – though at other times people don’t discover who it was till later. He may tell them to add a few drops of the oil from the lamps which burn in his chapel to their drinking water. His specialty is curing cancer – or otherwise he provides a good death.
In all my trips to Greece, I think I have never seen a church that did not have a prominent icon of Saint Nektarios. Devotion to him is widespread around the world. During the Proskimidi (the priest’s preparation for Divine Liturgy), the Liturgikon of our Antiochian Archdiocese of North America three “Wonderworkers” are commemorated: Saint Nicholas, Saint Spyridon and Saint Nektarios – quite a “promotion” for such a recent saint.
Sainthood
On April 20, 1961, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople declared Nektarios to be a saint worthy of veneration and fixed his feast day as November 9, so as not to interfere with the November 8 celebration of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel. This reflected the usual Orthodox method of declaring sainthood. First the people recognize men and women as saints, venerate them, ask for their help and report miracles. Then in due time the hierarchs conclude this must be “for real” and announce what everybody already knows. Finally, in 1998 the Synod of the Patriarchate of Alexandria formally lifted the anathema they had placed on him (it took them long enough!) and apologized to him for the way their predecessors had treated him.
His chief relics still lie at the monastery on Aegina. I visited there about ten times, and each time there were many pilgrims. There is an ineffable light about the place, even on dark days – a peace, a joy, a sweetness. I love it there.
Lesser relics have been distributed around the world. We are blessed to have a small relic of Saint Nektarios at Saint Nicholas, Cedarburg, which we bring out for veneration on November 9 and other times as appropriate. We have a small shrine to Saint Nektarios, and it is clear that many of our people now turn to him.
Thank you, Saint Nektarios.
~Adapted from Fr. Bill’s Orthodox Blog—Orthodoxy from the Third Coast, https://frbillsorthodoxblog.com/2018/11/09/91-saint-nektarios-his-life-death-and-what-happened-after-that/.
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