My beloved spiritual children in Christ Our Only True God and Our Only True Savior,
CHRIST IS IN OUR MIDST! HE WAS, IS, AND EVER SHALL BE.
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THE HOLY LIFE OF SAINT NEKTARIOS, METROPOLITAN OF PENTAPOLIS (Part III)
The Saint's Life in Athens
Saint Nektarios arrived in Athens in 1889 with the intention of going on to Mount Athos so as to lead the Monastic life, although many were pressing him to stay in Greece, especially the ever-memorable Bishop of Patras; for he knew the righteous man's holy life and his Divinely inspired preaching.
Although the Saint had no money for his daily bread, he would not ask for charity, but continued his evangelic life; living on little and in poverty. He hearkened to the words of the holy Apostle Iakovos (James) who counseled to "Deem it all joy whenever ye fall into diverse temptations, knowing that the testing of your faith worketh out patience" (James 1:2-3).
Many people were confessing to the Saint and coming to his lectures. Some pious young women approached the Saint, and one of them, Chrysanthe, was blind. The Saint was most impressed with her guilelessness and gifts of the Spirit. It was the women's desire to become nuns. He prayed for them and begged God to help him found a Women's Monastery near Athens. The young women found a place on the island of Aegina, an island not far from Piraeus by ferry boat. There already was an old and deserted Monastery in ruins, dedicated to the Life-Giving Spring. It was a difficult and thorny terrain to navigate, being some six and a half kilometers from where the ferry docked. A certain medical doctor, one Peppas, offered to assist the young women and donate the land. He was also the governor of the island and had long had the pious desire to see the Monastery flourish again.
In the meantime, his health was deteriorating. He was suffering from headaches, malaise, and weakness, because he had taken on extra custodial work; thus, only with difficulty did he carry out his lectures. The school custodian had fallen ill and was taken to the hospital for surgery on his kidneys. His convalescence required two and a half months. Lest he should lose his position, the holy bishop assumed the janitorial duties. At dawn, he would clean toilets and mop the floors. When the janitor returned unexpectedly and found the bishop on his hands and knees, with his rason pulled up, scrubbing the floor, he was shocked and started shaking. The bishop, Saint Nektarios, calmed him, and said, "Worry not, my child, I shall not be taking your job." He then comforted him, and the janitor fell to his knees and kissed the bishop's rason.
Saint Nektarios first visited Aegina in the summer of 1904. The whole island was moved to meet him. The priest also went to greet him. A fifteen-year-old boy, named Spyro, under the influence of an evil spirit was shouting, "The bishop is coming. He is coming to save this place. He shall build a church and start the largest Monastery." The Saint went over to the boy, and lifted up his bishop's staff. He then commanded that the evil and unclean spirit dwelling in the boy should come out. "Spirit of Python," I command you, in the Name of Jesus Christ the crucified, to come out!" The youth stood up and opened his eyes, bowed and kissed the bishop's hand. Saint Nektarios spoke to him kindly. Spyro said he had suffered with convulsions. The Saint said, "No longer shall you be bothered by convulsions." The holy man then admonished him and dismissed him in peace.
When the Saint viewed the aspect of the future Women's Monastery, he was well pleased. However, at 58 years old, he was concerned about the welfare and guidance of these young women who put their trust in him. The Saint committed the matter to God...The Saint returned to Athens and prepared himself with prayer and fasting to visit the new Metropolitan of Athens, Theokletos, whose permission was needed to reopen the old Monastery of Xantos. When friends asked how those women were expected to start a Women's Monastery without money, the Saint remarked, "God shall provide. No true spiritual work is achieved by money or depending on human abilities." The Saint was granted an interview with Metropolitan Theokletos, who not only agreed to the plan, but also offered to help by granting synodical recognition and more novices from Sparta. The holy Nektarios returned to his office and immediately wrote to the young women.
The Saint wrote countless letters, pleading for assistances that the church and Women's Monastery in Aegina might be established. Finally, on the 1st of July, 1906, the groundbreaking ceremony took place. Saint Nektarios dedicated the new Women's Monastery to the Holy Trinity. His father love for the nuns knew no bounds. Every penny went for medicines and the other needs of those young women. At length he tonsured them, and Chrysanthe, the future Gerondisa or Egoumenisa (Abbess), became Mother Xene. Saint Nektarios could not be absent from his duties as Director of the Rizarios School; so in his absence from Aegina, Archimandrite Theodosios served the nuns. On Sundays he would dispatch a priest to serve them. This arrangement would continue until 1908, when, in December, Dean Nektarios submitted his letter of resignation as Director of the Rizarios School.
On the 21st of October, 1907, Saint Nektarios wrote to the nuns in Aegina regarding a vision: "The dream made an impression on me. I was standing at the foot of the reliquary of Saint Nicholas...He spoke to me, saying, 'I shall take thee up high, very high, but thou must make a silver throne for me.' In the past, I participated in having the poor church of Saint Nicholas in Cairo adorned in a grand manner. This, however, was the first time I beheld him in a dream. May the Name of the Lord be blessed."
When Saint Nektarios settled himself in Aegina, he took on many concerns and cares. He exhibited zeal and courage that the work might be accomplished with the help of God. He established the coenobitic system and the typikon according to the Holy Fathers. He set about instructing and guiding them according to the Monastic Canon, that they might glorify God properly. He was unceasingly demonstrating and educating them regarding the sacred forms of the services, and their good order and solemnity. He expounded upon living the angelic life in Christ-like-conduct. As a loving and compassionate father, he sought to cultivate and implant in their souls the fear of God, reverence, and compunction. He also desired to instill them with love for one another and obedience in imitation of Christ. The coenobitic Women's Monastery under the direction of the spiritually-advanced Gerondisa Xene (1904-1923), held all property in common, and all meals were eaten together. The holy Nektarios also led the life of a perfect monk and ascetic, keeping a most frugal diet. He was always possessed of a meek heart, and his ways and manner of life were simple, guileless, and humble. While he dwelt there, the Women's Monastery assembled thirty-three nuns.
The Saint himself served as priest for the Women's Monastery. All kinds of manual labor filled his days. Some of the work was heavy and harsh. Wearing an old cassock (raso) and monk's hood to protect him from the summer sun, he kept busy with cultivation and irrigation of the garden and fields of the Women's Monastery. His asceticism was extreme, as he utterly mortified his flesh and thoughts to the things of the world.
The Saint's Repose in Athens
Metropolitan Nektarios was admitted to an Athens hospital, the Aretaieion. He was brought in by two nuns, one being Mother Ephemia, together with the assistance of his particular friend, Kosta Sakkopoulos, an older man. The hospital personnel were somewhat surprised to observe the humility and simplicity of the former Metropolitan and Dean, for they had presumed that he was a simple elderly monk. When the holy man entered his room, which was for indigent patients, there were four beds, of which two were occupied. The bed next to Metropolitan Nektarios was occupied by a man who was paralyzed from the waist down, having suffered an accident by falling off a cliff while on horseback. Saint Nektarios, then 74 years old, was heard by Mother Ephemia uttering there last words from his lips: "Art Thou speaking to me, O Lord?" The holy man of God then surrendered his soul into the hands of the Lord on the 8th November, 1920, at midnight. A sweet-smelling fragrance thereupon permeated the hospital room. The nurse who prepared the dead came and was preparing the holy body of the Saint with the assistance of the nun. They removed his old woolen undershirt and for the sake of convenience, temporarily laid it upon the paralyzed man's bed. Suddenly, O the wonder! The previously paralyzed man began moving his legs, so that he was able to stand and walk about. He then gave glory to God shouting, "I am cured!" The undershirt had miraculous power!" The sweet scent persisted for days, even though the windows were left open. Today, that room is a chapel. The Saint's holy relics were taken to the Women's Monastery at Aegina and the Women's Monastery. The Saint was interred beside the pine tree that he loved, adjacent to the church.
The Rizarios School donated the tombstone. The Saint often appeared to the nuns, counseling them. It was necessary to better arrange the Saint's quickly devised grave. He was exhumed after five months and found to be incorrupt, as were the lemon flowers that had been placed in his coffin. The myrrh-like fragrance continued to pour forth from his holy relics. Since many were saying that he was a Saint and that the authorities ought to be notified, Gerondisa (Abbess) Xene counseled that they wait the customary three years. However, after eighteen months the holy relics were again exhumed and found to be both incorrupt and fragrant.
On the third anniversary of the Saint's repose, his holy relics were exhumed once more and found intact and fragrant. The holy relics of Saint Nektarios remained whole and incorrupt for 20 years, pouring forth an ineffable fragrance that gave perceptible proof of his sanctification and showed that God is wondrous in His Saints. He appeared as though he were sleeping.
Countless miracles continue to take place through the holy intercessions of the holy hierarch and wonder-worker Saint Nektarios who has much boldness before Christ, to preserve and protect Orthodox Christians form the inroads of heresy, from which, in his lifetime, he strenuously sought to safeguard the faithful. We therefore glorify this true lover of virtue, who appeared in recent times, as a wonder-worker of all kinds of diseases and a deliverer in every situation and a champion for those in need, and beg his intercessions before the Master Christ. (Source: The Great Synaxaristes of the Orthodox Church)
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"Glory Be To GOD For All Things!" - Saint John Chrysostom
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With sincere agape in His Holy Diakonia (Ministry)
The sinner and unworthy servant of God
+Father George