Saint Nektarios of Aegina

1846–1920 · 19th c. · 2 works

Saint Nektarios of Aegina was a Greek bishop, Metropolitan of Pentapolis, and one of the most widely venerated Orthodox saints of the modern era. Active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, he is honored across the Orthodox world as a wonderworker, renowned for the miracles and healings attributed to his intercession.

Born Anastasios Kephalas at Selybria in Thrace in 1846, he became a monk and was ordained, and served in Egypt under the Patriarchate of Alexandria as Metropolitan of Pentapolis, until he was forced out by intrigue. Returning to Greece, he directed the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens and later founded the Holy Trinity Convent on the island of Aegina, where he spent his final years.

He left numerous theological, moral, and devotional writings, including works on Christian ethics and a study of the precious Cross, along with hymns to the Mother of God; he is widely known for the Marian hymn “Agni Parthene” (“O Virgin Pure”).

He reposed on Aegina on 8 November 1920 and was glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1961. In the Orthodox Church he is commemorated on 9 November.

Sources: Orthodox Church in America — Saint Nectarius Kephalas, Metropolitan of Pentapolis · Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America — Chapel: Saints & Feasts