A saint's day
St Nektarios of Aegina
Anastasius Kephalas was born in Thrace in 1846 and took the name Nektarios as a monk. Made Metropolitan of Pentapolis, he was slandered by envious men and removed, left without home or income, yet he never defended himself and served quietly as a preacher and as director of the Rizarios Seminary in Athens. On Aegina he restored the Holy Trinity Monastery with his own hands; he reposed in 1920, and his first miracle came within moments.
The dates
- Kept on
- 9 November (22 November on the Old Calendar)
- Next, New Calendar
- Next, Old Calendar
The New Calendar (the Greek, Antiochian, Romanian and Bulgarian churches, the OCA and most converts) keeps fixed feasts on the church date; the Old Calendar (the Russian, Serbian and Georgian churches, Jerusalem and Mount Athos) keeps them 13 days later. Pascha and the feasts that follow it are kept on the same day by both.
How the day is kept
Orthodox Christians pray to him above all for the healing of cancer: families read his akathist and bring oil from the lamp before his icon.
The sick still gather at his tomb on Aegina.
He is widely loved in Russia, where he is called Nektary of Aegina.
Name days
These names keep their name day on this feast: