Humility, forgiveness, and healings - especially of cancer
Meet a modern saint
“I am building a lighthouse for you, and God will put a light in it that shall shine to the ends of the world.”
Saint Nektarios is one of the most recently glorified saints in the Orthodox Church.
§ I
Who was this saint?
Saint Nektarios of Aegina lived not long ago at all - he died in 1920, close enough that photographs of him still exist. He was born Anastasios Kephalas in 1846 in a Greek town called Selybria (today Silivri, in Turkey), which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. His family was so poor that at age fourteen he had to leave home to look for work, and he spent his teenage years reading Scripture whenever he could between shifts at a tobacco shop.
As an adult he became a monk on the Greek island of Chios, then a priest and finally, in 1889, a bishop of the ancient Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt. But jealous clergy told terrible lies about him, and the Patriarch sent him away without ever letting him defend himself. Nektarios never said an angry word in return. He simply went back to Greece, taught poor seminary students, and eventually founded a small convent on the island of Aegina, where he spent the rest of his life in prayer.
Since his death, thousands and thousands of miracles have been reported through his prayers - so many that Orthodox Christians all over the world call him 'the Saint of Our Century.' He is especially loved by people who are sick, and he is famous for healing those with cancer."
§ II
A saint's story.
This is the true story of a poor boy who became a bishop, was betrayed by fellow clergy, forgave every one of them - and is now one of the most beloved miracle-working saints in the whole Orthodox Church.
Chapter 11846–1860
A Poor Boy from Thrace.
In a small town called Selybria on the Sea of Marmara - today it's the Turkish town of Silivri - a baby boy was born on October 1, 1846. His parents, Dimos and Vassiliki Kephalas, were pious Greek Christians but very poor, and they named their son Anastasios. Back then, Selybria was part of the huge Ottoman Empire, and Greek Orthodox families like his had to hold tightly to their faith even though they were ruled by others.
From the time he was little, Anastasios loved to pray and to learn. His mother taught him Psalm 50 (the great psalm of repentance that begins, 'Have mercy on me, O God…'), and he memorized it and said it aloud with a serious heart. But the family was struggling, and when Anastasios was only about fourteen, his parents sent him away by ship to Constantinople, the great imperial city, to find work.
Chapter 21860–1876
The Tobacco Shop and the Schoolroom.
In Constantinople the young Anastasios found work in a tobacco shop. It sounds unglamorous, but he had a clever idea: on the paper the shop used to wrap up its goods, he would carefully write out verses from the Bible and sayings of the saints, so that whoever bought something might read a word of God at home. He never stopped reading and studying whenever he had a free moment.
At about age twenty, in 1866, he sailed to the Greek island of Chios and became a village schoolteacher. He taught children for several years, but his heart pulled him toward the monastic life. On November 7, 1876, he entered the ancient Monastery of Nea Moni on Chios and was tonsured a monk with the name Lazarus. Not long after, when he was ordained a deacon, he received the name by which the whole Orthodox world knows him today: Nektarios.
Chapter 31882–1890
The Young Bishop of Egypt.
A kind benefactor named Ioannis Horemis noticed the young deacon's brilliance and paid for him to finish high school in Athens and then study theology at the University of Athens, where he graduated in 1885. The Patriarch of Alexandria, Sophronios, invited Nektarios to Egypt, ordained him a priest in 1886, and put him in charge of important work in Cairo. Then, on January 15, 1889, in the Cathedral of Saint Nicholas in Cairo, Sophronios consecrated him Metropolitan of Pentapolis - a title from an ancient group of five cities in what is now Libya.
Everyone loved the new bishop. He preached beautifully, cared for the poor, and lived humbly. But some other clergy grew jealous. They whispered to the aging Patriarch that Nektarios was secretly plotting to steal his throne - a complete lie. Sadly, Sophronios believed them. On May 3, 1890, he removed Nektarios from his duties, and in July he ordered him to leave Egypt. Nektarios did not fight back or defend himself. He simply obeyed, and left in silence.
Chapter 41891–1908
The Long Years of Slander.
When Nektarios arrived in Greece, he discovered that the rumors had traveled faster than he had. No one would give a job to a bishop under a cloud of suspicion. For months he was almost homeless, walking each day to government offices to beg for any assignment. Finally, in February 1891, he was given a humble post as a traveling preacher in the region of Euboia - a job so small that any village monk could have done it.
He never complained. He preached with joy, prayed for those who had slandered him, and quietly won hearts back. In 1894 the Greek government appointed him director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens, where for fourteen years he trained young men to become priests. There is a famous story from those years: when the school's janitor became sick and was about to be fired, Bishop Nektarios himself secretly did the man's work at night - even cleaning the toilets - so the janitor could keep his job.
Chapter 51904–1920
The Lighthouse of Aegina.
In 1904, some devout young women asked Nektarios to help them start a monastery. He remembered a ruined old church of the Holy Trinity on the little island of Aegina, near Athens, and he began rebuilding it with his own hands. His very first nun was a blind sister named Xenia, whom he made the superior. In December 1908, at age sixty-two, he resigned from the Rizarios School and moved to Aegina for good.
He told his nuns something puzzling: 'I am building a lighthouse for you, and God will put a light in it that will shine to the ends of the world.' They didn't understand yet, but he meant that his own holiness would one day draw pilgrims from every land. On Aegina he prayed, wrote books of theology, gardened, hauled stones, heard confessions, and comforted the sick. Even here, more slanders followed him - but he simply forgave and prayed on.
Chapter 61920 and beyond
The Miracle in the Hospital Bed.
In September 1920, very sick with a painful illness, Saint Nektarios was carried to the Aretaeion Hospital in Athens. The staff put him in a charity ward for the poor and the dying, because he was dressed so simply that the intern could hardly believe he was a bishop. For two months he suffered in silence, thanking God for the trial. At half past ten on the night of November 8, 1920, he fell asleep in the Lord at seventy-four years old.
Then came the first miracle. As the nurses prepared his body, they took off his sweater and set it for a moment on the bed beside him - where a paralyzed man was lying. The moment the sweater touched the paralyzed man, he stood up and began to walk. A sweet fragrance filled the room. His body was carried back to Aegina and buried by his friend Savvas of Kalymnos, who later painted the first icon of the saint. Years later, when the grave was opened, his body was found whole and unchanged, giving off the same beautiful fragrance. On April 20, 1961, Patriarch Athenagoras of Constantinople officially proclaimed him a saint - and the healings have never stopped.
§ III
A little prayer.
A short prayer you can say when someone you love is sick, or when someone has hurt you and you need help forgiving them.
Holy Father Nektarios, you were slandered, yet you forgave. You were exiled, yet you kept praying. You suffered pain, yet you thanked God.
Please pray for me when things are unfair, and help me forgive people who hurt me. Pray for everyone I know who is sick, especially those with cancer, that Christ our God would heal them. Amen.
Amen.
§ IV
Did you know?
Here are some surprising true things about Saint Nektarios that you might not know.
📜
Scripture on Wrapping Paper
As a poor teenage worker in a Constantinople tobacco shop, Anastasios wrote out Bible verses and sayings of the Fathers on the paper the shop used to wrap goods, so his customers would take a bit of Scripture home with them.
🧹
The Bishop Who Cleaned Toilets
When a janitor at the Rizarios School in Athens was too sick to work and about to lose his job, Bishop Nektarios secretly did his cleaning for him - including scrubbing the toilets at night - so the man's family wouldn't go hungry.
🎵
He Wrote 'Agni Parthene'
Saint Nektarios composed the beloved Orthodox hymn to the Virgin Mary called 'Agni Parthene' ('O Pure Virgin'), which is still sung in Greek and many other languages around the world today.
👂
The Tapping in the Tomb
Pilgrims at his monastery on Aegina often say that when they press their ear against Saint Nektarios's tomb, they can hear a knocking or tapping sound - as though he is still active on behalf of those who ask his prayers.
🕯️
An Official Apology, 108 Years Later
In 1998, the Patriarchate of Alexandria - the very church that had unjustly exiled Nektarios in 1890 - formally asked the saint's forgiveness for the way his predecessors had treated him.
§ V · For grown-ups
A Note for Grown-Ups
"
Saint Nektarios of Aegina (1846–1920) is one of the most beloved modern Orthodox saints, glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on April 20, 1961. His life offers powerful teaching moments for children: he responded to injustice with silence, forgiveness, and prayer, and was vindicated only after long suffering.
Two areas may need gentle context. First, the nature of the slanders against him in Egypt - false accusations of ambition and moral impropriety - is handled here at an age-appropriate level. Second, his final illness (prostate/bladder cancer and cystitis) and his death in a charity ward for the destitute are important to the story, because his very first posthumous miracle happened at that hospital bedside. He is especially invoked today by those suffering from cancer, and countless documented healings continue to be attributed to his prayers.
