Hierarch Nektarios of Aegina

St. Nektarios of Aegina (born Anastasios Kephalas) was born on October 1/13, 1846, into a poor family in Selybria, Thrace, then part of the Ottoman Empire. As a youth he went to Constantinople to earn a living, working in a shop while reading spiritual books at night. He later taught on the island of Chios, where he was tonsured a monk with the name Lazarus (1876), and subsequently took the great schema with the name Nektarios. He studied theology at the University of Athens, was ordained hieromonk and later archimandrite. In 1889 he was consecrated Metropolitan of Pentapolis and appointed patriarchal exarch in Egypt, where his popularity with the flock provoked jealous rivals: a slanderous denunciation led to his unjust dismissal from the see in 1890, without formal charges or a chance to defend himself. He spent years in poverty and undeserved disgrace, working as a preacher and later as director of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School in Athens (1894–1908), where he displayed exemplary humility and holiness. In 1904 he founded the Holy Trinity Convent on the island of Aegina, retiring there in 1908 to spend his final years in fasting, prayer, and spiritual direction. He died on November 8/21, 1920, in a public hospital for the poor in Athens; a sweet fragrance was noted at his repose. He was canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1961 and is venerated as one of Orthodoxy's most celebrated wonderworkers and healers, especially of cancer. His relics rest in the convent he founded on Aegina; their glorified translation to the convent's new church took place in 1953.