In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Today in the Holy Church we celebrate the feast of one of the great wonder workers and luminaries of our time, St. Nectarios of Eginah, that humble bishop, gentle teacher, and patient sufferer who became a beacon of light in our dark and unbelieving world. Many of you are familiar with the movie Man of God, which is based on his life.
And what’s so amazing is that this saint lived not in ancient times, but in our own modern age, so close to us in time that we even have his photograph, living in the fast-paced, restless world of modern society, St. Nectarios faced many of the same temptations that we faced, ambition, distraction, injustice. He understood the struggles of our generation and shows us by his example that even in such a world it is possible to live a life of holiness. I like this morning to share with you a little bit about his life and what we can learn from him.
St. Nectarios was born in 1846 in the small town of Solivria in Thrace, unto a poor, but deeply faithful family. His parents had little to give, yet his mother gave him what is most precious, the knowledge of God. She taught her children the Psalms and raised them in the fear of the Lord.
The first thing to note, saints don’t just appear out of nowhere. When parents teach their children to pray, when they bless their meals with the sign of the cross, when they speak kindly to one another, when they bring their little ones to church and fill their home with the name of Jesus, they are forming saints. If we want our homes to produce saints, our homes must first become little churches filled with prayer, humility, and forgiveness. Our children will learn from us because our home is the training ground of all virtue.
As a young boy, St. Nectarios had an insatiable thirst for learning. He desired to study theology, but his family was too poor to send him to school. So at the age of fourteen, with the blessing of his parents, he set out for Constantinople to find work.
He had no money to pay for the boat ride, so the captain of the boat laughed when he asked to travel for free. But when the captain refused him, the ship’s engine wouldn’t start. Only when he invited the young St. Nectarios aboard the boat did the engine finally start.
God himself had intervened on his behalf. When God calls a person, he provides the means. The problem is never that God withholds his help, but rather that we do not trust in him. Christ said, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.” St.
Nectarios didn’t wait to have everything arranged before obeying God. No matter the storms or obstacles that confront us in life, the Lord provides a way for those who trust him and seek to do his will. When he reached Constantinople, he found work at a merchant shop. He was underpaid, poorly treated, and often hungry.
But instead of complaining, he prayed. He attended the Divine Liturgy, visited monasteries, read the Holy Scriptures, and the writings of the Holy Fathers. At work, he wrote the sayings from the Father’s unwrapping paper of the customer’s purchases, hoping to feed their souls, even as he wrapped their goods. When his suffering became unbearable, he sat down, and he wrote a letter addressed to Christ.
“My little Christ,” he wrote, “I do not have an ape in our shoes, please send them to me. You know how much I love you.” A nearby shopkeeper, moved by his simple faith, secretly sent him money. And St. Nectarios rejoiced, saying, “My little Christ sent me the money.
Do you see his purity, his simplicity, his faith?“ He did not see coincidence. He saw divine providence. He trusted in God. The woman in today’s gospel with the issue of blood spent all that she had on physicians and was not healed until she came and touched the hem of Christ’s garment.
St. Nectarios teaches us that true healing, true help, comes only from the Lord. The world offers many types of physicians, physicians of body, of mind, of pleasure, of distraction, but only Christ heals the soul. Many faith in Christ brings true peace.
On one of his journeys to visit a holy place, St. Nectarios was caught in a violent storm that threatened to sink the boat that he was in. The crew panicked, but the young St. Nectarios prayed.
Taking from his neck a small cross containing a relic of the true cross, he dipped it into the sea and said, “Silence be still,” and the storm ceased. The same Jesus who calmed the Sea of Galilee worked through St. Nectarios. But St.
Nectarios was saddened because his cross had fallen into the sea. As the boat continued on, the crew heard sounds of knocking coming from the bottom of the boat. After the boat docked, St. Nectarios got off the boat and started walking away.
Suddenly the captain began calling out for St. Nectarios to come back. The captain had the crew inspect the area where the sound was coming from, and guess what they found? The cross stuck to the hull of the boat.
The Lord returned the cross to him as a sign that every trial accepted in faith becomes a blessing returned a hundredfold. Every storm we face in life, every injustice, every illness, every fear is an invitation to trust God more deeply, St. Nectarios once wrote, “The man who is not tested will be ignorant of the truth. Trials are an indisputable witness of God’s love and compassion.” We often think the opposite, that suffering means God has abandoned us.
In reality, suffering is how he draws closer to us. He allows storms not to destroy us, but to teach us to cry to him, “Lord, save me,” and to discover that he is already in the boat with us. At the age of 20, St. Nectarios became a village teacher on the island of Hyos.
He taught children for ten years, living a life of prayer, fasting, and simplicity. He never missed the divine liturgy and inspired his students to love scripture and the saints. He taught them by his example, “Are we doing the same? Are we an example to those in our life, to our family members, our children, our friends, our co-workers?
Do we bring them closer to Christ or drive them away by our complaints and hypocrisy? The Lord calls us to be a light to the world, not only by our words, but by how we live. The example of St. Nectarios challenges us to make our homes and workplaces into small schools of holiness, where others can see and experience the peace of Christ in us.
At the age of 30, he entered Neamoni Manasana.