St. Nectarios Monastery

It's possible, that most of the modern Greeks don't know the mountain of Palaiochora, but Agios Nectarios is a synonym of the island, itself. If you enter the bus to Agios Marina (leaving from Aegina harbor and watch that half of the travelers get out of the bus at Agios Nectarios you can be sure those people are pilgrims, wandering to the patron saint, who is the last canonized symbol of the Greek-Orthodox Church.

Coming from Aegina, the monastery is situated opposite to the mountain of Palaiochora. The monastery has been built by Agios Nectarios himself-between 1904 and 1910 on top of the ruins of an older Byzantine church. He's also buried here. To give non-Greek-orthodox visitors an insight to the religious feelings of the believers, here the story of Agios Nectarios, born in Thrazia, 1846: He came from a poor family and had to go out and look for a job very early. When he was 14 years old, he went to Constantinople (Istanbul) to work in the tobacco-industries.

In his free time he learned how to read and write. Later he worked as a teacher on the island of Chios and 1875 (he was just 30 years old) did, he became a monk. The clerical authorities were very impressed by him, especially the bishop of Alexandria. He was nominated as a deacon and sent to Athens to complete his studies.

After nine years he was called to be the Archimandrites of Kairo. He was promoted to the secretary of the Patriarch-later he was sent to be the bishop of Pentapoli in Lybia. Developing his own ideas about God and the religion, he was accused of atheism. After years of fight he gave up and returned back to Aegina, three nuns followed him. He built the monastery to The Holy Trinity- it was administered by the community and he was the clerical leader.

In 1920 he got sick and went to hospital in Piraeus, where he died in the third class station! After his death a lot of wonders happened - they all were ascribed to him. In 1961 he was canonized by the Greek-Orthodox Church - the 9th of November is dedicated to him. Old inhabitants of the island still remind him as a very simple person. Although his performance was more in the humanity dimensions, he ´s one of the most popular patron saints of Greek. A lot of our tourist-friends, who saw all the churches, asked us, whether the people are very religious here-the surprising answer is a clear no! Comparing the Greek-orthodox churches with churches of other religions you won't find imposing or mighty things or symbols that could make the prayer feel small and insignificant. Orthodox churches are built in a way for the people to feel homey.

In the orthodox religion the human is seen as a potential sinner with the inclination to inconstancy. That means that the sin is a property of every human - the church must forgive but not punish. The name days of the patron saints are a good reason for celebrations and banquets. Even the churches change to real meeting places for the people to go and enjoy social life. There is no fanatic but a dignified celebration. In the villages on the island you can find the priest in the tavern, in the cafe or on the field like everybody else. They are also allowed to marry - for not loosing the connection to normal life. So we have a holy man here- a former worker and teacher who died in an ordinary hospital and who is still known by some of the people living here, personally. The orthodox religion is made for the people - that's the sense of the doctrine. If you want to visit the monastery, make sure your arms and legs are covered-we now know: Everybody is just a sinner.