The Holy and Sacred Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate canonized on Saturday, October 18, 2025, Hieromonk Niphon Ionescu of Prodromos Holy Skete and Monk Nektarios Cretu.
According to the official announcement, “The Holy Body unanimously decided, following the request of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania, to include in the Church’s calendar of saints the Hieromonk Niphon and the Monk Nektarios, who lived an ascetic and saintly life on Mount Athos.”
Two other Romanian monks were recently added to the ranks of the saints by the Ecumenical Patriarchate following the proposal of Patriarch Daniel: the Venerable Dionysios (Ignat) of Kolitsou and Petronios (Tănase) of Prodromou.
According to the official announcement, “The Holy Body unanimously decided, following the request of His Beatitude Patriarch Daniel of Romania, to include in the Church’s calendar of saints the Hieromonk Niphon and the Monk Nektarios, who lived an ascetic and saintly life on Mount Athos.”
Two other Romanian monks were recently added to the ranks of the saints by the Ecumenical Patriarchate following the proposal of Patriarch Daniel: the Venerable Dionysios (Ignat) of Kolitsou and Petronios (Tănase) of Prodromou.
Hieromonk Niphon Ionescu (1799-1899)
He was born in Vaslui County to poor and deeply devout parents. Having heard of the renowned elder of Horaița Monastery, Archimandrite Irinarch Roseti, in 1826 he entered his brotherhood and became a monk, receiving the name Nathanael.
In 1840 he departed for Mount Athos together with the monk Nektarios from the same monastery. At first they lived at Koutloumousiou Monastery, and afterward they purchased a cell at Saint Anne's Skete. Here Father Nathanael became a stavrophore monk, taking the name Niphon.
Gathering many monks around him, some of whom came from Horaița Monastery, the stavrophore Niphon, with the help of his friend Nektarios, purchased a more spacious cell at a place called Kerasia (Cherry), on the estate of the Lavra Monastery, where he moved with his disciples.
In 1852, the hieroschemamonks Niphon and Nektarios laid the foundation of the church of Prodromou Skete. Eight years later, in 1860, the church had already been painted with icons. In that same year, the hierarch Isaiah Vicol (who later served as Bishop of Roman from 1868 to 1878), accompanied by several clergy and two hundred pilgrims from the homeland, consecrated the new church and appointed the hieroschemamonk Niphon Ionescu as abbot of Prodromou Skete.
In 1870, however, Father Niphon withdrew from the abbacy and returned to Romania. There he founded Bucium Skete in Iași, as a metochion of Prodromou. After several years he returned to the Holy Mountain and withdrew into solitude with his disciple in a cave near the sea, twenty minutes away from the monastery he had founded. Nearby he also had a small chapel dedicated to the Nativity of Christ, where he performed his daily rule and celebrated the Divine Liturgy on feast days.
Venerable Niphon the Hieromonk, first Dikaios of the Lavra Skete of the Forerunner, will be annually commemorated on July 13.
Monk Nektarios Cretu (the Vlach) (1804-1899)
Venerable Nektarios (Crețu), the Protopsaltis, was one of the most spiritually accomplished Romanian monks who labored on Mount Athos, and in his time he was regarded as foremost among the chanters of the Holy Mountain.
He was born in 1804 in the city of Huși. He attended the school of the hierarch Gregory (†1846) at Golia, and afterward went to Neamț Monastery, near his brother, the monk Athanasios. He became a monk, receiving the name Nektarios.
In 1842 the two brothers settled in one of the huts of Saint Anne's Skete on Athos.
In 1854, they left their hut and joined the brotherhood at Prodromou Skete, which was being built at that time. In his old age, he withdrew into solitude in a cell in the Vigla wilderness.
He departed to the Lord on November 18, 1899.
Venerable Nektarios the Monk, the Prodromite, the Protopsaltis, will be annually commemorated on November 18.
