On the occasion of today’s 180th anniversary of the birth of Saint Nektarios of Pentapolis, on October 1, 1846, in Selymbria of Eastern Thrace, I have composed and am publishing this article, which is dedicated to the Saint’s relationship with his particular homeland.
Selymbria of Eastern Thrace was the birthplace of Saint Nektarios, Metropolitan of Pentapolis in Libya, known in the world as Anastasios Kephalas. It was the city in which he first saw the light of life on October 1, 1846, received his initial education, and spent the first fourteen years of his earthly life.
Selymbria, which occupies a prominent place in ecclesiastical history, is situated on the Thracian coast of the Propontis, near Constantinople. As early as the eighteenth century, it had a marketplace, inns, workshops, coffeehouses, numerous shops, and old churches. The greater part of its population consisted of Greek Christians, with a few Jews and only a very small number of Turks scattered among them.
As early as the seventeenth century, there were two schools: one clerical school, founded at the expense of Metropolitan Kallinikos, and a general school, funded by the ruler of Wallachia, Alexander Mourouzis. In 1849, a girls’ school and a library were built, establishing Selymbria as a center of intellectual influence.
The discovery of unpublished letters of Saint Nektarios, the majority of which are addressed to the administrative council of the Rizarios Ecclesiastical School, reveals unknown aspects of the hierarch’s multifaceted pastoral activity as a patriot, fighting for the rights of the then-suffering Eastern Thrace and for the preservation of the Greek element there and its traditions.
In these same letters, the Saint appears as inseparably connected to his family home and his relatives, taking part in every aspect of their lives, assisting them in every possible way in their needs, and sharing in their joys and sorrows.
In his letter of September 15, 1894, the Saint recommended to the administrative council of the Rizarios School the appointment of a theological student from Tyroloi in Thrace as sacristan, replacing another student who had been ordained a deacon. At the end of his letter, the Saint supported his request that the young Thracian be appointed instead of another candidate with five clear arguments in his favor: a) his devotion to the Church; b) his inward desire to enter the priesthood; c) the certainty that his character, together with the knowledge he would acquire at the school, would enable him to become useful to the Church; d) the enrichment of the ranks of the clergy with priests of such standing as this young man in enslaved Greece; and e) his conviction that he would become a brave champion of the national interests in Thrace.
The aforementioned theological student was ultimately accepted at Rizarios, where he studied from 1895 to 1899.
The historical archive of Rizarios contains another letter from Saint Nektarios to the administrative council of the school, dated May 15, 1902, in which he submitted and supported the May 5, 1902, request of the “Thracian Brotherhood” that other young men from Thrace be accepted at the school, on the condition that the director himself would also contribute toward the payment of tuition and the other expenses of their studies. Unfortunately, for financial reasons, the request was rejected, as testified by the administrative council’s letter to the principal dated May 22, 1902.
In his letter of October 29, 1894, Saint Nektarios asked the members of the Rizarios council to accept his nephew, Themistokles Kephalas, as a boarder, on the condition that he enroll in a public school until he could be admitted as a resident student at Rizarios, after first taking the required examinations and being accepted.
The Saint promised the council that he would personally assume responsibility for the young man and would pay his monthly living expenses. Themistokles was the son of his brother Haralambis and was the first nephew whom the Saint took under his supervision.
At the meeting of the full council on January 18, 1895, the council accepted the principal’s nephew as a regular self-supporting student and communicated its decision in writing to the school treasurer and the director.
Themistokles entered as a regular student in the second preparatory class in the 1897–1898 school year. The letters of November 2 and December 10, 1897, express the director’s thanks to the administrative council for accepting his nephew Themistokles into the school.
Before the beginning of the 1898–1899 school year, Themistokles discontinued his studies at Rizarios for unknown reasons. His departure did not discourage Saint Nektarios; on the contrary, it created in him an intense desire to continue his spiritual contribution to his particular homeland, as an expression of gratitude for all that it had offered him during his childhood.
The Saint focused on the spiritual needs of Selymbria by seeking to raise young people who would be educated and develop a character “befitting the priesthood and befitting a Greek,” becoming preachers of “Greek Orthodoxy,” as he characteristically stated in one of his letters.
The bishop who was principal of the school enthusiastically consented to the request expressed by “Mr. Photios Kanakidis of Selymbria,” who asked “that his son Chrysostomos be accepted as a self-supporting student,” but, “because of his acknowledged poverty,” that “the requirement of the annual advance payment be set aside.”
Although his financial means were limited, in his letter of October 11, 1898, the Saint asked the school council to accept his request that a young man from Selymbria be admitted to Rizarios as a self-supporting student, one who would fulfill the above conditions, desire to put on the garment of the priesthood, and, after completing his studies, return to “suffering” Selymbria to offer his national and religious services there.
The Saint proposed to the council that a portion of his salary be withheld for the support of the aforementioned theological student. At the meeting of the full council on October 31, 1898, the above request of the principal bishop was accepted.
After Themistokles H. Kephalas left Rizarios, his father, Haralambis, sent his other son, Michael, in 1902 to be placed under the Saint’s protection. Because he was a weak student and could not meet the academic requirements of Rizarios, the Saint sent him to a public school in Athens, assuming not only his expenses but also his preparation for the entrance examinations of Rizarios, as testified by his letter to the administrative council of the school dated September 28, 1902.
Ultimately, Michael was accepted in the 1903–1904 academic year and remained at the school until 1906, as a scholarship student of the Monastery of Asomatoi in Petraki, at which point he discontinued his studies.
Another nephew was added to the number of the other two whom the Saint had taken under his protection. This was Eleutherios Stavridis, the grandson of his sister, who, although he had been warmly recommended by the Metropolitan of Selymbria and by K. X. Spiridis, president of the Thracian patriotic association, for admission as a scholarship student of the Rizarios endowment, was ultimately rejected by the school council at first.
This unexpected decision prompted the Saint to write a letter and a petition, dated October 12, 1907, in which he invoked a relevant article of the school’s regulations concerning the enrollment of children of professors and council members as external students. He asked the council to be so kind as to accept Eleutherios as an external student in the first class, after he had taken the required entrance examinations, and to permit him to reside in the administrative quarters.
In his petition, the Saint undertook to cover his nephew’s expenses for food and clothing, but he was unable to cover the entire cost. This was evidently due not to any unwillingness on his part, but rather to the additional expenses he had already undertaken since 1904: the establishment of the monastic brotherhood of Aegina, the restoration of the abandoned Monastery of Zoodochos Pege, the construction of cells, the maintenance of the ten-member brotherhood, the expenses of his journeys to and from Aegina, and the continuation of the publication of his writings. Nevertheless, the Saint once again hastened to offer his services and his practical love to his relatives.
In response to the written inquiry of Professor Nikolaos Papagiannopoulos, dated June 1, 1908, to the school council concerning the status of Eleftherios Stavridis, Papagiannopoulos being Saint Nektarios’s successor as director of Rizarios, the full council decided to accept the aforementioned student as a scholarship student funded by the Rizarios endowment for the following academic year, 1908–1909, thereby fulfilling an earlier desire of the former principal, Metropolitan Nektarios, as testified by his letters to Director Papagiannopoulos dated June 9 and October 16, 1907. Eleutherios attended the school from 1907 to 1910.
The letter sent by Saint Nektarios to the consul general of the Ottoman Empire at the end of September 1906 constitutes a kind of power of attorney, by which the Saint transferred his two privately owned houses in Selymbria to his brother Haralambis, on the condition that he would marry off two of his daughters with the proceeds from the sale of the houses. Until the repose of the Saint, these houses had not been sold, as they are also mentioned in his will.
The repose of Mariora Kephalas, the Saint’s unmarried sister, prompted the Saint to personally undertake the expense of the funeral service, the purchase of a grave in the First Cemetery of Athens, and the dedication of his work Christology to her memory.
His letter of May 26, 1900, constitutes a written request to the Rizarios council that the sum of five hundred drachmas be advanced to him to cover the expenses of Mariora’s funeral service.
Together with his letter of November 28, 1902, the Saint, in his capacity as director of Rizarios, sent the president of the “Christian Archaeological Society” two photographs of the Church of Saint Spyridon in Selymbria and a copy of a paper icon that had been found in the courtyard of the Church of the Theotokos in Selymbria, which had apparently been requested of him.
This letter serves as the seal of this article, which has recorded the moving contribution of Saint Nektarios to the advancement of the national and religious interests of his particular homeland, as well as the varied ways in which he assisted his relatives in their lives.
