Saint Nikephoros the Leper and the Deacon Who Secretly Imagined Becoming Patriarch

Testimony of His Eminence Metropolitan Euthymios of Acheloos (+ 2019)

September 17, 2002

During the decade 1955-1965 I served as General Secretary of the SYNDESMOS - the World Fellowship of Orthodox Youth. The year I was a deacon (1962-1963) I visited the Hospital for Infectious Diseases, in Agia Varvara, where I served at the Divine Liturgy.

After the Divine Liturgy, I was led to a small room, where the Monk Nikephoros lived, who was leprous, blind and bedridden. I did not know him nor did he know me. It was the first and only time we met.

We easily opened a spiritual discussion. I was impressed that the leprous and blind monk participated with great interest and vivacity in the discussion and that he was the one who talked the most. I remember that the spiritual discussion did not tire him at all.

During the discussion, the following detail particularly surprised me (and that is why I remember it after so many years): Due to my capacity as General Secretary of the SYNDESMOS Brotherhood, as I mentioned above, I was in communication with the Ecumenical Patriarch, His All-Holiness Athenagoras, as well as with other patriarchs, hierarchs and dignitaries of Orthodoxy. We did not discuss this issue with Nikephoros, but perhaps he was informed of my capacity. I do not know.

In a moment and completely spontaneously, the leper Monk expressed the following thought:

"Some clerics imagine that they will become patriarchs!"

These words of the Monk made me feel astonishment. And this because it was as if he were reading an obsessive thought of mine that I do not remember for what reason was slithering like a worm inside me at that time…

This incident made me believe that the leper Nikephoros, in the darkness of his long and painful ordeal, had received from the Holy Spirit the gift of insight.

I ask for his prayers and intercessions now too!

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.

 

Saint Nikephoros the Leper, a Spiritual Struggler and Guide

By Archimandrite Nikodemos Yiannakopoulos

I met Father Nikephoros in 1961 at the Infectious Diseases Hospital, then the Leprosy Hospital. We went, a group of young people at the time, with the then deacon and later Metropolitan of Chalkida Nikolaos Selentis. He motivated us to give some joy to our socially isolated sick brethren, to hug them, to eat with them from their same plate, to partake of communion after them.

One of them was Father Nikephoros. he bore the signs of the disease clearly. Blind, crippled, worn out. Immediately, however, you discerned, from within that sickly body, that a spiritual power, a divine zeal, an infinite love and a peace, which permeated you entirely, came out.

That which I still particularly remember was his struggle with demons. He received a lot of attacks and sometimes the confrontation even reached a physical fight. And when he subjected them "to the power of the Cross", in the name of Jesus he scourged them and forced them to confess their demonic activities. He said to them: "Tell me, baldy, where were you last night?" And, when the demon confessed his defeats, Father Nikephoros rejoiced and glorified God. And when a Christian fell into his traps, he grieved and prayed.

A Wondrous Appearance of Saint Nikephoros the Leper in Athens in 2019

The following took place at the Church of the Pammegiston Taxiarchon of the Greek Police at 96 Mesogeion Avenue in Athens - Ampelokipoi. The priest of this church has recorded the following testimony of a wondrous appearance of Saint Nikephoros the Leper that he experienced at this location on his feast day in 2019.

On the morning of January 4, 2019, the feast of Saint Nikephoros the Leper, Matins was performed by the preacher of the Security Corps, Archimandrite Nektarios Kioulos. In the center of the temple, the icon and a piece of the relic of Saint Nikephoros had been placed.

The Last Niece of Saint Nikephoros the Leper Has Reposed

The Sacred Metropolis of Kissamos and Selinos sorrowfully announced the death and funeral of Ioanna (Yiannoula) Mandrabazakis, the last living niece of our Venerable Father Nikephoros the Leper, on March 23rd 2023. She was the daughter of the sister of Saint, Smaragdas Nikolakakis, of the Tzanakakis family.

Metropolitan Amphilochios of Kissamos and Selinos noted:

"It is with reverence and emotion that we send off today, on the journey of eternity, our revered eldress Ioanna (Yiannoula) Mandrabazakis, the last living niece of our Holy Father Nikephoros the Leper. Our late sister Yiannoula, as we all knew her, was a graceful and blessed person, with an unfeigned and deep faith in God and a heartfelt devotion to Saint Nikephoruo. Her 'uncle', as she called the Saint, whom she had met and loved through the stories of her late mother, Smaragdas Nikolakakis, of the Tzanakakis family, the sister of Venerable Nikephoros according to the flesh.