Section 01: Foundations

The foundational section of the St. Nektarios of Aegina reference guide, tracing the life of Anastasios Kephalas (1846–1920) from his birth into a poor and pious family in Selybria, Thrace, through the hard years of poverty in Constantinople and the long service as a village schoolteacher on Chios, to his monastic tonsure and the studies that carried him to Egypt. The two files cover, first, the poor youth — Selybria, Constantinople, the patron, and the schoolteacher of Lithion — and, second, the path of formation: the tonsure at Nea Moni, the diaconate, and the lay and patriarchal patronage that funded his theology degree and opened the door to Alexandria.

Tradition: Greek Orthodox (canonized 1961)

Contents

File Topic
Selybria and the Poor Youth Birth 1 October 1846 in Selybria, Thrace; baptismal name Anastasios Kephalas; the poverty of his family; the departure for Constantinople at fourteen and the years of hard labor; the beloved tradition of the boy’s letter to Christ; the years as schoolteacher (paidonomos) at Lithion on Chios
Athens and Egypt Monastic tonsure at the New Monastery (Nea Moni) of Chios in 1876 as Lazaros; ordination to the diaconate and the name Nektarios; the spiritual mentor Pachomios; the patronage of the layman John Choremis and then of Patriarch Sophronios IV of Alexandria; the theology degree at Athens (1885) and the passage to Egypt

How to Use

  • Read Selybria and the Poor Youth for the temperament and circumstances of the man — the poverty that marked him for life, the early piety, and the formation of a teacher’s vocation.
  • Read Athens and Egypt for the formation that made the cleric: the monastic name he would carry, the two patrons (lay and patriarchal) without whom there would have been no theology degree, and the road to Alexandria.
  • The episcopate that grew out of these foundations is treated in Section 02: The Metropolitan of Pentapolis.

Cross-References

  • For the rise in the Patriarchate of Alexandria that followed, see Ordination and Rise
  • For the institutional context of the Greek Church and the Patriarchate of Alexandria, see World Orthodoxy
  • For the governing standard, see the repository Methodology