Section 04: Preacher and School Director

The section covering the long Greek middle of St. Nektarios’ life — the years of obscurity after 1890 and the fourteen-year directorship that gave them purpose. Returning from Egypt under a cloud, he served first as an itinerant preacher in the provinces, then, from 1894, as director of the Rizareios Ecclesiastical School in Athens, where he formed a generation of Greek clergy and produced most of his major writings. The two files cover the return to Greece and the years of obscurity, and the Rizareios School and its formation of priests.

Tradition: Greek Orthodox (canonized 1961)

Contents

File Topic
Return to Greece The poverty and rejection on arrival in Athens; the damaging letter from Alexandria; the appointment (Feb 1891) as preacher in Euboea and the provinces of Phthiotis and Phokis; the years of obscurity as a titular Metropolitan serving as a simple preacher
The Rizareios School Director of the Rizareios Ecclesiastical School, Athens, 1894–1908; the forming of a generation of clergy; his pedagogy uniting piety and learning; the famous accounts of his humility (taking on the menial work of others); the writings produced in these years

How to Use

  • Read Return to Greece for the obscure, patient years in which the exiled bishop became a provincial preacher.
  • Read The Rizareios School for the directorship that made him a teacher of the Greek clergy and the seedbed of his published corpus.
  • The writings produced during these years are surveyed in Section 05: The Writings.

Cross-References