Glorification (2012)

The Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate formally glorified Nikephoros the Leper as a saint in December 2012, entering him in the calendar with his feast on 4 January, the day of his repose. His glorification is one of a remarkable cluster — the Chios and Athens leprosaria produced three glorified saints in two generations: Anthimos (1992), Nikephoros (2012), and Eumenios (2022).

Tradition: Greek Orthodox (20th-c. Cretan monk; glorified 2012)

The Synodal Act

Nikephoros was glorified (canonized) by the Holy Synod of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in December 2012 (John Sanidopoulos, “Saint Nikephoros the Leper Is Canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate,” johnsanidopoulos.com, December 2012; Orthodox Church in America, “Saint Nikephoros the Leper,” oca.org). The act entered him formally in the calendar of the Church, so that a man who had died a segregated leper in 1964, known to few beyond the leprosarium, was now numbered among the saints and commemorated liturgically throughout the Orthodox world (Sanidopoulos, johnsanidopoulos.com, 2012; on the cult that followed, see A Healer-Saint of Our Time).

[Disputed: the precise form of the 2012 date. English sources agree the glorification was enacted by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2012 and commonly place it in December of that year (Sanidopoulos, johnsanidopoulos.com, "...Is Canonized," dated December 2012). The exact day of the synodal session is not consistently reported in the English-language sources consulted; the year (2012) and the authority (the Ecumenical Patriarchate) are firm, and the feast day (4 January) is fixed independently by the repose. This collection asserts the year and authority as fact and treats the exact session-date as not established here.]

Why 2012 — the Warrant for Glorification

The warrant for glorifying Nikephoros was, as in the general Orthodox practice, the living cult and its fruits rather than an archival demonstration: the reported fragrance of his relics, the healings and answered prayers attributed to his intercession, and the continuous veneration seeded by those who had known him — above all his disciple Eumenios (Monk Simon, Nikephoros the Leper, Athens, 2007, via oca.org; on the logic of glorification as the reception of a cult, cf. St. Xenia: methodology, §3). In Nikephoros’s case that warrant was unusually well-founded: the cult rested on recent, named, and (in Eumenios) themselves-holy witnesses, and on relics and signs of a datable kind (see The Relics and the Healings and The Sources for His Life). The publication of Monk Simon’s Life in 2007 gathered and consolidated this material in the years immediately preceding the glorification (John Sanidopoulos, johnsanidopoulos.com, 2012).

The Feast of 4 January

His feast was fixed on 4 January, the day of his repose in 1964 (Orthodox Church in America, “Saint Nikephoros the Leper — Troparion & Kontakion,” oca.org; OrthodoxWiki, “Nicephorus the Leper”). Liturgical texts — a troparion, kontakion, and megalynarion — were composed for the feast, giving the new saint his place in the Church’s worship (Orthodox Church in America, “Saint Nikephoros the Leper — Troparion & Kontakion,” oca.org; on the hymnography, see His Reported Words and A Healer-Saint of Our Time). The date sets his commemoration in the Nativity–Theophany season, among the days between the two feasts.

A Cluster of Three Saints from the Leprosaria

Nikephoros’s glorification is best understood as the middle term of a remarkable cluster of three glorifications arising from the same milieu of the leprosaria of Chios and Athens within a single generation’s span:

  • St. Anthimos of Chios (Argyrios Vagianos, 1869–1960), chaplain and “father of lepers,” Nikephoros’s spiritual father — glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 13 August 1992 (Orthodox Church in America, “Saint Anthimus of Chios,” oca.org; OrthodoxWiki, “Anthimus of Chios”).
  • St. Nikephoros the Leper (1890–1964), Anthimos’s disciple — glorified 2012.
  • St. Eumenios (Saridakis) (1931–1999), Nikephoros’s disciple, “confessor of the leprous” — glorified by the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 14 April 2022 (John Sanidopoulos, “Elder Eumenios Saridakis Has Been Officially Recognized,” johnsanidopoulos.com, 2022; OrthoChristian, orthochristian.com/145709).

Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou reads this chain theologically: “Behind the sanctity of Elder Eumenios Saridakis is the holiness of Elder Nikiphoros the Leper. Behind Elder Nikiphoros is found the holiness of the venerable Anthimos of Chios” (Metropolitan Neophytos of Morphou, orthochristian.com/164914; iconandlight.wordpress.com). That the Church, over thirty years (1992–2022), formally recognized three saints from the world of the leper colonies is, for the modern Greek tradition, a striking testimony to the theology of sanctity-through-affliction that Nikephoros most vividly embodies (see Legacy).

A Very Recent Glorification

Because Nikephoros was glorified only in 2012, and because his cult is still expanding rapidly, the Church’s reception of him is best described as recent and unfolding rather than settled by the long sifting of centuries. This does not weaken the glorification — the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s act is the Church’s authoritative recognition — but it means that the historical and theological assessment of his significance, offered in the final section of this collection, is a contemporary and provisional judgment rather than the mature verdict of long reception (see Assessment; cf. METHODOLOGY §6).

See Also

References

  • John Sanidopoulos. “Saint Nikephoros the Leper Is Canonized by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.” johnsanidopoulos.com, December 2012. (The 2012 glorification by the Ecumenical Patriarchate.)
  • Orthodox Church in America. “Saint Nikephoros the Leper” and “Saint Nikephoros the Leper — Troparion & Kontakion.” oca.org/saints. (The synaxarion; the feast of 4 January; the hymnography.)
  • OrthodoxWiki. “Nicephorus the Leper.” orthodoxwiki.org. (Canonization 2012; feast 4 January.)
  • Orthodox Church in America. “Saint Anthimus of Chios.” oca.org/saints/lives; OrthodoxWiki, “Anthimus of Chios.” (Anthimos glorified 13 August 1992.)
  • John Sanidopoulos. “Elder Eumenios Saridakis Has Been Officially Recognized as a Saint.” johnsanidopoulos.com, 2022; OrthoChristian, orthochristian.com/145709. (Eumenios glorified 14 April 2022.)
  • Metropolitan Neophytos (Masouras) of Morphou. “St. Nikephoros the Leper,” Part 2, orthochristian.com/164914; iconandlight.wordpress.com. (The chain Anthimos–Nikephoros–Eumenios.)
  • METHODOLOGY.md §6, this repository. (Provisional assessment of a recently glorified saint.)