By His Eminence Metropolitan Chrysostomos III of Mani
Life and Veneration of Saint Nektarios
The great and illustrious Hierarch of our Church, Saint Nektarios, came from Selybria in Thrace and was born on October 1, 1846, to devout parents.
His name in the world was Anastasios Kephalas. He received his elementary education in his homeland and continued his studies in Constantinople, while working at the same time. He spent his childhood and adolescence in modesty and purity. At the age of twenty, he became a teacher in the village of Lithà on the island of Chios and began his work of service and witness to Christ.
He longed for the monastic life, and for this reason he was tonsured a monk in 1876 at the Nea Moni Monastery on Chios, where he remained for three years. In 1877, he was ordained a deacon.
