Nektarios of Athos

Holy Venerable Martyr Nektarios of Athos was born with the name Nicholas, to poor but devout parents, at Vryoulla (Vourla) in the diocese of Ephesus in Asia Minor, in 1799. He was left fatherless and at seventeen entered the paid service of an aga. With six other young Christians he was deceived by the Turks and became a Muslim, since they believed their parents had died in an epidemic.

Returning to Vourla, Nicholas learned that his mother was alive and ran joyfully to her; the pious mother, seeing her son in Turkish clothes, drove him away, saying she had not borne a Turk but Nicholas the Christian. Then Nicholas understood his sin. After a journey to Smyrna, Constantinople, Wallachia and again Smyrna, he confessed to an Athonite monk and, with his blessing, went to the Holy Mountain, where he settled in the Skete of Saint Anne, near the monk Hadji Stephen, a countryman of his. There he was tonsured with the name Nektarios.

The longing for martyrdom burned in his heart. With the blessing of his spiritual father and accompanied by Stephen, he left for Vourla. Arriving there, he appeared before the judge and, throwing his fez to the ground, said: "Take the signs of your faith; I was born a Christian and I wish to die a Christian." Despite flattery and torments, he remained unshaken in the faith and was beheaded on 11 July 1820. He is commemorated on 11 July.