Nikanor of Kavsokalyvia

Nikanor of Kavsokalyvia, with the secular name Nicholas Manetas, was born in 1913 in the village of Leontio near Patras. In 1929 he came to the hut of Saint Anne in the skete of Kavsokalyvia and in 1930 was tonsured a monk. In 1937 he was ordained deacon and priest by Metropolitan Hierotheos of Miletoupolis (d. 1956). His disciple and successor Paul says he had goodness, hospitality, meekness, courtesy and almsgiving. "He helped with whatever material help he could, but also spiritually, with liturgies, remembering them with the prayer rope, without tiring, giving peace and consolation of soul to the afflicted." He never said that he was something: "I am a nothing, the worst person in the world." He constantly humbled himself, made a prostration first even to the youngest and his disciples, and preached repentance in few simple words. He celebrated almost daily.

Father Ioannikios Kotsonis describes him: the dominant figure of the last years at Kavsokalyvia, long-⁠bearded, tall, guileless in speech and behaviour, with a child's heart, industrious (he made woollen undershirts), cheerful, kindly and talkative, as a Moreote he was. Above all he was distinguished by his love of divine worship. He was a lover of services, a devout celebrant of the Lord. He ran to all the huts to celebrate, to serve the fathers, and in the end gave his last breath at the hour of the Divine Liturgy, in 1998. Bishop Chrysostom of Rodostolon writes of him: a holy figure, his beard to his waist, expressive and deep eyes, heavy and manly speech, simple thoughts, constant joy on his face; noble, approachable, hospitable. He is venerated by the faithful, without synodal canonization.