There is a photograph showing St. Anthimos, a majestic archimandrite, holding a cross with which he blesses people. And there is a poor monk standing next to him. This is St. Nikephoros in the early years of his monastic life. His fingers are still there. His face is still like a face. Just a few years later the malady would disfigure this man, who had previously in Alexandria been a handsome young man.
St. Anthimos (right) and St. Nikephoros (left)
There is also a portrait that was recently discovered by Fr. Simon. It was painted during the saint’s monastic tonsure or a little later, because his face had become more elongated. This portrait is very important to me because I wanted an icon of St. Nikephoros to be painted, but not one that would recall the young, healthy and handsome youth from Alexandria, and not one with a face disfigured by leprosy.
I told our iconographer, Fr. Ambrosios, to paint an icon and I gave him a copy of the book about St. Nikephoros. This was before that photo was discovered, and we did not yet know about it. How beautifully the iconographer depicted this saint! But on the cover of Monk Simon’s book the skilled Athonite icon-painters just took the face of Nicholas from Alexandria and added a cassock and a beard to it.
Fr. Ambrosios wanted to depict the pain and asceticism on the face of a man who was transformed into Jesus Christ and “churched” this pain. And without any portrait to refer to, he painted an icon of St. Nikephoros. And later, when I saw this portrait, I was amazed. His eyes in particular surprised me. They are the same eyes that St. Nikephoros had in his earthly life.
The saint appeared to people, and they called me on the phone and told me that he had the very face depicted on the icon.
When an icon is painted with great pain and prayer, many significant elements are imprinted on it, even from the saint’s earthly life.
A few years ago my friend, a bishop, called me and said:
“I’m having an operation tomorrow, and it’s going to be very complicated. I didn’t tell anyone about it. And since I trust you, I ask you to pray for me. And I ask you to pray to St. Nikephoros, whom you love and who was your spiritual father.”
I told him:
“All right, Your Eminence! Tomorrow I’ll ‘send’ St. Nikephoros to you!”
The next day I prayed in front of St. Nikephoros’ icon, which is in my office, and told him simply, as Elder Iakovos (Tsalikis) used to teach us:
“I beg you very much, Holy Nikephoros! This Vladyka from Crete comes from the same place as you. Go and support him during his operation tomorrow, hold the doctors’ hands and direct them!”
That was all I said. Four or five days later Vladyka recovered after the operation. He called me and said:
“The doctors put me under general anesthesia, and throughout the operation I saw St. Nikephoros. And he did not look like the icon on the cover of the book, but from the one that was painted thanks to you.”
I said to myself:
“How humble the saints are!”
St. Nikephoros lived with St. Anthimos for forty-three years. In 1947 the anti-leprosy vaccine was discovered, leprosy no longer killed people, and many of them returned to their homes. But they were expelled from their native villages because of prejudice. Former lepers came to their homes only to find that their wives had married other men. There was a law according to which a leper automatically received a divorce certificate from his or her spouse. Leprosy was grounds for divorce. It was another pain. They related to me:
“We left our island and were kicked out of our homes. We went back to the hospital and said to ourselves: ‘We’re going to die here with the other lepers!’”
When a remedy for leprosy was found, Elder Evmenios was still Monk Sophronios. And what did he do? How did this man sanctify himself? Firstly, he stayed to take care of his Elder Nikephoros, because, as will be written later, St. Nikephoros had come to him in Egaleo. Secondly, he saw all the pain of the lepers—not only physical and mental pain, but also their rejection by society, so he said to himself:
“Although I have been cured (he later became a priest, and he did not have a single scar left), I will remain in the leper colony to serve the lepers!”
You understand how great his sacrifice was! St. Evmenios sacrificed his life at the monastery—that is, he sacrificed his choice, where, as a monk, he could have attended services, observed fasts and had a father-confessor. But he sacrificed everything to serve the lepers.
Elder Evmenios. Agiosnikiforos.gr In 1957, the leper colonies in Chios and Spinalonga were closed and all the lepers from all over Greece were gathered outside Egaleo, in an area called Agia Varvara. And what was built there was called an infectious diseases hospital, not a leper colony. Not only lepers were admitted there, but also all patients with infectious diseases.
Later AIDS broke out. Initially it caused people to panic. All HIV patients were sent to the infectious diseases hospital. We were students at the time, and took all this with a light sense of humor. We came to Elder Iakovos and told him:
“There is a new disease called AIDS.”
Elder Iakovos had a great sense of humor. And the next time I came to see him, he said:
“Listen, recently a man with the disease which you told me about came to me to confession.”
“With what disease?” I asked him.
“With this Eidzee.”
Later we realized that he had meant a person with AIDS.
Even more touching was Elder Evmenios, who suffered a lot of pain from leprosy. The first AIDS patients, desperate young people, were brought to him. Everyone came to Elder Evmenios, and he comforted and heartened young people who had the new disease. He didn’t know anything about it himself.
One day I arrived and found him making coffee for four young men with AIDS. I came to the kitchen to help him. He said:
“Make some coffee, open some Fanta (his favorite drink), and take everything out of the fridge: cheese, olives, bread and pieces of dried bread from Crete, because my spiritual children are suffering from that new disease.”
At some point, when he was pouring coffee, I heard him say:
“That’s enough, my Christ! That’s enough, my Christ! May the people’s suffering end!”
That’s how this compassionate man pitied people with AIDS!
At the age of twenty-four he became a monk, but he did not have an elder. He celebrated services for five hours a day. The abbot of Dionysiou Monastery phoned me and said:
“Brother Neophytos, your elder here is almost becoming a saint! He celebrates services on his own for five hours a day. We don’t even do that in large cenobitic monasteries on Mt. Athos!”
And the elder was alone. He prayed with prayer ropes alone in his cell. Until 1957, he prayed as he struggled on his own: “My Christ, send me a man who will tell me whether I am in delusion or not!” Elder Evmenios saw angels, demons, and uncreated light.
Some monks would say to him:
“You are in spiritual delusion.”
Elder Evmenios prayed to God to send a man to his holy monastery. Christ answered his prayer and sent him St. Nikephoros, who brought him a letter from his elder, St. Anthimos, who, as far as I remember, wrote: “My dear Father Sophronios, I am sending you a treasure to guide you in faith and prayer. Use this treasure, and you will become an experienced monk, like Father Nikephoros.”
Indeed, for seven years, from 1957 to 1964, Elder Evmenios was both the right and the left hand of St. Nikephoros. Why? The disease was progressing powerfully in St. Nikephoros—it had disfigured his legs, he could hardly move, had become totally blind, and his sweet voice was getting weak. A leper, a blind and semi-paralyzed man surely needed help. Elder Evmenios took care of him, putting his shoes and cassock on him so that he could go to service every day. St. Nikephoros was proficient in Byzantine singing, knew most of the psalms by heart, and remembered all the apostolic texts. With him Elder Evmenios learned monastic life.
St. Nikephoros in the final years of his life. Agiosnikiforos.gr
Yesterday I received an email from America. The correspondence of St. Anthimos with St. Nikephoros has been found. When St. Nikephoros went to the leper colony in Egaleo, the elder continued to correspond with him and wrote letters to him. These letters have been discovered. And I found St. Nikephoros’ signature very beautiful—most likely he dictated to Elder Evmenios, because I recognized the latter’s handwriting.
In 1959, St. Anthimos (Vayianos), the elder of St. Nikephoros, reposed in the Lord in Chios. He was known as a great saint, so the Ecumenical Patriarchate canonized him very quickly. His feast is celebrated on February 15/28. Later, St. Nikephoros was also canonized.
When we came to the leper colony, we saw that Elder Evmenios kept St. Nikephoros’s relics in a chest in the adjoining cell. With great simplicity he would tell me:
“I keep our elder here!”
We went inside and opened the chest, which was made of iron. What a great fragrance came from the relics of the leper saint! This fragrance is especially mentioned in his troparion. How many people came to believe in the holiness of St. Nikephoros, not only after reading the book, but also while holding it in their hands and immediately sensing a fragrance!
This occurred to many. When Abbess Justina of St. Nicholas Convent in Orounda fell ill, I traveled to the nuns. Touched, they brought me a particle of the relics. Not only did was it fragrant, it also started exuding myrrh. Large drops of myrrh appeared on the surface. I told them:
“Sisters, don’t be afraid! St. Nikephoros is with us and will strengthen us!”
This year I visited the Peristeron nursing home again. By coincidence, it was on the feast of St. Nikephoros—January 4. We spoke with its director about the construction of a chapel. The nursing home bears the name of St. Anthony, and it would have been logical to dedicate the chapel should to him as well. But there is already an old chapel in Peristeron dedicated to St. Anthony. The director asked me:
“Which saint shall we dedicate it to?”
And someone in my soul told me:
“To St. Nikephoros.”
Then, when I got into the car, I asked the driver:
“What date is it today?”
“It is the feast of St. Nikephoros today.”
Thus, by the grace of God, in our diocese we have almost completed the design of this house of God, and we will have a large chapel in Peristeron dedicated to St. Nikephoros the Leper for the needs of the elderly, as well as for the staff and all pilgrims who love this saint. Everyone in Cyprus loves him.
I was impressed by one fact that is absent from the Life of St. Nikephoros. In 1961, Elder Evmenios was visited by a proud thought, and an evil spirit began to possess him, making him think that he had become a saint. Later the elder got rid of this spirit. How important it is to have lowliness of mind! He felt what hell was like when he was possessed by an evil spirit, and therefore he was always on the look-out not to judge others or exalt himself. All this was taught to him by St. Nikephoros.
St. Nikephoros saw the spiritual realm very clearly, although physically he was almost blind. With through this vision he saw the tempter, who walked and put various sinful thoughts and lust into the minds of other Christians, patients, nurses or doctors. St. Nikephoros had such power over the evil spirits that he would call a demon and tell scold him:
“Scoundrel, why did you put an evil thought into one of the nurses? Lust into such-and-such a patient? Anger into such-and-such a person?”
And he forbade the evil one to come to them again:
“Isn’t the cross of illness enough for them? Isn’t their patience enough? And you come and tempt them! Don’t come to them anymore!”
He had such power. However, whenever one of his spiritual children was possessed by an evil spirit, St. Nikephoros would say (to prevent others from regarding him as a saint):
“I’m unworthy. Take him to Crete, to Koutouma Monastery. Let Father Nicodemos read the special prayers over him.”
Here is another story. As a law student I went on pilgrimage to Holy Mount Athos. There was a celebration at the famous Serbian Hilandar Monastery there. After the Vigil we went to the refectory. I was sitting next to a monk who asked me:
“Are you a Cypriot?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Where do you live?”
“In Athens.”
We started talking about who I went to confession to. It was Fr. Gervasios from Simonopetra Monastery, a very good monk who died young.
He asked me:
“Do you go to the leper colony in Egaleo?”
“Yes, I do.”
“Is Father Evmenios your father-confessor?”
“Yes.”
“Father Nikephoros lives there as well.”
“Father Evmenios tells us many stories about him.”
“I met him,” he said, “when I was in Sunday school. Our teachers, who were members of church organizations, would take us to the leper colony in Egaleo to encourage and inspire the patients to Christian activity. And we went there and ‘got our heads out of the clouds’! There in every ward we met joyful, praying people—I saw it with my very eyes. They had small libraries with the Philokalia, the Evergetinos,1 books by St. Isaac the Syrian, and the Lives of the Saints. Books that even theologians did not know about until later. The lepers read them. Who did they get them from? From St. Nikephoros, who received them from St. Anthimos and gave them to Elder Evmenios to read, and he passed them on to all the patients. This is how Holy Tradition works.
“We also went to sing them a Christian song, give them some sweets, and show them support; and in the end the lepers taught us a lesson in Orthodoxy.”
“What do you mean?”
“When we came to Father Nikephoros, he asked us, ‘My children, how do you pray?’ We uttered a few emotional, impromptu little prayers out loud. And he said to us, ‘That is not the way you should pray, my children! It is necessary to say the prayers, “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me!”, “Most Holy Theotokos, save me!”, “Rejoice, O Virgin Theotokos”, “It is truly meet…”. But first of all you must have repentance, and then pray.’
The monastery on the island of Chios. Agiosnikiforos.gr
“No one had ever told us what repentance is. We had never heard that there is the prayer of the heart, that there are prayer ropes, that there is the prayer ‘Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me, a sinner!’ We learned about this from a leper, the nearly blind and almost entirely paralyzed Father Nikephoros.”
To be continued…
