Icon missing from Tarpon Springs community for over a century found on Greek island

Tarpon Springs, Florida, October 2, 2026

Photo: people.com Photo: people.com     

An icon of St. Nicholas that vanished from the Greek Orthodox community of Tarpon Springs, Florida, in 1923 has turned up on the Greek island of Aegina.

Tarpon Springs Mayor John Koulianos visited Greece this summer, where he found the icon hanging in the Church of Panagitsa on Aegina, according to Greek Reporter.

The icon was made in 1910 and given to the Tarpon Springs Greek community by people with ties to Aegina. Greek immigrants, helped build the town and shape its Greek identity. It hung in the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, the predecessor of today’s St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral.

In 1923, a fire badly damaged the wooden church. The icon survived, though it was damaged, and it was sent across the Atlantic to Aegina for restoration. It never returned to Florida, and 103 years passed.

Koulianos was in Aegina in part to discuss a sister-city partnership between the island and Tarpon Springs. He raised the issue of the missing icon with Aegina Mayor Ioannis Zorbas, local clergy joined the search, and a priest pinpointed where it was.

The icon is fairly large and still fragile, and it still shows the damage from the fire. Because of that, its trip to the United States will have to be formally arranged.

If all goes well, the icon could arrive in time for Tarpon Springs’ Theophany celebrations on January 6.

Tarpon Springs became one of the major centers of Greek immigration in the United States in the early 20th century, largely thanks to the sponge-diving industry. St. Nicholas remains central to the community’s religious life, and its annual Theophany celebration is one of the best-known Greek Orthodox traditions in the country.

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10/2/2026

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