Blessed Feast of St. Nektarios!
Blessed Feast of St. Nektarios!
Today (on the Revised Julian), the Orthodox Church commemorates St. Nektarios of Aegina, Bishop of Pentapolis, a wonderworking saint who many call upon for healing and aid with incurable diseases.
Today (on the Revised Julian), the Orthodox Church commemorates St. Nektarios of Aegina, Bishop of Pentapolis, a wonderworking saint who many call upon for healing and aid with incurable diseases.
Last night, I had the opportunity to visit Assumption Greek Orthodox Church in St. Clair Shores, Michigan where they hosted Vespers with Unction and an opportunity to venerate St. Nektarios’ relics. To my surprise, some fellow parishioners of my home parish (an hour and a half away from Assumption) were also in attendance. I also had the lovely opportunity to meet Metropolitan Nicholas of Detroit, who oversees the Greek Metropolis of Detroit. Those who know about my conversion path will know that I had the pleasure of speaking to him once over the phone, but it’s nice to finally see in person who I only heard previously.
I had such a mixed experience overall, not in regards to the service, but including the travelling. As I mentioned, I’m roughly an hour and a half away from Assumption. I’m no stranger to longer drives but it seems that I was encountering obstacle after obstacle trying to get there. Even leaving my city was proving a challenge as a car accident occurred right next to our major intersection downtown. Once that was navigated by, I was fortunate to have some time to breathe until darkness set in and I’m on a highway unfamiliar and dense with vehicles. This is the end of construction season here in Michigan, and I had my fair share of bumper-to-bumper traffic on the highway throughout the trip. Once I was finally able to break away off the highway, my route had me going through some back roads that I wasn’t greatly comfortable with. It’s like my GPS can’t tell me any more sooner when I need to turn where, it’s all very anxiety-inducing when you’re mere minutes away from the service starting. I had many doubts whether it would be all worth the trouble.
Fortunately, I had arrived a couple minutes before and discovering some friends were there certainly helped. I wonder how isolated I might’ve felt otherwise! Ultimately, I had a wonderful experience there. It was nice hearing Byzantine chant again, nostalgic of my Orthodox “formative years” attending an Athonite-style monastery. Unction was also performed during the service, which I’m sure helped assuage whatever remaining anxiety was left in me from the trip.
After the service, some small refreshments were served (including some Artoklasia loaves!), but then we all had the opportunity to venerate the relics of St. Nektarios. The parish built a sort of “chapel” (dedicated to St. Nektarios) inside the sanctuary, to the right of the iconostasis. Adorned on the walls were icons of various points in St. Nektarios’ life. I unfortunately didn’t get much photos of the walls, but I certainly have some of the focal point.
Little was mentioned about the relic’s history. It had belonged to the previous presbyter of the parish, which the current priest inherited. Beyond that, all that was said was it was obtained sometime during the 1970s/80s.
Once I venerated the icons, it was due time to make the pilgrimage back home. I was quite uncertain how the experience would be, but what choice do you have so far away? Fantastically, the return trip was incredibly easy and had no difficulty. I was able to return sooner than I had anticipated. Thankfully, the drive was worth it.
As a bonus, enjoy some photos from our friend Demetrios, who attends a small parish in Athens. You can view more of his photos on Instagram, @pedalion_img.
