Venerable Nikephoros of Chios

Education and Monastic Life

According to the tradition recorded in his life, Nikephoros was sent to the schools of Chios as a youth, studying under the priest Gabriel Astrakaris. He entered the Nea Moni monastery while young—his parents are said to have dedicated him there in fulfillment of a vow made during a childhood illness—and was placed under the elder Anthimus. He was later ordained and elected abbot (igumen) of Nea Moni, though, according to his life, he resigned or was unable to complete his two-year term amid difficulties, afterward withdrawing to a hermitage of Saint George.

When Saint Athanasius Parios reorganized the school of Chios, he appointed Nikephoros as one of its teachers. Alongside his teaching, Nikephoros received a blessing to preach throughout Nea Moni and the surrounding region, combining the work of a scholar and educator with that of a pastor.

Hymnography and the New Leimonarion

Nikephoros composed church services and hymns to a number of saints, including the service to Saints Niketas, John, and Joseph (commemorated May 20) and a service to Saint Matrona of Chios (commemorated October 20). He also composed a service to the New Martyr Nicholas the New, which was published in Venice in 1791.

His best-known literary undertaking was The New Leimonarion, a collection of the lives and church services of various martyrs, ascetics, and other saints. The work was the joint labor of three saints—Macarius of Corinth, Athanasius Parios, and Nikephoros himself. By tradition, the dying Saint Macarius of Corinth entrusted Nikephoros in 1805 with completing the book and seeing it through to publication.

Guide of the New Martyrs

Like Saint Macarius of Corinth before him, Nikephoros is remembered as a guide and "trainer" of martyrs. Under Ottoman rule a number of Christians who had apostatized to Islam later repented and desired to return to the faith. The tradition relates that Nikephoros helped such penitents confess their fall and prepare, through prayer, fasting, and prostrations, to wash away their apostasy by confessing Christ openly and shedding their blood as martyrs. Beyond those he prepared personally, his published lives and services to the martyrs are said to have inspired many others.

Repose and Relics

Nikephoros probably reposed in the summer of 1821, near the church of Saint Paraskeve on Chios. His relics were uncovered in 1845: according to his life, the monk Agathangelos of Hydra was shown the place of his burial in a dream, and Metropolitan Sophronios had the relics translated to the Metropolitan Church of Chios; the Guild of Tanners later sought them for the Church of Saint George. A church service and an icon in his honor were composed in the early twentieth century.