Saint Nektarios — Agios Nektarios in Greek — is one of the most recently canonised saints of the Orthodox Church, having been declared a saint in 1961. He lived and died on Aegina, where he served as a monk and bishop in the early 20th century, and his monastery on the western slopes of the island's central ridge has become one of the most visited pilgrimage sites in Greece.
The complex includes the original small church where Nektarios is buried, a much larger modern cathedral built to accommodate the volume of pilgrims, and a convent still home to a community of nuns. The architecture of the new cathedral is ambitious — its scale is striking against the wooded hillside — and the interior is richly decorated with icons and frescoes.
For non-Orthodox visitors, the monastery is worth visiting for the setting and the atmosphere rather than devotional reasons. The approach road winds up through pine and pistachio trees, the air is cooler than at the coast, and the views from the monastery grounds across the island are excellent.
Appropriate dress is required: shoulders and knees covered for both men and women. The monastery is generally open to visitors from early morning until late afternoon, with a midday closure for several hours. There is a small shop selling icons, olive oil from the monastery's trees, and items related to the saint.
Photo: Borislav Dopudja / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)