A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ST NILUS' PARISH

In 1928 with the actions of Eleni Mamai, who came from  Agios Petros of Kynouria, the birthplace of Saint Nilus “The Myrrh Streamer” an association was founded under the name “Fellowship of Ladies and Misses “Saint Nilus the Myrrh-Streamer”, with the aim of constructing a Holy Temple dedicated to Saint Nilus “the Myrrh Streamer”. The plot for the construction of the temple was found and its location was above the district of Hydraika between Chatzikyriakeio and New Kallipoli.

According to older residents, before the construction of the older church on the plot, there was a small chapel, or according to others, a shrine located on Herodotus Street.

  The construction of the old Holy Temple began in 1928 and was completed in 1931. In 1932, a parish committee under the Blessed Father Nikolaos Papavassiliou, took steps for the recognition of the Holy Temple as a parish. The consecration of the old Holy Temple was carried out by the Metropolitan of Kythera and then Archbishop of Athens, Dorotheos Kottaras. Since September 1936 and with the contribution of the Archbishop of Athens Chrysostomos I Papadopoulos, part of the holy relic of Saint Nilus“ The Myrrh Streamer” was granted to our parish by the Monastery of Megisti Lavra.

  In the difficult years after the tragedy of 1922, the work carried out in the parish of Saint Nilus was rich and multidimensional. With efforts of the deacon of our Holy Temple, Fr. Dorotheos Lavriotis, Sunday schools were created in the parish in which more than 500 children attended. The same clergyman had also set up a               “Parish’s Clinic” on Antoniou Theochari Street, where free medical advice and care were provided, in the time of huge poverty and misery. During the World War II, an unofficial cemetery was opened in the courtyard of the Temple where the victims of hunger and disease were buried in mass graves.

  With the end of World War II and the Civil War, a large number of people, mainly from the islands, settled in the area. Then the old Holy Temple was insufficient for the needs of the parish.

On April 22, 1953, the Ecclesiastical Council of the Holy Temple decided to build a new majestic church, of Byzantine style. On Sunday, November 11, 1956, the foundation  stone was laid by the Metropolitan of Santorini George Patsis.

  A point of reference for the history of the new Holy Temple is the arrival and stay from 8 to 30 November 1971 of the relics and the epitrachilion of the Venerable Nilus  from the Holy Monastery of the Megisti Lavra of Mount Athos. The new Holy Temple was consecrated on November 12, 1973, by the former Metropolitan of Thessaloniki Panteleimon Papageorgiou.