Nihil difficile volenti

When Saint Nectarios was canonized in 1961, two groups of monks formed in a monastery on Mount Athos. Some accepted his holiness, while others doubted it. Seeing the situation that had arisen in the monastery, the abbot gathered the monks one day in synaxis and said to them: “The question of Father Nectarios’s holiness will not become a reason for us to lose our souls by fighting among ourselves. I have decided that we should all keep a three-day fast, during which, with much prayer, we will ask God to reveal to us whether Elder Nectarios is a Saint or not.” And so they did… On the third day, while the abbot was preparing to go down to the service in the church, there was a discreet knock at the door of his cell, and Saint Nectarios himself entered the cell! When the Saint entered the cell, the abbot recognized him at once and fell to his knees, venerating him. Then Saint Nectarios said to him: “Brother Athanasius (that was the abbot’s name), go and tell the fathers not to trouble themselves anymore and not to be disturbed. The Lord has given me the gift of holiness, and I am a Saint, a wonderworker and a myrrh-streamer. And know that the Lord sanctified me for one single reason: I always forgave!”