There is an Icon in his home town Church in Silivria, which Saint Nektarios had a great Spiritual connection to as he was growing up. Years later when he settled in his Monastery in Aegina, Saint Nektarios asked a Monk to Paint a version of this Icon which he kept in his bedroom and spent many hours each day and night Praying in front of. Furthermore, it was here that he wrote many Prayers, Hymns and Spiritual Books. One Prayer he wrote to Our Most Blessed Lady the Mother of God, titled ‘O Virgin Pure’, after she appeared to him in a dream asking him to record it. It is often chanted during private Prayer and at Church, particularly on the Feast Days of Saint Nektarios and the Mother of God.
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The Theotokarion
Hymn Two “O Mother of the never-setting Light, illumine us with your light, Drive away the darkness and make me all pure… O Mary, guide me with your light, for you are brighter than all light, give me pure and heavenly hope… Fill my heart with ever-resplendent love, and provide me with reason for divine hymnody.”
Hymn Seven “…and reward me, O Maiden, with the friendship of my God.”
Hymn Eight “…The mystery which was hidden before all ages, O Lady, and the salvation which was concealed and unknown to the angels, are now manifested on earth through you, O immaculate daughter, and the eternal will of God is now fulfilled… You are the fount of grace, the fount of salvation, you are the fount that streamed forth the water of incorruption, a strong-flowing fount are you, O fount of immortality, you water all with divine grace from on high…”
Hymn Eighteen “…The invisible Word of God Almighty, O pure one, was beheld as a man by men because of you, O Mother of God…”
Hymn Twenty “A mystical paradise are you, O Virgin Theotokos, as one who ineffably brought forth Christ without husbandry, the tree grown in this world for the Cross, and you blossomed forth all life to those who believe in your birth-giving…”
Hymn Twenty-One “The mystery hidden from the ages, O Lady, and unknown to the angels is made manifest to the world. For God became incarnate in a union without confusion and voluntarily accepted crucifixion for us, Through you, O Lady, He raised up the fallen first-made man, and saved our souls from death…. Ineffably did you give birth to the Fashioner of us all, taking out of death and corruption those of old. And through you we have come to know the One Thrice-radiant God, The Beginningless Father, His Co-beginningless Son, and the Spirit, the Comforter, who proceeds from the Father and rests upon the Son, as in the Father eternally, and together with the Father and the Son is ever-worshipped and ever supremely exalted and glorified.”
Hymn Twenty-Two “…and in finding the lost sheep wandering in the mountains and taking it upon His shoulders, He brought it to God the Father…”
Hymn Seventy-Seven “…He who is resplendent in beauty has kissed you, the pure one…
Seventy-Eight “…You who have become more spacious than the heavens, by containing the uncontainable God…”
Hymn Eighty-Six “…You who lent your flesh from blood to the Logos, put to death the passions of my flesh, O Virgin, and direct me to walk the path of dispassion, and grant me to have self-control and to be wholly spiritual…”
Hymn One-Hundred-and-Fourteen “…Prophets foretold of your birth-giving in symbols, mystically perceiving those things from a distance, O Virgin, they proclaimed them to the world by inspiration of the Spirit, and we the faithful now marvel in seeing the fulfilment of their prophecies…”
Hymn One-Hundred-and-Thirty-Six “He truly assumed my flash and volatile and mortal nature from your womb in an ineffable manner, and having made it incorrupt, as God, O Maiden, He has now eternally united it to Himself…”
Hymn One-Hundred-and-Thirty-Seven …He suffered no change in natures, but inexpressibly united them; for Christ the Saviour of the world is known to be one person, out of two opposing natures: perfect, without confusion, without division, and without change in either nature.
Canon Three …The Fashioner of Creation was poured out from you like myrrh, making the universe fragrant with the divine knowledge of His divine will, O Virgin Bride-of-God…
Canon Four …Having been delivered from all sorrows, O All-immaculate one, we ascribe a grateful ode to you, from a soul that loves you, raising our hands and leaping as we sing… The voices of angels fall completely short to proclaim your encomia in utterances; but we now borrow the “rejoice” of the angel and offer an ode to you, O Virgin… Your compassions, O God of all, are sent out to all by the intercessions of your Mother, in her alone are we enriched by your mercy, O All-merciful one…
