History

Saint Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church of Covina, California was established on October 12, 1973, as a parish of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco. From its earliest days, the community was shaped by the vision of its founding priest, Father Spiro Pieratos, who believed that the parish's calling extended far beyond the Sunday Liturgy. Father Spiro recognized that Saint Nectarios of Aegina, the beloved 20th-century wonderworker canonized in 1961 and venerated across the Orthodox world as a healer and intercessor, deserved a permanent shrine in the Western United States, where so many faithful could not make the long pilgrimage to the saint's tomb on the Greek island of Aegina.

Father Spiro began a persistent correspondence with Metropolitan Hierotheos of Hydra, Spetsae, and Aigina, making the case that American Orthodox Christians, particularly those in the western states, needed a place of pilgrimage closer to home. The responses were not immediately encouraging, but Father Spiro's faith and persistence prevailed. On September 3, 1979, Father Spiro traveled to Aegina with Presbytera Panagiota and was entrusted with a significant relic of the saint, a rib from Saint Nectarios, given with the co-approval of Metropolitan Hierotheos and the nuns of the Convent of the Holy Trinity on Aegina, the very convent Saint Nectarios himself had founded and where his remains repose. Father Spiro later recalled bringing the relic to America as a cherished privilege that he would long remember with fond memories.

The relic was enshrined in a temporary church building constructed in 1980, and from that moment forward the parish was transformed. Thousands of pilgrims began making their way to Covina to pray before the relic and seek the intercessions of Saint Nectarios for healing, comfort, and grace. The list of healings and answered prayers attributed to the saint's intercession grew steadily, drawing visitors of every faith background from across North America and beyond.

Today, Saint Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine at 20340 East Covina Boulevard stands as one of the most visited Orthodox Christian pilgrimage sites in North America. The shrine is open daily to welcome pilgrims, and the parish belongs to the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of San Francisco within the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America.