The Convent of Saint Nicholas of Myra was founded in May 2009 with the blessing of Metropolitan Agafangel of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad. Our community is led by Mother Agapia (Stephanopoulos), a nun of over 35 years, many of them as a member of the Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem. While in Jerusalem, she also served as administrator of the Orthodox Girls School of Bethany from 1998 to 2005.

Mother Agapia was raised in the Greek Orthodox Church. During her college years, she visited Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, New York and began attending services of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia (ROCOR). She soon entered monasticism at the Convent of Saint Elizabeth the New Martyr in Jordanville, New York. 

After a trip to Jerusalem in May 1996, she received a blessing to join the larger and well established Convent of Saint Mary Magdalene in Gethsemane. She was tonsured to the small schema in 2002, and in 2007 returned to New York, where a community was established by those who did not wish to be under the Moscow Patriarchate.

The Convent was recently relocated to Owego, New York to be near Saint Maximus the Confessor Orthodox Church (GOC) which supports the endeavors of our community. 

It is hoped in the future to build a senior care home on the Convent’s grounds for those Orthodox Christians who wish to spend their later years in a sacred Christian setting. 

Schedule

Summer 2024 update:

Our monastic community attends services at Saint Maximus Church here in Owego, New York.  Some of our photos are from here.

Saint Nicholas

Apolytikion (Hymn):

The truth of things hath revealed thee to thy flock as a rule of faith, an icon of meekness, and a teacher of temperance; for this cause, thou hast achieved the heights by humility, riches by poverty. O Father and Hierarch Nicholas, intercede with Christ God that our souls be saved.

Kontakion (Hymn):

Saintly One, (St. Nicholas) in Myra you proved yourself a priest; for in fulfilling the Gospel of Christ, venerable One, you laid down your life for your people and saved the innocent from death. For this you were sanctified as One learned in divine grace.

Our patronal feast day is on May 9 (church calendar) / May 22 (civic calendar) for the Translation of the Relics of Saint Nicholas from Myra in Lycia to Bari in Italy. An iconographic depiction: