Arhim. Clement Haralam, Centenary of the Death of Skemonk Nectarie, the Protopsalt of the Holy Mount

The Prodromu hermitage of the Holy Mount has always been the Romanian monastical site with the largest body of people. Skemonk Nectarie's figure stood out among the singers of the hermitage. His centenary is soon to be celebrated. The library of the hermitage shelters various documents due to his multilateral activity as a translator and renderer of byzantine chant.

Skemonk Nectarie did not direct his interests only toward byzantine chant, but also toward the salvation of his own soul, and his work often looked inspired by a divine power. On his coming to the Prodromu hermitage he discovered that there were no psaltic chants in Romanian, so he translated a large number of books of such chants. He also founded the school of byzantine chant at the hermitage, which gathered some sixty or seventy skilled singers. Some of them were to become famous singers of byzantine chant at various monasteries on the Holy Mount.

Skemonk Nectarie's accomplishments during his life at the hermitage of Mount Athos were very similar to those of the holy fathers Macarie the Hieromonk, Anton Pann, and Dimitrie Suceveanu in the field of byzantine chant . Thus, despite his being relatively little known within Romania itself, Skemonk Nectarie certainly is one of the most outstanding personalities of Romanian byzantine chant of all times.

Arhimandrit Clement Haralam