TARPON SPRINGS — An icon of St. Nicholas that left Tarpon Springs for restoration in 1923 and never came back could be home by January, after Mayor John Koulianos tracked it down on a Greek island this summer.
Koulianos found the icon in July in a harbor chapel on Aegina, where it has been for more than a century. The priest there has agreed to give it back, but the request still must be approved by church leaders in Greece and the United States.
If it is, the icon would return during the city’s Epiphany celebration Jan. 6, 2027, the same day Tarpon Springs plans to make Aegina its newest sister city.
The icon, a stylized image of the saint, was presented in 1910 to the original wooden St. Nicholas Greek church by a group of immigrants from Aegina. St. Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors and fishermen, a fitting protector for a community built by Greek sponge divers, the first of whom came from Aegina and Hydra.
After a fire damaged the icon, it was sent to Greece in 1923 to be restored. It never returned.
Koulianos said he had long heard the story. “On our vacation to Europe in July, I made a special trip to Aegina to attempt to locate the icon for its return to Tarpon Springs,” he said.
After calling several contacts, he found it at the Chapel of St. Nicholas, which has stood on Aegina’s harbor since 1693. He asked the parish priest, the Rev. Nicholas, whether Tarpon Springs could have its icon back.
The priest agreed, but the request must work its way up through church leadership in both countries. Koulianos said the effort has the blessing of Metropolitan Sevastianos of Atlanta, whose metropolis includes Florida’s Greek Orthodox parishes, and the help of the Rev. Aristides of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
“We are hopeful to make this a reality,” Koulianos said.
Aegina Mayor Ioannis Zorbas has accepted an invitation to attend the 2027 Epiphany service and events, when the two cities will hold a twinning ceremony to finalize the relationship, Koulianos said. Aegina would join Kalymnos, Halki and Symi in Greece and Larnaca, Cyprus, as Tarpon Springs sister cities.
Koulianos said he expects the ceremony to include the icon’s return to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, more than a century after it left.