Hieromonk Father Nektarios Terpos was a special personality of the pre-revolutionary years and is rightly characterized as the forerunner of Patrocosmas of Aitolos. He was born in Moschopolis in Northern Epirus probably in 1675.
There is insufficient information about his life. We know that he became a monk and cloistered on Mount Athos. Later he became an abbot at the Holy Monastery of Panagia Ardenitsa in present-day Albania. From there he started his missionary work wanting to stop the Islamizations that were destroying Hellenism.
Contrary to St. Kudos to Etolos Father Nektarios preached in particularly harsh language against the Turks and Islam, for this reason his action is not unjustly considered national and not only religious. At one point, in 1724, in the village of Tragoti he attacked the "false prophet and disciple of the antichrist Muhammad" so fiercely that he was attacked by two Turks who left him half dead. He survived but with permanent damage to his left arm.
Here is how he himself describes his adventure:"Later, two brothers from Agarinos, who were slanderers, did not find out how I declared by confessing that Christ was the true God, and the Mother of God and Virgin, and that Muhammad was a liar and a schemer, and a first disciple of the antichrist. They came and took me to the priest's house, and they each had a short stick... and beating me mercilessly... they beat me as far as each one could reach... so often they knocked me...
"In all places they burdened me, in other places my body became red, and in many places it was blackened... and by the grace of Christ I was healed, but my arm was injured, and I can never rest in this place". strong>
On the occasion of this event, he wrote his only work, the book "Pistis", which achieved the record number for the era of 12 editions in the period 1732 - 1818. literate people, but for the illiterate and peasants, because in these parts of Turkey there are Christians, many have been led astray, and are led astray by a little need and payment of the tribute, and deny (feu) Christ, and deliver themselves into his hands devil' , he said in the foreword to his book. For the publication, he traveled to Venice where the book was published for the first time.
He himself, escaping from the official policy of the Church which preached the appeasement of the Turkish beast, said he spoke openly against the Turks and their faith: "Woe to that man, where he wants to die in the misguided religion of the plan, and the apostate of Muhammad, and his son-in-law Ali, who are, and will always be in the middle of the fire of hell, together with the father them the devil.
"So don't you dare to say that God made the Turks, and gave them kingdom and power.... The Turks above us are of the same opinion. Beasts are rational, Wolves are careless, Ochentrais are mediciners, Basilisks are harmful”. His words were in direct opposition to the prevailing practice and it is surprising that he survived the Turks and was not excommunicated. In any case, the National Apostle Cosmas of Aitolos was based on the footsteps of Fr. Nektarios Terpos a few years later. Father Nektarios fell asleep in 1740 or 1741.
