St. Nicholas Icon Missing From Tarpon Springs for 103 Years Found in Aegina

TARPON SPRINGS, FL — An icon of St. Nicholas that disappeared from the Greek Orthodox community of Tarpon Springs in 1923 has been found on the Greek island of Aegina more than a century later.

The icon was created in 1910 and presented to the Greek Orthodox community in Tarpon Springs by people with ties to Aegina. It was placed in the original Greek Orthodox Church of St. Nicholas, predecessor of today’s St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral. Greek immigrants, including many sponge divers from Greece, played a major role in establishing Tarpon Springs as a center of Greek life in the United States.

The icon survived a devastating fire that badly damaged the wooden church in 1923, but it was damaged in the blaze and subsequently taken to Aegina for restoration. It never returned to Florida. The icon remained on the island for the next 103 years, until its location was established during a visit by Tarpon Springs Mayor John Koulianos in 2026.

Koulianos was visiting Aegina in connection with efforts to establish a sister-city relationship between the two communities. After raising the question of the missing icon with Aegina Mayor Ioannis Zorbas, local clergy joined the search and identified it in the Church of Panagitsa. The large, fragile icon reportedly still bears evidence of the damage caused by the 1923 fire.

Church authorities must approve and arrange the icon’s return to the United States. Officials in Tarpon Springs and Aegina are working toward bringing it back to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, potentially in time for Tarpon Springs’ Theophany celebrations on January 6, 2027.

Previously, the UOJ reported that a stolen bell was returned to a historic Pueblo Orthodox church.