Tarpon Springs Mayor Finds Lost 1910 St. Nicholas Icon in Greece

Mayor John Koulianos of Tarpon Springs, Florida, located an icon of St. Nicholas that had been missing from the city's Greek Orthodox community for 103 years. The icon was originally presented to St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in 1910 by a group of immigrants. After a fire damaged the church, the icon was sent to Greece in 1923 for restoration and was not seen again.

Before a summer trip to Greece, Koulianos spoke with a university professor who told him about the missing icon. During the trip, he and his family visited Aegina, the island connected to his wife's family. At a church there, a priest pointed to an icon in the back right-hand corner and said it might be the one from Tarpon Springs.

In an interview with The National Herald, Koulianos said, "I'm not Indiana Jones: I didn't go through scorpions and snakes to find the icon, it was pretty simple." He described the icon as concealed by glass in a frame and beautiful in its simplicity. The icon bears inscriptions that include the 1923 return date and the words "Tarpon Springs" and "St. Nicholas." The full story is reported by The National Herald.