{"id":412120,"date":"2026-09-27T16:20:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:20:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/412120\/"},"modified":"2026-09-27T16:20:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-27T16:20:14","slug":"st-nicholas-icon-could-return-to-florida-after-100-years-in-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/412120\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Nicholas icon could return to Florida after 100 years in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A St. Nicholas icon that left Tarpon Springs more than 100 years ago could soon return to the Florida city, according to Mayor John Koulianos.<\/p>\n<p>Koulianos said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/permalink.php?story_fbid=pfbid02EYje5WP7Ac3Ge2AKwcGru2cv8tJqAG6uZ2imds7mYYaoUpvL33QsvF7RTGxiRWynl&amp;id=100081742850002&amp;__cft__[0]=AZgnn3dtFvZbbfOb0OH-3rQ-O58fBsNd_QuXzda2XhkpHP6cpy-2OrV9AlyXdY0GZKbz86NdGXhUD9_SQeaH9cSOrb8WxzRwOC4Wd0WCmUxiiW3OZvtkO-t-qWlEEMwcKq8aywQsPAn87p9rEItLuA3jysdWsrPI&amp;__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">post on Facebook earlier this month<\/a> that the icon was presented to the original <a href=\"https:\/\/stnicholastarpon.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">St. Nicholas Greek Church<\/a> in 1910 by immigrants from the Greek island of Aegina.<\/p>\n<p>After a fire damaged the church, the icon was sent back to Greece in 1923 in an effort to have it restored. Koulianos said he located it during a trip to Aegina in July and is now working to bring it back to Tarpon Springs.<\/p>\n<p>At the same time, Tarpon Springs and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.visitgreece.gr\/en\/islands\/saronic-islands\/aegina\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Aegina<\/a> are working to finalize a Sister City relationship. Aegina Mayor Ioannis Zorbas has accepted Koulianos&#8217; invitation to attend the city&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/evestival.com\/event\/tarpon-springs-epiphany-celebration\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">2027 Epiphany celebrations<\/a>, where the twinning ceremony is expected to be completed.<\/p>\n<p>Read more: <a href=\"https:\/\/cbs12.com\/news\/local\/jupiter-high-students-take-science-out-of-the-classroom-for-30-year-fish-study-september-26-2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Jupiter High students take science out of the classroom for 30-year fish study<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe I may have been successful in achieving both goals,\u201d Koulianos wrote.<\/p>\n<p>The effort to return the icon has the blessing of Metropolitan Sebastian and assistance from the cathedral&#8217;s parish priest, Father Aristides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (CBS12) \u2014 A St. Nicholas icon that left Tarpon Springs more than 100 years ago&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":412121,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-412120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=412120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412120\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/412121"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}