About our Pastoral Assistant Napoleon Kanari

Napoleon was born in Chicago, IL and was baptized in the Orthodox Christian Faith as an infant. Though he attended regularly, he drifted apart from the Faith for a short time, circling around in various Protestant groups. Around his sophomore and junior year of high school, Napoleon began his entrance back into the Church. At that time, he began attending church services at his local Greek parish, as well as paying visits to a Serbian Orthodox monastery near his home. Napoleon came to the realization that God had kept a small flame alive in his heart which enabled him to slowly begin growing in the knowledge and wisdom of the Lord.

When he returned to Orthodoxy, an old desire awoke in him to one day serve the Church as a priest. During his junior year of high school, he had to select a college to attend, and with the support of his parents and his spiritual father, he decided to attend Hellenic College, enrolling in 2017. After graduating college (B.A., 2020), his studies began at Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology. During the last couple of months in college and the first couple of months at Holy Cross, he worked at Salem4Youth, a boarding school for at-risk adolescent boys between the ages of 12-17. These young boys had been sent to a therapeutic program primarily for behavioral related issues in the home, unfortunate domestic circumstances, or for issues manifesting in other aspects of life as a result of a tumultuous home. Concurrent to working there as a Residential Youth Counselor, he had a parish placement as a catechist in an OCA church as part of the field education requirements for one of his seminary classes.

After fourteen months at Salem4Youth, and midway through his studies at Holy Cross, he followed his soon to be wife, Juliana, to Portland, OR where he worked various jobs: Landscaper/Assistant ranger, Greek language teacher, and Janitor. While Napoleon was employed full-time and a full-time student, and while Juliana was a full-time Senior Chemical Engineer, they got married on June 4th, 2022. Eventually, he finished the Masters of Divinity (M.Div.) program at Holy Cross in December of 2022. As he was finishing his last semester, Napoleon was hired as a Chaplain for the private hospice agency Tenderly Hospice near Portland, OR and served there for four months, adding to the year of hospice volunteer experience while being a student at Hellenic College. The hospice chaplaincy came to an end when Juliana’s company presented her with a further enhanced employment opportunity in Arizona as a Field Processing Engineer Manager for Hitachi (working with Intel). After much prayer and discussion, they felt that God was opening a door for them and they decided to walk through it.

After his graduation from Seminary in May of 2023, and a five week pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Turkey, and Greece, they moved to Arizona. Soon after arriving in June of 2023, they began looking for a church to call home, and Napoleon was in search of a job opportunity. Initially he worked as a car technician at Jiffy Lube, which he enjoyed as he learned how to navigate an environment that was at times very challenging. While at Jiffy Lube, he also tried his hand as an assistant teacher at Great Hearts Academy in Scottsdale.

Shortly thereafter, Napoleon began working at a secular residential treatment center and boarding school for at-risk adolescents and juvenile delinquents with criminal charges and offenses, and various maladaptive behavior issues and disorders. He was able to further familiarize himself with the field of Psychology and Therapy. This is where he was working as a Youth Care Worker before being brought on as our Pastoral Assistant.

May God grant him and his beloved wife Juliana many years of service in our Lord’s vineyard, good health, and spiritual growth.