Lovely Zante and Holy Dionysios

Hello to all from lovely Zakynthos Island, just off the northwest coast of the Peleponnesus. We are all alive and well, despite having "given blood" without permission. The kids in particular have many many mosquito bites. Grandma and I are apparently not so sweet. We brought insect repellant, but it doesn't work too well. This is, we understand, the high season for mosquitos here.

We had a good trip from Ravenna to Zakynthos, via the Regional train, which was hot but not so hot as before, and the another Eurostar trip. This is the deluxe train with air-conditioning and assigned seats. We sat next to a young lady Rachel's age from Colorado Springs whom we enjoyed talking to very much. She had been in Italy for 3 weeks and had another 5 to go, living on farms for 2 wks at a time and studying local agriculture for a cookbook she is writing which de-emphasizes wheat products. An interesting hyphothesis in Italy -- land of the carbfest.

From the train, we walked an exhausting several blocks to find the bus to Zakynthos. We couldn't find the way OUT of the port, initially, and had to squeeze through a locked gate, but after about 15 minutes we reached the little shop with a stop for Zakynthos and got our tickets. Only had to wait an hour for the bus and it was nice and air-conditioned. When we reached the town of Killini an hour away, we got off the bus and walked onto the ferry, leaving our bags. On the other side, we boarded the bus again and it took us to a station where we were able to catch a taxi easily to take us to the monastery Eleftherotria.

I had visited this monastery 12 years ago on my other pilgrimage to Greece. Intending to stay for a few days, I found a great treasure in the elder here, Gerondas Chrysostomos, and ended up staying more than a week with them. Zakynthos Island was occupied by the Venetians for some time and one thing that characterizes the culture here is singing. Among all the monasteries I stayed in on that former trip, this is the one that I felt the most at home in. The nuns sing a lot, there is a lot of laughter and a wonderful "family" feel. The Gerondas, Chrysostomos, had a special love for me when I was last here and I for him. I was so happy to learn that he was still alive and was most anxious to arrive here again.

The great draw of Zakynthos, spiritually, is the much-revered Saint Dionysios, whose relics are found in the large central church. There have been very many healings associated with him, and during his feast day, they carry his relics through the major streets of the town and many who are ill and troubled lay down in the street to have the relics carried over them.

Gerondas was a monk for 50 years attending in this main church with the relics and saw a couple of miracles firsthand. One was a young girl who was born with a spinal defect in which the vertebrae were not properly fused or something (I could not exactly understand). At any rate, she could not stand or sit straight up. She lived in California. She and her mother both had simultaneous dreams in which a man appeared to them and told them to come to Zakynthos where a certain doctor could heal her. After several dreams, they decided to come. They arrived, not speaking Greek, and sought out an English-speaking doctor. He was amazed they would come to Zakynthos seeking medical help when better help would be available in California. But as he listened to their story, he realized that it was St. Dionysios who had called them and he instructed them to go to the church.

When the young girl arrived and entered and saw the relics and icons of St. Dionysios, she jumped from her wheelchair and ran to embrace his relics, saying he was the man who had appeared to her. Many people saw this happen and Gerondas was assigned to the church at this time and saw her, too.

Another man, whom Gerondas knew, was a local boy who had a bad accident. He was shot in the eyes by a hunter when he was a young child. The parents had two choices: one was to operate and remove the eyeballs. This was recommended. The other was to leave the eyeballs intact and risk infection, and thus, his life. They elected to have his eyeballs removed and Gerondas knew him as a blind man in the town here. Twenty years passed and one day on St. Dionysios' feast day, this young man, now grown, laid down with the infirm to have the relics passed over him. As he felt the relics come, he reached up and grabbed the saints' legs (they carry his relics upright in a glass "coffin" during the procession). The police tried to come and dissipate the scene he was creating, but he began yelling: "Give me my sight! St. Dionysios, I will not let go until you give me back my sight!" He was a strong man and they had trouble making him let go. Suddenly, his eyesight was restored and actually new eyeballs appeared in the sockets of his eyes. This was an incredible miracle. The young man was speechless and many, many people came to see his new eyes, including Gerondas.

In 1962 Gerondas decided to build the present monastery. He gathered some nuns and began saving all the money he could to put towards the building. He would take the bus out and dig the foundation for it with his own hands. His shoes were so worn with holes that he put plastic bags inside to protect the soles of his feet.

When you see the monastery today, it is unbelievable to think of him doing this. It is a very imposing structure, beautifully laid out and very large. Like the Elder Ephraim's monasteries I have visited, much care is given to creating a very beautiful space - both interior and exterior. Lovely marble stairs and porticoes, mosaics, frescoes, and decorative paintings, a graceful rose garden, and many lovely bookcases filled with liturgical items such as chalices and Gospel books, as well as patristic writings.

The church is unique. The monastery is named for the Theotokos (Mother of God, Mary) Eleftherotria, which means "freedom". A very large icon painted with oils is central in the church. The painter was in World War II and had a vision of the Mother of God rising above the soldiers and protecting them, covering them, and taking herself the bullets and other weapons that would have wounded them. In the icon which he painted, her robes appear to be moving back like she is in motion, and she has two emblems on her shoulders that look like part of a military uniform. When I was here before, this icon was also here and I remembered it.

But Gerondas has decided to build another church exactly beside the first; they share a wall in common, and a doorway opens between them. The icon Eleftherotria is in one church, and another icon whose history I cannot remember right now is in the second church. It is quite amazing. During the services, one can sit in either church and hear what is being prayed.

They graciously gave us a blessing to stay in the house just behind the monastery grounds which is reserved for family of the sisters who live there. It is very comfortable. We have 2 bedrooms, a sitting room, kitchen, and bathroom -- the whole upstairs. It is a 5 minute walk down to the monastery front gate and just about 2 minutes to the back gate which goes through the vegetable garden and the place where they keep the animals - goats, rabbits, lots of cats, chickens. We have large windows which open like a door to reveal a pair of shutters. These can also be opened to let in the fresh air and show the incredible view of the plains full of olive trees and grapes down below the monastery. I keenly remember this sight during our prayers of Apothipnos (evening prayers, or Compline, I think) which I loved at the end of the day on my last trip. Instead of looking at the icons, we ended the days by gazing at the loveliness of God's creation.

We were expected and greeted very warmly on our arrival, shown our rooms and then walked back down to the monastery to greet Gerondissa Magdalini and Gerondas Chrysostomos and all the sisters. These are titles given to the Abbot/ Abbess of the monastery. We say YEH-rohn-das, or Yeh-ROHN-diss-sah, to mean, spiritual Father/Mother. Gerondissa here is named for St. Mary Magdalene, from the Scriptures. And Gerondas is named for St. John Chrysostom (or, "golden-mouth" for his gift of eloquent speaking). The nun who escorted us was named Kyriaki and speaks perfect English, as do several of the others.

I was so happy to see Gerondissa again and to sit with her and talk a little, and I was overjoyed to finally see Gerondas coming down the hall to see us. He is now 95 years old, but still in good shape. He is hard of hearing, and he says his knees bother him now, but he looked just the same to me. He took to Basil very quickly (as do many people on our trip) and picked him up, played with him. They brought us some dinner -- fried potatoes, Greek salad (cucumber, tomato, fresh onion, olive oil), bread & honey, olives. It was so delicious. Gerondas stayed with us and fed Basil. We had huge chunks of fresh watermelon and all of us finished every drop. It seems ages since we have had fresh fruit!

We walked back up to our home and got showers. In Greece a shower is a tile square on the floor with a hand-held shower nozzle. Functional, and the cool water felt so good. Getting to sleep was quite another matter. It was SO HOT!!!! Lying on the bed doing nothing was uncomfortable and sticky. There was little breeze and we were told there were mosquitoes, so we didn't really have the windows all open, anyway. I didn't care too much about all these things, because I was so happy to be here. But it was hard for all of us to get to sleep.

The other major sleep-inhibitor was the noise. Here we are in the middle of a Greek island, well away from the tourist sections, next to a monastery that is like a spiritual oasis after our hectic sojourns through Italy. And what is next door? Some kind of major party with live music. I rather liked it -- folk music mostly, but at times it was awfully loud. There were other noises, too, like fireworks, occassionally. Underneath these louder human noises were all the animal noises -- dogs barking, birds chirping, and cats yowling. I thought about how happy Christopher would be to try and sleep in that (ha ha). There was also the incessant squeak of the shutters slowly blowing back and forth.

As I was finally settling into the reptilian feeling of wet skin no matter which side I laid on, I was pushed out of bed and onto my feet by a huge BANG! that I thought was someone coming in the door downstairs. We've read too much history of barbarians invading, pillaging, burning, and wreaking havoc throughout these places. I went down and checked the door. Everyone else was sleeping by this point, so I got back in bed. Listening, I heard more of the same sound, but further away. A canon? I swear it was.

Next morning, we got up on the early side and headed down the the monastery for Liturgy. I was so happy for this opportunity since we had missed it on Sunday, there being no Orthodox churches in Ravenna, and no time at any rate. I loved standing in the dark church with the sun beams illuminating the marble floors and faced of countless icons, listening to the Byzantine chant. I could follow quite well where we were in the service and some of the melodies were even a little familiar. I hummed along an ison some of the time. The children and I had communion after all the nuns. We venerated a relic which was out in the middle and I asked who it was at the end. It was St. John the Baptist! I very large piece of bone, about the size of half of my finger. I am used to seeing tiny chips and was amazed that we were venerating his actual bone. Can you imagine that this has stayed intact for 2,000 years?!

After this, Emma went with one of the sisters to help prepare our breakfast. They really have taken her under their wing, and they love her very much. They are extremely affectionate with both children, hugging and caressing them, kissing them, and playing with them. They are both very happy here, and Emilia loves it. She wants to come back again.

Mom and I spent time with Basil in the rose garden and then Gerondas, who had some guests he was chatting with, had us sing some things for him. We sang "The Angel Cried" and some "Christ is Risen" verses. They all liked to hear Emma sing very much. Basil did the ABCs. He asks a lot about icons I am painting, wants to know if I have any orders, and keeps telling me to paint beautiful icons. When I was here before, he had me paint an illumination for a huge book of Prayers and one of the Gospels that he was writing by hand. I also painted another icon of the Theotokos to fit inside a silver repousse icon he had. I asked one of the sisters what all the noise was from the night before -- it was all for the feast of St. John!

We went up for breakfast and then spent some more hours in and around the church, purchasing some things from the gift shop, and spending time with the sisters, especially Kiriaki and Argyros, who speak English very well.

We had a rest in the afternoon and all fell asleep, in spite of the heat. I think it was at this time that the kids basically got eaten alive with bites. I think Emma counted 96 this morning! Emma woke up a little before Basil and Grandma, about 4PM, and went back down to the monastery. We followed a little later, in time for Esperinos (Vespers) at 5PM. After this they went into the other chapel of Eleftherotria and sang the Paraklesis, which they do every night.

Gerondas stopped us in the church afterwards and was talking about Emilia. I cannot understand him, as he does not speak Greek, but Kyriaki was translating for us. He was saying that Emilia is a very good girl, a very beautiful girl. He was telling me that I must dedicate her to God, and that a life in God is better than anything. Kyriaki was crying and so was I. It was a very moving moment. He said that he sees something of what her life will be, or who she will become.

Gerondas then took us with him to show us the Evangelismos (Gospel Book) he had finished. I had asked especially to see it, since it was in progress 12 years ago. It took him 4 years of steady work to write this all out by hand, and every page has beautiful illuminations on it. The book weighs 18 kilos (probably 15 lbs) and is huge -- about 24" x 30" or so. It was bound with a cover that was a piece of art itself with all the metal work showing icons of the life of Christ.

After this, he took us upstairs into the room I spent so much time in before, an enclosed porch which overlooks the olive groves. There, he gave us an icon and gave a small icon of the Theotokos in particular to Emma, saying that he wants her to put it by her bed. He reiterated what he had said to me downstairs and also spoke very directly to her saying, "I want you to remember me when you see this icon. I want you to pray for me." She began to weep. Then I asked if he might give me his compeskini (prayer rope) as he had done this last time and I'd lost it in the airport. He called me to him and gave it to me off his wrist, holding my hand and saying, "Hold this. Hold onto this; pray with it. Pray for me and remember me, for I will die soon. You will be back here, but I will be gone. Remember to pray for me." Kyriaki and I were both crying at this time and I was deeply moved.

We visited for some time longer and then had our dinner. Fried potatoes from their garden again, and "horta" or greens as a special request. They had wanted to know what we would especially like, and it is what came to my mind. The food here has been so simple and so delicious. It is a fasting period, so it is all vegetables. For this night, they had found beets in the garden and cooked the greens with the roots for us. It really hit the spot!

We passed another night with all the mosquitoes and poor Emma was quite miserable. Grandma is enduring the heat pretty well, although it is tough on all of us. Today we got up and after breakfast they called a taxi for us. We went and venerated St. Dionysios in the big church and then went into town, in search of a cell phone. No can do. They don't have any until Friday. So we got a phone card instead and will try to make calls later tonight. Lively town here, pretty fun. Emma cannot wait to get to the beach. Grandma and I probably can, as it sounds like there is not much shade there. Well, we will see. We head back to the monastery for Vespers and dinner, then tomorrow we depart Zakynthos.

We will probably take everyone's advice and get a car tomorrow in Patras. By bus, it is virtually impossible to get around to both Sparta (where Emma really wants to go) and then on to Malevi Monastery, where they are expecting us. The nuns say they will feel "safer" for us to have our own car while on the Pelepponesus. So extra prayers are requested!!

Well, I will sign off on this long post. We have really enjoyed our first leg of the Greece Adventure and look forward to seeing Nikos, Maria, Fr. Nicholas, Gabriel, and of course Christopher in less than a week now.

Signing off from a cute little internet cafe in Zante. It is hot, yes!
Macrina