Kampos, one of the few fertile valleys of the sacred island of Tinos, is a settlement with a population of a few hundred people with great historical significance. This is where Saint Pelagia was born in 1752, the daughter of the priest Nikephoros Negrepontis, who died a few years after her birth. Pelagia, whose secular name was Loukia, was raised in Kampos by her mother until the age of 12, when life's difficulties forced her mother to send her daughter to her native village of Tripotamos to be taken care of by her sister. At the age of 15, Loukia became a novice at Kechrovouni Monastery, where her other aunt was a nun, and eventually was tonsured with the name Pelagia. It was here that the Mother of God appeared to her over three consecutive nights urging her to uncover her sacred icon in the place indicated by her, which indeed she discovered in the field of Doxara on January 30, 1823.
The island of Tinos was occupied by the Venetians from 1207 to 1718, when it finally came under Ottoman rule. This long period of Venetian occupation of over five centuries established Tinos as an island where the Catholic faith flourished right alongside the Orthodox. At the time Saint Pelagia was born in 1752, Kampos was primarily a Catholic settlement and it was forbidden by a firman issued by the Sultan for the Orthodox to have one of their churches built there. The Church of the Holy Trinity in Kampos was built by Catholics in the late 17th or early 18th century and remains a Catholic church to this day.
The island of Tinos was occupied by the Venetians from 1207 to 1718, when it finally came under Ottoman rule. This long period of Venetian occupation of over five centuries established Tinos as an island where the Catholic faith flourished right alongside the Orthodox. At the time Saint Pelagia was born in 1752, Kampos was primarily a Catholic settlement and it was forbidden by a firman issued by the Sultan for the Orthodox to have one of their churches built there. The Church of the Holy Trinity in Kampos was built by Catholics in the late 17th or early 18th century and remains a Catholic church to this day.
Then came the short-lived Russian occupation of Tinos (1771-1774), and all the Orthodox hierarchs of the Aegean placed themselves and their flocks under the protection of the Empress of Russia Catherine I. This allowed for the Orthodox to finally have a church built in Kampos in 1771 under the supervision of George Dorizas of Tinos and with financial support from the Russian Admiral Alexey Orlov, commander of the Imperial Russian Navy during the Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774). Because the church was built in honor of the Russian empress Catherine I the Great, it was dedicated to Saint Katherine of Alexandria and celebrates annually on November 25th.
The Church of Saint Katherine in Kampos remains a unique place of worship and at the same time an important monument of the political and religious heritage of the island.
The Church of Saint Katherine in Kampos remains a unique place of worship and at the same time an important monument of the political and religious heritage of the island.
