MYSTAGOGY RESOURCE CENTER: Saint John the Hermit and the Spread of Veneration for Him During the Years of Venetian Rule in Rethymno and at the Sacred Monastery of the Savior of Koumbes

By Kostis Elias Papadakis

Your Eminence, Holy Abbot, Reverend Fathers and Sisters of the Monastery of the Savior, Ladies and Gentlemen,

My lecture, as you will already have understood from the title, consists of two parts:

a) the synaxarial, which concerns the Life and Conduct of Saint John the Hermit, and

b) the historical, which concerns the spread of the veneration and recognition of the Hermit as a Saint from the place of his ascetic struggle, the Akrotiri of Chania, to our prefecture of Rethymno and, more specifically, to the Sacred Monastery of the Savior of Christ, Koumbes.

Eight years ago I wrote my book on the Sacred Monastery of the Savior (Sacred Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior Christ, Koumbes, Rethymno, and Its Modern Founder, Nestor I. Vassalos the Dionysiatis, Rethymno 2011, p. 243), in which I demonstrated that, during the years of Venetian rule, one of the chapels of this Monastery was dedicated to Saint John the Hermit. This book of mine is the fruit of today’s lecture, through which the Monastery of the Savior is now officially introducing, with the blessings of the Church as well, the Apolytikion of this great Saint into its daily services, rediscovering once again its Renaissance roots and remembering its first Abbot at that time, Philotheos Phokas.

1. Services of the Saint

The principal source of information concerning the person and activity of Saint John the Hermit is his service, which was first published in Venice in 1782, edited by Georgios Velimas, and was republished in 1787 at the expense of the hieromonk Joasaph Kapetanakis-Gavalas, abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Gouverneto (fig. 2). In this 1787 edition, the decision of Patriarch Cyril Loukaris was also added, which established the celebration of the Holy Fathers on October 7, a date that was also accepted by the vote of the Sacred Synod of the Patriarchate in 1632.

The service was republished in Hermoupolis, Syros, in 1857, edited by Joseph, who was likewise Abbot of the Monastery of Gouverneto. It was also republished in the Sacred Synopsis of Stylianos Alexiou (pp. 291–294). In 1877, another service of the Venerable was included in the book Services (pp. 101–138), which was published in Athens under the editorship and at the expense of the Bishop of Rethymno and Avlopotamos, Hilarion, who dedicated it to the Metropolitan of Crete, Sophronios. This Service was republished in Piraeus in 1953. The service of Georgios Velimas (of 1787) is also included in the Cretan Leimonarion, Athens 1984, by the late Metropolitan of Rethymno and Avlopotamos, Tito M. Sylligardakis (pp. 79–99).

It should nevertheless be noted at this point that the oldest surviving service of the Saint, and the only handwritten one that exists, is found in Codex E 110 of the Sacred Monastery of the Great Lavra, dating from the second half of the seventeenth century. This is contrary to the other published services of the Saint (which we have just mentioned), all of which begin in the year 1782 (Georgios Velimas) and, evidently, all have this very ancient handwritten service as their basis.

2. John the Hermit and His 98 Fellow-Ascetic Fathers (Synaxarial Information)

John the Hermit was from Egypt and lived around the year 1550. He labored in Cyprus, Attaleia, and Crete, to which he came together with ninety-eight other Holy Fathers, who, together with John, completed the number ninety-nine. Regarding this number, 99, of the Holy Fathers, their service mentions the following characteristic symbolism: namely, that “having Christ as their head, they constituted a complete hundred.”

3. The Eventful Arrival of the Holy Fathers in Crete (fig. 3)

The eventful arrival in Crete of the ninety-eight Holy Fathers and John the Hermit from regions under Turkish rule or threatened by the Turks (Asia Minor, Egypt, Cyprus) should certainly not be unrelated to the historical circumstances of those times. According, however, to their Synaxarion, the Saints ended up in Crete because of their great humility and in order to find a place of monastic stillness and prayer. For wherever they went, it says, their great fame followed them, so that “many came running... for they healed many who were sick and in poor health... and they besought God to guide them to a suitable place, so that people would not see them and glorify them, because people greatly praised them... and they did not want the glory and praise of people.”

Thus, John and thirty-five other Egyptian ascetics set out from Egypt and went to Cyprus, faithfully following the words of God to the Patriarch Abraham: “Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house, into the land which I will show you...” Here too, however, in Cyprus, the fame of their holiness quickly spread throughout the entire island. Many came to them because they were benefited both spiritually and bodily, and many sick people were healed. There, in Cyprus, were also another thirty-nine Fathers in various places on the island, likewise living an ascetic life. When they heard of the virtue of the Venerable Fathers who had come from Egypt, they too went and joined them, and now all of them lived together a virtuous and ascetic life. Then, wishing also to withdraw from their homeland — the place of the aforementioned Old Testament word of God to Abraham — the Cypriots also departed from Cyprus and crossed over to the opposite coast of Asia Minor, to Attaleia, a harbor where Pamphylia was situated in antiquity. There they encountered another twenty-four recluses, who also joined them, and thus the company of the Venerable Fathers reached ninety-nine, “and having Christ as their head, they constituted,” as we said above, “a complete hundred.” After remaining in Attaleia for some time, and seeing their longing and desire to find even greater stillness in a foreign and suitable place, far from the acclamations and glory of people, God led them to depart from Attaleia as well and come to Crete, the final station and destination of their journey.

When the sea became calm, they boarded the ship again and departed for Crete. However, wishing to glorify John and reveal his virtue to people, God “covered him” — as their Synaxarion says — where he was sleeping, so that his fellow ascetics did not see that he had remained behind on Gavdos when they departed. As is further recorded in the same text, this happened by divine concession and providential dispensation, in order, that is, for God to show the Cretans His power and teach them that He could help His servants more through a staff and a cassock than swords and spears could help the Cretans against the Venetian oppressors who ruled over them. And this He taught them through the miracle that immediately followed.

John, therefore, when he saw that his fellow-ascetic brothers had departed from Gavdos and heard them from afar, from the opposite shore of Crete, calling out to him “with a raised voice,” with great and unwavering faith in God: “Brother John, come to us without fear and do not be afraid” — approached the seashore and, after fervently praying to the Lord and sealing the waters of the sea with the sign of the Cross, spread his cassock over it (fig. 5). He climbed upon it, as though boarding a boat, and began to sail toward the opposite shore, from the third until the sixth hour. And “thus sailing and chanting,” the Synaxarion of the Venerable tells us, “with a windless sail” (Ode 4), “he ran without hesitation toward his Brothers,” whereupon he arrived unharmed on the island of Crete, in the area of Gianiskari, near Anydroi. There the rest of his fellow-ascetic brothers welcomed him; “the first among the Brothers gave him his right hand, and, having embraced him, they all chanted: ‘Bound by the bond of love, we unworthy ones entrust ourselves to the Master of all, proclaiming peace to all.’” From there, and through the Azogyrian Gorge (fig. 6), the Fathers reached the village of Azogyres.

4. In the Village of Azogyres of Selino

Here, in the village of Azogyres of Selino, as is well known, John the Stranger is also said to have labored (figs. 7 and 7a). Here they found the place they had desired, at the location called the Great Stone of Charakos. Here they remained in stillness and prayer, and their food consisted of schinocarp, carob pods, and the herbs of the earth. But because the cave in which they lived was small and could not accommodate them all together, they divided into two groups: thirty-six crossed to the opposite bank of the river, to another cave, while the others remained in the first cave until the end of their lives (fig. 8).

And while the other Fathers were content with the cenobitic life they had established there, in Azogyres, John, who was a fervent advocate of the absolute solitary life, considered even the presence of those revered brethren an obstacle to the effort of wholehearted dedication and communion with God, desiring “to pray alone to God alone.” He therefore announced his desire to his brother Fathers, and they, seeing that he was unchangeable in his resolve, gave him permission to depart, offering the following prayer to Christ: “Lord Jesus Christ our God, since John, our brother, is about to depart from us, lead him so that he may pass his life in peace and stillness, and deem us worthy, O Master of all, on the day when Your grace arranges for one of us to complete the end of this present life, on that same day, O Master, to render altogether the common debt of our departure, and gather us together with him into Your heavenly Kingdom. Amen.”

5. John Withdraws to a Cave near Cape Kydonias, Living with Exceptional Asceticism, Prayer, and Fasting

John, then, departed from his brotherhood at Azogyres of Selino and arrived at the Akrotiri of Kydonias (Kyamōn in antiquity, Melechas during the Venetian period), near the Monastery of Gouverneto (the old Gdernneto) (fig. 9). There, above the narrowest point of a great and rushing torrent, on whose slopes, like true eagles’ nests, the very ancient hermitages are situated in tiers, which from ancient times served as a gathering place for hermits in the region of Kydonia, stands the old, original monastery of Gdernneto, known today as the Katholikon (fig. 10). There also lies the famous cave of Saint John the Hermit, beautiful, with many enormous stalactites and stalagmites, 150 meters in length, 40 meters in width, and ranging from 3 to 20 meters in height.

This old monastery (Katholikon), according to tradition, was later moved to its present location, a little higher up and at a short distance from the old one, within the embrace and transparent light of the tranquil Akrotiri plateau. From its foundation, it became completely identified with the Venerable John the Hermit, and although it is dedicated to the Lady Theotokos (“Lady of the Angels”), nevertheless, to this day, everyone refers to it as the “Monastery of Saint John the Hermit,” who is venerated in its left chapel, where his venerable skull is also kept in an old reliquary.

The archaeological reality, however, is now entirely different from this tradition, since it has ultimately been established that the Monastery of Gouverneto (fig. 13), which was founded between the years 1537 and 1548, according to the two inscriptions on the lintel of the Monastery’s main entrance, is older than the Katholikon, which was founded considerably later, between the final years of the sixteenth century and the year 1618, as a dependency and pilgrimage shrine of the Monastery of Gouverneto. Subsequently, the Katholikon, at the far end of the gorge, served as a pilgrimage shrine and center of veneration of the Venerable until approximately the eighteenth century, when the center of veneration of the Venerable was transferred once again to the Sacred Monastery of Gouverneto.

Here John (fig. 14), a true hermit in the precise meaning of the word, and a lover of solitude, having essentially cut himself off from the company of his ninety-eight fellow-ascetic Fathers in order to attain greater solitude for prayer and fasting, lived in seclusion, “alone with God alone” and “having become the table-companion of angels” (Ode 4), with extraordinary asceticism, prayer, and fasting. During the winter he nourished himself on the herbs of the earth, and during the summer on schinocarp and wild cherries, faithfully following the saying of the author of the Ladder: “When the belly is afflicted, the heart is humbled.” From the exhausting fasting to which the Venerable subjected himself, he became so weakened that he completely lost his strength and could no longer stand upright on his feet, but walked bent over like a four-legged creature, “going on all fours like an animal and living an angelic life,” and day and night he watered the rocks of the cave where he lived with “tears” of repentance.

6. He Is Shot by the Shepherd

One day, on the sixth of October, when God was about to receive John, he went out into the countryside, as he did every day, in order to procure his usual food, when a young shepherd of sheep, who was “skilled with the bow” and was hunting in that area, took him for prey, as he was bent over on all fours as he walked, and accidentally shot him directly in the region of the heart (fig. 1). John realized that his end had now come and entreated God to deem him worthy to reach the cave where he lived, near Avlaki. The hunter immediately ran to find and take his prey, as he thought, and only then did he realize his tragic mistake when, following the drops of his blood, he found the Saint lying in the cave, gravely wounded and covered in blood from his deadly arrow, which was still lodged in the region of his heart (fig. 15).

At this point, the Synaxarion of Saint John recounts the repentance of the hunter and the Saint’s forgiveness of him. Falling at his feet and kissing them, weeping and lamenting, he said: “Alas for me, the wretched one, what has happened to me today? Woe is me, the miserable one! How was I blinded and became a murderer of a righteous and holy man? What shall I become? What shall I do? I have nowhere to turn except to you, holy servant of God, to forgive my error and to entreat God to lead me to repentance.”

And the Saint, in a humble and gentle voice, said to him: “May the holy God, my child, Who loves the salvation of mankind, grant you repentance and forgive you the sin which you committed today against me, His unworthy servant, and deem you worthy of His Kingdom. Amen.”

It is even said that this shepherd subsequently became the first herald of the holiness of this wounded, previously unknown ascetic, struck by his own arrow, having been assured of this by the astounding light that he saw shining from within the cave at the time of the Saint’s repose (fig. 16).

7. The Common Death of All 99 Fathers

The memory of Saint John the Hermit and his ninety-eight fellow-ascetic Fathers is celebrated on October 7, rather than October 6, because of the memory of the Holy Apostle Thomas, who is honored on this day. According to their Synaxarion, John and his ninety-eight fellow-ascetic Fathers all reposed together on October 6, from the third hour of the day until the seventh, in accordance with their aforementioned desire and their common prayer to the Lord, namely: “On the day when His grace is pleased to bring one of them to the end of this present life, on that same day may the Lord deem them worthy to render all together the common debt of death.” And, as some local people used to say, you would see some of them seated and leaning upon their staffs, others praying, and others kneeling or lying down, all at the same time surrendering their blessed souls to the Lord, according to the desire they had expressed and their prayer.

This is a unique event in the Synaxaria of the Church: the peaceful passing of many Saints together. By contrast, collective martyrdoms are very common in the Synaxaria. For this reason, the peaceful passing here of so many people together was regarded as a sign of the holiness of the Fathers of John the Hermit, precisely demonstrating the works of faith and of the “bond of love,” as the Church joyfully hymns on this day:

“A numerous choir of the Ascetics of Christ, magnificently arrayed by the bond of love, shone forth in Crete, where, having practiced asceticism together in one mind and in faith, all were transferred above on one day, entreating Christ God to grant forgiveness to us all.” (fig. 17)

8. John Is Locally Honored in Crete During the Years of Venetian Rule

The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 mobilized the Venetians, because it was now more than certain that, sooner or later, Crete too would follow the fate of the Imperial City. The conscription of the Cretans by the Venetians caused unrest on the island, which became even greater when they pressed almost the entire population of the island into service for the repair or construction of new fortresses, as also happened in Rethymno with the rebuilding of the Fortezza fortress (1540–1570). It was, therefore, in these difficult and turbulent times that the author of the Life of the Venerable John the Hermit seems to be referring to when he says that he lived an ascetic life and ended his life as a martyr of the Lord. In these turbulent times of Crete, in the first half of the sixteenth century, when “...all had run aground in the great depth of wickedness and bodily turmoil because of the successive incursions and frequent upheavals of our most wretched race...,” God sent to Crete, over which the Roman Catholics and their Church held sway, His blessing, His assistance and consolation: the Venerable John the Hermit and the “ninety-eight God-bearing Fathers with him,” in order to show the Cretans His power, namely, that He helps more those who revere and love Him than those who carry swords and spears and kill people, clearly meaning the Venetian conquerors of the island.

It was certainly because of such convictions that expressions of honor toward the Saint became widespread through the erection and dedication of churches, as was observed during these years of the later Venetian period. Furthermore, according to his Synaxarion, immediately after his violent death his fame spread throughout all of Crete as that of a great saint and wonderworker, so that “a multitude of people went and venerated him, and all who approached with faith received healing from their afflictions.” For the Venerable John is believed to hear those who call upon him with faith and is even regarded as a special healer of diseases of the blood and leukemia.

The faithful people have created many traditions — interesting from a folkloric point of view — around the sacred cave in which John the Hermit reposed and its various parts. At the entrance to the cave are two small basins carved into the stone like mortars. Tradition says that these were the “plates” of the ascetic Saint, in which he placed his meager food. Today, pilgrims regard them as blessed and place food or water in them, in order to consume it and receive the blessing of the Saint and obtain miraculous healing from their illness. Another tradition says that whoever enters the cave with faith will not become soiled by the mud created by the permanent dripping of water, no matter how much he crawls over the rocks and the floor of the cave. On the contrary, unbelievers or sinners, if they attempt it, will become muddy, and to a degree proportionate to their sins. Also, at the entrance of the cave, and especially above it, in natural hollows or small shelves, various herbs and other plants grow. A completely white lily also grows there every year, ever since the cave was sanctified by the repose of the ascetic Saint. It is even said that no other similar lily grows throughout the entire area. Finally, the steps leading from above down to the entrance of the Venerable’s cave, deep within the sacred gorge, are said never to have been counted correctly by anyone to this day, because whenever one passes the number one hundred, one loses count. Another version of this tradition says that no two people have ever agreed on the number, because each counts them differently.[1]

From all these exceptionally rich folkloric elements, which we record (and from there I bring them here) in our recently published book Popular Faith and Worship, published by GRIGORIS of Athens, it is revealed, I think, precisely how great was the love and veneration that the simple Cretan people showed toward the person of the Saint. Churches therefore began to be built in places neighboring the Akrotiri and, moreover, long before his official canonization by the Ecumenical Patriarchate in 1632, which took place by a sigillion letter of the Ecumenical Patriarch Cyril Loukaris, formerly of Alexandria, surnamed the Cretan, and twenty-one hierarchs of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, among whom was the Rethymnian, from Axos of Mylopotamos, Saint Athanasios Patelaros, who at that time was Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, as well as the other Cretan scholarly hierarch, Meletios Pantogalos, Metropolitan of Ephesus.

9. Further Extension of Expressions of Honor toward John the Hermit into the Prefecture of Rethymno during the Years of Venetian Rule

Thus, the recognition of the holiness of Saint John the Hermit from a very early period, and almost immediately after his repose, during the final years of Venetian rule, extended from the Akrotiri of Chania to the city of Rethymno and, more specifically, to the neighboring Sacred Monastery of the Savior Christ, opposite the Akrotiri, in the district of Koumbes. This is the only known case of a church of Saint John the Hermit from the years of Venetian rule in Rethymno, and it had been completely forgotten in our own days because of the destruction of the Monastery by the Turks in the very first years of Ottoman rule.

Only recently (2005) was a second church dedicated to the Saint in the prefecture of Rethymno erected by the Metropolitan of Lampi, Syvritos, and Sfakia, within the grounds of the Bishopric in Spili, Agios Vasilios, in order to honor Saint John the Hermit, but also his birthplace, Spilia of Kisamos in Chania, near Kolymvari, where there is a large cave church of the Saint which, for this reason, is also called Spilianós, together with a complex of pilgrimage and hospitality facilities.[2]

At this point, however, I think it is worth noting that, apart from the two churches of this Saint mentioned above in the prefecture of Rethymno [one of which exists today (in Spili), while the other is attested by historical research (at the Sacred Monastery of the Savior, Koumbes)], there is testimony, this time through... folk tradition, of the existence of another, third church, the latter dedicated to Saint Theodore, built, however, by two of the Fathers of Saint John the Hermit. And here is how this latter, largely unknown, tradition goes. The former Prefect of Rethymno, Alexandros K. Hatzigakis, reports that in the village of Gerani there is a mountain known by the name Petres, also known from the river Petre of the same name, on the northern road axis connecting Rethymno with Chania. On the northern side of Petres there is the location Azoyres or Azogyres, a little above the sea and within a small valley surrounded by large rocks, olive trees, and wild olive trees. There also stands the ruined chapel of Saint Theodore, with a few cells, likewise destroyed by the passage of time and by the mistreatment of the shepherds who graze their goats and sheep beside it. Tradition, then, relates that this monastery was founded by two Fathers, among the ninety-eight who first came to Crete with John the Hermit. These Fathers, the interesting tradition continues, also built the bridge that connects Rethymno with Chania (fig. 18). In later times, however, the Corsairs came and destroyed both the monastery and the bridge.

It is obvious that this tradition was created by the simple similarity of the name of the place (toponym: Azogyres) of Petre (Gerani) with the name of the place (village: Azogyres) in the province of Selino in Chania, where the ninety-eight Holy Fathers of John the Hermit practiced asceticism. Yet this is a toponym so common throughout the Cretan countryside, because of the abundance of this particular plant,[3] that it makes the present tradition entirely improbable and, evidently, exaggerated, as is also the case with many other traditions. Nevertheless, the simple existence on the lips of our people of such a beautiful tradition does not cease, for us, to create yet another, third bond between Saint John the Hermit — and, in this particular case, two of his brother Fathers — and the prefecture of Rethymno.

This tradition concerning the building by the two Fathers of Azogyres of the bridge near Gerani is also preserved in a lengthy folk song (paralogí), which Alexandros Hatzigakis quotes, although nowhere does it mention the participation in its construction of these two Fathers of Azogyres. In its basic meaning, the song is a faithful rendering of the well-known corresponding folk song throughout Greece concerning the “Bridge of Arta.” That is, the bridge that collapses, and the solution to the impasse that results, is announced by the little bird (with the sacrifice of the master builder’s wife). There are also some variations, adapting the song to this particular bridge of Rethymno. In any case, here, in the “Bridge of Petre,” of the Holy Fathers of Saint John the Hermit, the two other sisters of the master builder’s wife are not said to have been used to establish other great bridges, as in the version of the “Bridge of Arta.”

We give below several verses of this lengthy song, unknown to contemporary people of Rethymno, which is distinguished, I may say, by its exceptional poetic quality:

On the far side of the Chania road, at the boundary of Rethymno
They laid the foundation for an arch, forty-two master builders.
A little bird passed over the base of the arch.
“Here this arch shall not stand, this arch shall not be established
Unless they place a man there to make it stand.
Neither lame nor crooked, nor even a beggar,
But the master builder’s first garland.”
………………………………………………….
“We are three sisters, and all three of us are unfortunate.
One went by fire, another by the knife,
And I, the luckless one, [shall be] the foot of the arch.
You, wild saffron flower, take my beauty,
So that no woman may take it and have my sufferings.”
……………………………………………………….

Thus, through the three cases mentioned above — drawn from history, folk tradition, and contemporary reality — the relationship of Saint John the Hermit with our city and with the prefecture of Rethymno in general is indeed existent, although not particularly strong.

10. The Dedication of One of the Aisles of the Sacred Monastery of the Savior, Koumbes, Rethymno, to Saint John the Hermit During the Years of Venetian Rule

In our book on the Sacred Monastery, we present our detailed research, with abundant testimonies and rich historical and cartographic evidence from the period of Venetian rule, by which we demonstrate with great certainty and precision that, during Venetian rule, the two-aisled church of the Monastery was dedicated, on the one hand, to the event of the Lord’s divine Transfiguration (as is also the case today) and, on the other, to Saint John the Hermit (San Giovanni Eremita), instead of the Honorable Forerunner, who is honored today. We refer interested readers to the pages of our aforementioned book for this part of our extensive research.[4]

This change from Saint John the Hermit during the period of Venetian rule to John the Forerunner in our own days concerns only the present, second period of the Monastery’s life and activity (fig. 19), and is due, on the one hand, to the fact that this first dedication of the Monastery to John the Hermit had in the meantime been forgotten because of the complete destruction of the Monastery by the Turks in 1645, and, on the other hand, to the discovery, among the ruins of the old church from the period of Venetian rule, of the present principal icon of the Honorable Forerunner by the more recent founder of the Monastery, Elder Nestor Vassalos (1935).[5] It must nevertheless also have contributed to this change from John the Hermit to John the Forerunner that the Sacred Monastery of the repentance of the more recent Founder of the Monastery — the Monastery of Dionysiou on Mount Athos — is itself dedicated to the Honorable Forerunner.

This, however, we consider to be an honor and glory for Saint John the Hermit, who in our own days yielded his place, at the sacred altar of the Monastery of the Savior, to John the Forerunner, “the greatest among the prophets”[6] and the firstfruits of the Apostles, who was deemed worthy to touch with his hands the “Crown of the Master” and with his finger to point to the Savior of the world Himself, addressing Him with the Gospel saying: “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.”[7]

As regards the historical data of our research, we further consider that the founding of the Monastery of the Savior around the middle of the sixteenth century[8] (fig. 20) coincides with the beginning of the recognition of the holiness of John the Hermit at the Monastery of Gouverneto, on the Akrotiri opposite it, and with its rapid spread throughout Venetian-ruled Crete. We therefore believe that, simultaneously with its foundation, the Sacred Monastery of the Savior, Koumbes, dedicated one of its two aisles to the then newly manifested Saint John the Hermit of Akrotiri, the assistance, as the Cretans believed, and consolation of God for the Cretans in those troubled years of Venetian rule. There was, moreover, an established practice during the years of Venetian rule of building churches and dedicating them to Saints who were nearby and in their vicinity.[9] And a Saint who was both nearby and in the vicinity in the case of the Sacred Monastery of the Savior Christ, as well as newly manifested, as we have said, at that time, was certainly Saint John the Hermit, who, in a straight line, is only a few kilometers from the Akrotiri opposite the Monastery and very clearly visible from it, the place of his ascetic struggle and repose.

A final characteristic point is that the inscription “San Giovanni Eremita,” which we identified on the Venetian maps for the small cape (where the military camp is today), at the foot of the Monastery of the Savior,[10] Koumbes, is exactly the same inscription (“San Giovanni Eremita”) that we identified on almost all of the maps of the Venetian period, in the area of the Akrotiri of Chania, where John the Hermit lived and reposed.[11] And this matter, with the common toponyms in these areas, clearly, we believe, reveals the unified space of the initial recognition and spread of the holiness of the Venerable from the Akrotiri toward Rethymno, to the east.

Your Eminence,

Today, the Sacred Monastery of the Savior Christ, Koumbes, is rediscovering its Renaissance roots and remembering its first Abbot, Philotheos Phokas, and is restoring, along with the honor of the Savior Christ (and of John the Forerunner), also the honor of Saint John the Hermit, an honorable relic of whom it possesses as a valuable treasure in its sacred treasury. It has also commissioned a splendid mosaic icon of the Venerable (fig. 21) in the courtyard of the Monastery, in the form of a supplication, with the Lord in the midst of the two Johns (the Forerunner and the Hermit), the divine protectors of the Sacred Monastery (fig. 22). More recently, the Sacred Monastery has also had another icon of the Hermit made for the central shrine of the katholikon, following the iconographic type of the famous icon of the Saint by the Sinai hieromonk Jeremiah Palladas, who lived and worked in Chandax (from which he also came), one of the most renowned iconographers of his time.

Finally, from today, the Nuns also add and chant the Saint’s Apolytikion during the Divine Liturgy, together with those of the Holy Transfiguration and the Honorable Forerunner, commemorating him and invoking his divine protection and assistance during the sacred services and their daily duties.

11. From the Cretan Panagion, by Hieromonk Cyril

Having become an emigrant of the Lord through love,
As a citizen of heaven, O angel-like John,
You lived an ascetic life,
And, shot by the arrows of a shepherd,
Having desired its end,
You attained it with joy.
Glory to Christ who called you,
Glory to Him who worked with you,
Glory to Him who gave you
As a vigilant guardian to Crete.

Thank you!

[1] Antonis Plymakis, “The Cave of the Venerable John the Hermit,” newspaper Eleftheria, Rethymno, 4–11/10/2003.

[2] Antonis G. Plymakis, In the Footsteps of the Venerable John the Hermit, Chania 2015, 153, where the veteran mountaineer and speleologist author refers to all the churches of the Saint throughout Greece, beyond those of Crete [such as the Skete of Saint Anna (Mount Athos), the Sacred Monastery of Saint Athanasius of Omvriachi (Phthiotis), and the Sacred Monastery of Kouvara in Attica].

[3] This is a shrub with a very unpleasant smell (ancient anagyros, feminine). It is also heard as azourοs, azogyreas, and azogeras. Possibly later Greek Ozogyros < ancient verb ozō = “I smell” + ancient anagyros (= the stinking tree).

[4] Kostis Il. Papadakis, Sacred Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior Christ, Koumbes, Rethymno, and Its Modern Founder, Nestor I. Vassalos the Dionysiatis, Rethymno 2011, 39–45.

[5] The small icon of the Honorable Forerunner that Nestor found, of course, in no way confirms that the church of the Venetian period was dedicated to the Honorable Forerunner, since it is not a large festal or, at least, central pilgrimage icon of the church, but simply a small icon of a Saint (14 × 22 cm), among the dozens that adorn every Orthodox church.

[6] Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechesis 10, 19.

[7] Luke 3:2–18 and John 1:29.

[8] Kostis Il. Papadakis, Sacred Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior Christ, op. cit. (note 60), 33–35.

[9] Something similar, if we take notice, can also be seen with the watchtowers and bastions of the Venetian Fortezza of Rethymno, which likewise were given the names of churches and Saints located nearby and in their vicinity (information by telephone from Mrs. Ioanna Steriotou, whom I also warmly thank here).

[10] Also the Venetian watchtower (San Giovanni Eremita) at Petsakades (Koumbes), Rethymno (see images of five Venetian maps bearing this inscription in Antonis G. Plymakis, In the Footsteps of the Venerable John the Hermit, Chania 2015, 133–134).

[11] See images of five Venetian maps bearing this inscription in Antonis G. Plymakis, In the Footsteps of the Venerable John the Hermit, Chania 2015, 133–134.

Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.