The Chapel of Saint Mamas on the Island of Hydra

The Chapel of Saint Mamas is located on the island of Hydra high in the Klimaki area, on a plateau west of Mount Eros on the (internal) road to Episkopi. It is an all-white chapel in a deserted location overlooking Myrtos Beach.

It is said that the founder of the church was Th. Rigas and he was in danger of a storm coming to Hydra, but he made a vow to Saint Mamas that if he was saved, he would build him a chapel, which he did.

September: Day 2: Teaching 1: Holy Martyr Mamas

September: Day 2: Teaching 1: 

Holy Martyr Mamas
 
(Lessons From His Life: 

a. God's providence in the lives of orphans; 

b. the good sides of orphanhood; 

and c. an exhortation to take care of orphans)

By Archpriest Grigory Dyachenko

I. Today the Holy Church celebrates the memory of the holy martyr Mamas. The parents of Saint Mamas were noble and wealthy Christians, originally from Asia Minor, and their names were Theodotos and Rufina. For their Christian faith they were imprisoned. Theodotos died in prison, and his wife, overcome with grief, gave birth to a premature son, and soon after also gave up her soul to God. The merciful God did not leave the infant without help and care. At that time there lived in Caesarea a virtuous and pious rich widow, Ammia. The Lord inspired her with the good thought to ask the ruler of the country for permission to bury the bodies of deceased Christians. Having received permission to do so, she herself went to the prison and when she saw the poor baby between the dead parents, her heart was filled with compassion, and she decided to take the child and raise him as her own son. She nursed him, calling him Mamas. Having reached adolescence, he loved God and his neighbors, learned a pious life and was awarded the crown of martyrdom for his firm confession of his Christian faith.

Encomium to the Holy Great Martyr Mamas (St. Neophytos the Recluse)

Encomium to the Holy Great Martyr Mamas

 

By St. Neophytos the Recluse

Mamas the great and renowned, the beauty of Christ's martyrs, the fervent protector of the wounded, the physician of terrible pains and divine healer, the one who dries wounds and easily removes their stench, cleans the rot of demonic wounds, truly having a storehouse of divine medicines and healing free of charge those who come with faith to this sacred temple.

He who did not take into account the terrible threats of impious tyrants, who considered tortures with help from above as the arrows of infants. He received from the forefather Adam the gift which he had from God before the transgression, to have authority over wild animals as if they were tame. He milked them like obedient sheep and made cheese for his own and some poor people's sustenance. He did not, like Abel, sacrifice the best sheep, but offered himself to God through martyrdom and various tortures. He is the one who gathered us all together to glorify God, because on this day after leaving the temporal life, he was transferred to the eternal and to a bright place. That is why it is to our benefit that we celebrate his annual and blessed memory today.