Kyriakos Litinas is a priest at Saint Paraskevi's church in Amari, a province of Rethymnon. He is very likable among his fellow villagers and a family man, who struggles as much as his people to make do. The village residents are few and it is hard to say if they can even fill a small church. Calliope Kanakakis has been the village chanter for many years. This role is usually assigned to a man with a deep voice, but there was nobody, so Calliope took over.

Pro priest marriage

Kyriakos is a priest with guts like most priests in the Cretan villages, and he doesn't have the sweet and kind look most priests adopt. He is knowledgeable and strong willed, and often criticises the establishments of the Greek Church. However, he never oversteps the limits of decency when he criticises the church's wrongs and he never offends his superiors on a personal level.

He is fanatically in favour of priests getting married, because he is a family man and thus knows first- hand that his marital status helps him understand the problems of his people and correspond better to his mission. "Priests must be allowed to get married, because this will be good for them and the Church", he says with every opportunity.

"Churches in Athens are filled with archimandrites. They're young boys who know nothing about life. They'd better stay in the monasteries and pray for the world and the universe. It would be more useful. Men who live in a home must not live alone, because there can't be a real home without a woman. But they should also be careful not hang from the woman's skirt (he laughs)".

These beliefs of priest Kyriakos holds, reached the despot's ears, after he published an article in the Cretan magazine Panorama. In some gathering of the local priests, the despot temporarily interrupted his speech and personally asked Kyriakos Litinas: "What do you think priest Kyriakos, do I have the time to get married or am I too old for that?" His tone showed goodwill, as if he wanted to morally reward priest Kyriakos for his views.

Five hundred years old

There are three churches in the village of Saint Paraskevi the smallest of which is Annunciation church, which was built in 1516 and is a basilica style church. Priest Kyriakos sees to the protection of this very old church as a personal matter. As he explains, the paintings on its walls are "blind", because during the Turkish occupancy, the conquerors used to take the saints' eyes out with their pocketknives. After the Ottomans, some Christians who had problems with their eyesight continued to touch and scratch the saints' eyes, believing that they would be blessed and see better this way.  

The church is surrounded by mantels of the same age. If it wasn't belted by them, it may have been destroyed by earthquakes. But the mantels need to be repaired as they have cracked by subsidence. Priest Kyriakos says that some years ago the government sent some archaeologists to save the church, but they didn't do their job right. "They spent thirty thousand euros and didn't repair the mantels, they only plastered them. They were drinking all day long. They were coming, going, coming again and in the end they left the cement mixers at the church for three years and we didn't know what to do with them. Nobody cares about the villages and the artefacts kept in them. The monuments collapsed and fig tree sprouted among the ruins".

Like a greenhouse

The mantels are useful not only because they protect the church from sliding and earthquakes, but also because they are an ideal place for people to sit, especially in the summer. Even though the church's walls are thick and they should theoretically offer insulation, on hot summer days the believers feel as if they are in a greenhouse.

From time to time, some of them go to the church's yard and sit on the mantels to catch the breeze from the Ida slopes.From there they can still hear the chants and at the same time they gaze at the olive groves on the mountain slopes.
TEXT-PHOTOS: GEORGE ZAFEIROPOULOS
SOURCE: www.greecewithin.com

MORE PHOTOS

People sitting on the mantels after the evening prayer.

The mantels surrounding and holding the church are cracked.

The village of Saint Paraskevi amidst a large olive grove.

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