St. Dionysios is the Patron Saint
of Zakynthos and his relics (his whole body) are located on the Ionian Island.
However, there are also another saint’s relics (whole body again) on this small
island, i.e. the relics of St. Joseph the Blessed, from Crete.
St. Joseph was born in the
village of Keramon, Siteia, Crete. He became a monk in Herakleion, the capital
of Crete. He eventually became Abbot at St John the Theologian’s Monastery,
Handaka (Herakleion). He died on the 22nd January 1511 and was
buried in his monastery. However, due to the invasion of the Turks in Crete
(1669), Fr. Antonios Armakis transferred the relics to Zante. After being
placed at the Monastery of St. John Mantineiou, the relics were finally
transferred in 1915 permanently to its current position, at the Church of the
Transfiguration of the Lord, Gaitani, Zante.
During the Francocrateia of Western and Central Greece, and later the Venetian occupation of Crete, the Ionian Islands (of which Zakynthos is one) and the Cyclades, later also the Dodecanese and finally Cyprus as well, with the intensive propaganda of the Latin religious orders, the prohibition often of the election and ordination of Orthodox bishops, it was the presence of the Holy Relics of contemporary saints, which never ceased to work miraculous cures and other signs of the Divine Mercy, that was a constant reminder, by the Providence of God, that the Truth and Salvation was to be found only in the Orthodox Church.
ReplyDelete