The Annual Pilgrimage to Panagia Myrtidiotissa after Paraklesis was held by the Parish of the Holy Four Martyrs in recent days, and those who participated in the trip experienced unique moments.
In addition to the pilgrimage, they also held a memorial service at the monument of Th. Kolokotronis, located at the intersection of Diakoftiou and Agia Moni streets, as a minimal tribute to the hero and liberator of our homeland. The mission was led by priest Socrates Xenikakis.
Holy Temple of the Four Martyrs (Rethymno)
The church is dedicated to the local new martyrs Angelis, Manuel, George, and Nicholas, who were martyred in 1824 and recognized as patrons of the city by the local community. Two other churches had previously stood on the site, but they were demolished.
The current church dates back to 1975, has three aisles and a vaulted ceiling, and features unique icons by Fotis Kontoglou on its iconostasis. The relics of three of the four martyrs are kept in a reliquary, while the chapel of Saint Savvas the Sanctified is located in the basement.
The «unknown» story of the four Cretan New Martyrs
In 1824, four young men from the village of Melambes in the province of Agios Vasileios were beheaded in Rethymno after being tortured. Their names were Georgios, Angelis, Manouil, and Nikolaos.
They were relatives and crypto-Christians, that is, Christians who pretended to be Muslims out of fear of the fanatical Turkish Cretans. However, when the revolution of 1821 broke out, they openly professed their Christian faith.
The Turks arrested them on charges of being Muslims who had renounced their faith, marched them on foot to Rethymno, tried them, and tortured them.
With great bravery and courage, after proclaiming their faith with the words «I was born George, I will die George,» «I was born Angelis,» etc., they were beheaded in public on October 28, 1824.
The Christians buried their bodies in the courtyard of the church of St. George in Perivolia, which is now a cemetery church, and at night they saw a light «like lit candles» at their grave.
The people immediately honored them as saints, and today, a holy temple dedicated to the Four New Martyrs is built on the site of their martyrdom.
The shocking miracle
On the day of their beheading, however, the Turkish executioner went to his house and wiped his bloody dagger with a towel. His blind mother, unaware of the events, touched the towel and suddenly regained her sight! She asked her son about the origin of the blood and, when she learned of the massacre of the martyrs, she said to him: «You should know that these people were saints.».
So that Muslim family kept the dagger as a sacred relic. It passed from hand to hand and, a hundred years later, when the Muslims left with the population exchange, one of their descendants handed it over to Christian hands. Today, it is kept in the holy temple of Saint Nicholas in Splantzia, in the old town of Chania, where the four saints are honored with particular splendor.
