Agios Nektarios, Kos - αγιος Νεκτάριος στην Κως.

We have been going down to Kos and Kalymnos since 1999 and in that time we are fortunate to have met people on the islands we count as friends and to have an insight into the real life of the Dodecanese Islands. If you read the tourist brochures they are full of the usual clichés; “Sun kissed Paradise” “Fascinating culture and history” “live the island life” and so on. All very well but, as in real life, reality is more complex than the soundbites and it is only the overall context which makes sense.







So we are very fortunate that our friends take the time to show us their places away from the well trod tourist tracks and allow us to share in their everyday lives. So with them we sometimes head up to the district of Agios Nektarios on the slopes of the Mount Dikeos range just behind Kos Town. Here on the slopes you get a fine view of the town and harbour and 3 miles across the water the Bodrum Peninsular in Turkey and the town of Bodrum itself which in antiquity was Hallincarnassus, the birthplace of the historian Herodotus, known as “The Father of History”, and site of the Tomb of Mausulos, one of the Seven wonders of the ancient world.









Entrance to the Monastery of Saint Nektarios



Here we visit the Monastery of Saint Nektarios which our friends support and help along with many of the locals. This supports a small community of nuns (In the Orthodox tradition there are male or female monasteries) and we have always been warmly welcomed by the nuns, who include a mother and daughter. In the Orthodox tradition monastic life is esteemed and valued within the communities. Within the Monastery you find three chapels - the chapel of the Resurrection, the chapel of St. Raphael and the chapel of St. Irene Chrysovalantou. It also contains the tomb of Gerasimos, a nineteenth century Archbishop of Kos and his mother. The Monastery is located on a panoramic view-point and although it is situated out of town, it is visited every week for the traditional Sunday service. But to understand how an Orthodox Convent (Monastery) is different you must realise that whilst religious keep to a code there are no Monastic Orders like in the West with Benedictines, Franciscans, Dominicans, etc.









Baptisimal font and table



Rather in the Orthodox world a community is set up with the permission of the local Bishop and with a priest assigned to them as a spiritual mentor but often they are otherwise on a small scale supported by the local community. So at Agios Nektarios the community uses the churches for their life events of Baptism’s, Marriages and Deaths but also visit for the Sunday service or just for quiet contemplation in the peaceful grounds or prayer in the churches. They also visit for their Saints Days. In Orthodox tradition children generally take the name of the saint whose feast day they were born or baptised on and this day is commemorated as their birthday. On the day we called to the convent there was a baptism due to take place and a church was decked out with flowers, garlands and gifts for the children attending of toys and bags of homemade sweets. These are always large family events in Greece and around 100 were expected to attend.















The nun insisted we take some sweets as a sign of friendship. The relationship between the “Latins” and the “Greeks” has at times been bitter and fraught but (even though I’m a non-believer) I have only ever been welcomed with considerable courtesy when visiting Orthodox sites and at Agios Nektarios we are welcomed like old friends for the tradition of monastic hospitality runs deep.



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/04/fall-of-byzantium.html



There are three branches of the early Christian Churches which have shaped Christianity ever since. There were the two “official” churches of the Roman Empire. The Patriarchate of Rome which claims apostolic succession from Saints Peter and Paul (people don’t realise that the second largest Basillica in Rome after St. Peter’s is St. Paul without the Walls which also contains the grave of the saint) and which was the official church of the Western Empire. Then there is The Patriarchate of Constantinople which was the official church of the Eastern Roman Empire and then of Byzantium and which claims apostolic succession from St. Andrew. But these were the “official” churches with all the trapping and baggage being a Church of the State entails.





Kos Town and the Turkish Coast from Agios Nektarios





Grave of Archbishop Gerasimos



There was a third strand that rebelled against Christianity being used as a political instrument and is in many ways more interesting. This was the Church of the East which at one stage reached as far as Western China and adopted local languages and customs in its devotional practice. This was the church most reduced by the rise of Islam but its residue and rich traditions can be seen in the Maronites, The Armenian church, The Copts, the Chaldean Christians in Iraq and the Assyrian Christians who can also be found in India and who claim apostolic succession from St. Thomas the Apostle.













Icon of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary



But today the world seemed much simpler as we wandered through the churches with their rich frescos in the Orthodox tradition. Like many of the “visuals” and music associated with the Christian tradition they were designed to convey the teachings of the Bible to what would have originally been mainly illiterate congregations but are now part of the artistic patrimony of the church. The gardens of the monastery are peaceful and enclosed with ponds (for the Persian word which gives us “Paradise” meant a water garden, the greatest luxury in a desert) and like the gardens of Marrakesh it is designed to be productive with many fruit and olive trees. As well as the three churches and the archbishop’s grave there is the living quarters of the nuns in a large but simple house. All of this is set in a peaceful and verdant setting which helps sustain their contemplative life.



The Saint after whom the monastery is named, Nektarios of Aegina (1846-1920), (Greek: Άγιος Νεκτάριος Αιγίνης,) Metropolitan of Pentapolis and Wonderworker of Aegina, was officially recognised as a Saint by the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1961. His Feast Day is celebrated every year on 9th November. There are reasons why this place is special to our friends. She is called Irene and one of the churches is dedicated to her saint, Irene Chrysovalantou and she visits to commemorate her saint day.





St. Savvas the New of Kalymnos with his icon of St. Nektarios



But there is also another reason. She is a Kalymnian and their patron is Agios Savvas who inspires great devotion amongst Kalymnians, the hardy and industrious inhabitants of the island north of Kos, famed for sponge fishing. Before coming to Kalymnos Savvas stayed with Nektarios on Aegina and was with him when he died, or reposed in the Orthodox lexicon when speaking about a saint.



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2010/10/portrait-of-pothia-kalymnos.html



Her husband is Cypriot but went to school in Alexandria which is one of the 14 cities named after Alexander the Great and once had a large Greek community. Here too there is a connection with Nektarios for he started his priestly mission in that great city but after a bitter row with the Patriarch of Alexandria he was expelled in some ignominy.



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/03/oath-of-alexander-great-in-324-bc.html



So we took our leave of the Abbess and nuns of Agios Nektarios (In Greek names Agios = Saint, Agia= Saintess, Agias = Saints) and headed further up the side of the hill to near where the road runs out and we come to a small double church dedicated to Agias Stelios and Maria Magdalene. Once again this points out a difference between Western and Eastern practice for in Greece there are many churches not used for regular services built either by individuals or communities. So for instance in the grounds of the hotel where we always stay in Kos, The Continental Palace, there is a small church dedicated to Agios Gerasimos built by the owner to honour his father who is named after Gerasimos, Patron and Protector of Kephalonia (as seen in captain Corelli’s Mandolin).







The Convent House





http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2009/09/around-kos-town.html



This church at the crest of Agios Nektarios was built and maintained by the rural community around here and is used for saints days, baptisms and marriages and village ceremonies. It is also used for private prayer as today when our friend was commemorating the anniversary of his mother’s funeral. The key to the church was found under a nearby rock and incense and an urn were found and the incense lit. Then the icons in the two churches were venerated with the incense. Separating the Nave from the Sanctuary in every Orthodox Church you find the iconostasis, a screen with a door in the centre containing 5 or 7 icons.





Churches of Agias Stelios and Maria Magdalene



Icons are part of the eastern tradition even if they were a source of controversy and division in the east. To Muslims, any kind of picture, statue, or representation of the human form is an abominable idol. In the controversy in the Eastern Church there are two empresses, Irene the great proponent of icons and Theodora who saw their use as idolatry and a barrier to the conversion of Jews and Muslims. Theodora is known as Iconclastis – the destroyer of icons. They still divide with Calvinists seeing these images as a corrupt distraction replacing the many gods of the pagan religion with a similar pantheon in a Christian guise.









Iconostasis



But for the Orthodox today icons are venerated as they represent people of great piety who had a greater understanding of God. For the Orthodox they are venerated not for the image on them but as windows into Heaven. And so our friend’s mother was remembered today by burning incense and venerating the icons. It may seem strange for a non-believer to attach such importance to this but religion is rooted both in belief and in culture. You can, for instance, consider yourself Jewish without being observant. To understand why Greeks are Greeks you need to understand that as they chaffed under the yolks of many conquerors two things kept them Greek, their religion and their language.





Incensor





Icon of Maria Magdalene



Today in Kos you would not think yourself as being anywhere other than Greece but this place was never part of a country of that name until 1948. They endured 700 years of occupation by Crusader Knights of St. John, The Ottoman Turks, Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and more benignly the British before they were finally unified with Greece in 1948. And before that again in antiquity they were Byzantine, Roman and at various time allied with or controlled by Carians, Persians, Dorians, Athenian League and Ptolemies to name a few.





Kebab on the hoof



Then as we leave Agias Stelios and Maria Magdalene to head to Platani (Kermetes) and a Turkish Restaurant



Yes, a Turkish restaurant!



http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2011/06/kos-tale-of-two-restaurants.html)



to belatedly celebrate my birthday there is a moment of pure Greek magic! Suddenly the air is filled with the sound of bells. We look around over a hundred goats are heading in single file without any human guidance along the path and the road to new pastures. However somebody called Lord Byron summed up the special sense of time, place, history and people in the Greek Islands better than I ever could;



THE isles of Greece! the isles of Greece!

Where burning Sappho loved and sung,

Where grew the arts of war and peace,---

Where Delos rose and Phoebus sprung!

Eternal summer gilds them yet,

But all, except their sun, is set.



The Scian and the Teian muse,

The hero's harp, the lover's lute,

Have found the fame your shores refuse;

Their place of birth alone is mute

To sounds which echo further west

Than your sires' "Islands of the Blest."





Sunset over Pserimos and Kalymnos seen from Agios Nektarios

The Harbour front at Pothia, Kalymnos.

Arriving in Kalymnos

The Greek island of Kalymnos is situated between Kos and Leros and is the fourth largest island in the Dodecanese, the chain which largely clings to the Turkish coast from Rhodes in the south to Samos in the north; there are a number of other smaller islands around Kalymnos however, only Pserimos and Telendos are inhabited.




Apostoli's Kafeion



Kalymnos is best known as the island of some of the world's finest sponge divers. The sea has always been a focal element of local life, which has preserved its traditional character colours and style to a great extent. The “high street” of the island is the harbour front of Pothia (The Port) which has a dramatic setting in a natural amphitheatre facing towards Kos, some 10 miles distant. The life of the island revolves around this harbour front with fishing boats; inter island ferries and visiting yachts and pleasure boats providing a continually changing spectacle. The harbour front is best viewed from the sea where the domes of the Orthodox churches on and overlooking the harbour, the Italianate public buildings from the Italian Occupation (1912 – 1944) and the whitewashed houses rising from the harbour front provide a charming vista leading the eye onwards as far as the Kastro, the 14th Century Castle of the knights of St. John who occupied these islands from 1308 to 1522 when the forces of Suleiman the Magnificent conquered them.


Monastery of Agios Savvas overlooking Pothia

In the 19th Century this was the centre of the world sponge industry and still an important festival takes place one week after Easter just before the sponge fleet departs for its four-month expedition to the waters between southern Italy and the north coast of Africa. Known as Sponge Week, the weeklong celebration is feast of food, drink, and dance. The dances depict the relation between the Kalymnian people and the sponge (the Kalymnian “Gold” as it is often referred to) and recount the joy and the tragedy of this incredibly dangerous deep-sea endeavor. Known as the “Dinner of Love” in former times it was a poignant affair as roundly 20% of the divers would either be killed and not return or be crippled by the “bends”. This is a story ably told by an English woman settled on the island, Faith Warn in her book “The Bitter Sea”.

Today this is a very “Greek” Greek island with its own distinctive cultural and musical traditions and little trace that for 640 years until 1948 it was separated from Greece proper. The reasons it maintained its Greek identity are to be found in its language and religion. Overlooking the harbour on a hill is the monastery dedicated to St. Savvas, Agios Savvas, the Orthodox priest who led the opposition to Italian rule and the latinisation of the island and who died in 1948, the year Kalymnos was reunited with the motherland.



The harbour front bustles all year round for even in winter the returnees from the Kalymnian Diaspora to Tarpon Springs in Florida and Darwin in Australia return so the cafes and restaurants bustle all year round and English is widely spoken, albeit with an American or strine accent!

At the far end of the harbour from the ferries you find the authentic fish restaurants who bring you into the open kitchens and let you choose from that day’s catch. There is little point in asking what the fish are as they have different Greek names to the ones we are used to so navigate by site. Our favourite for a traditional seafood lunch is Baba Stoukas, the best of the many fish restaurants which nuzzle the harbour front. We break bread here with our good buddy Bill Psaros. Bill is a Greek- American polymath originally from Detroit who moved to the Kalymnian colony of Tarpon Springs in Florida and then to Kalymnos where his family hailed from. The cathedral in Pothia is built on land donated by his family and his grandfather was a mason on the cathedral sized church on the other side of the harbour built in some style by the wealthy sponge merchants in C19.


Cathedral Pothia




Baba Stoukas



Fish is good in Kalymnos as are the Octopus croquettes and the pungent garlic sauce. Another specialty is Horta, the wild greens of the island served as a side dish. Kalymnos is a very traditional island with a distinct musical tradition and a strong sense of identity forged by the harshness of the sponge fishing in the past and the pain of emigration by the Kalymnian Diaspora in America and Australia.

Another favourite people watching location the traditional family Kafeoin run by Apostoli. His pastries and deserts are all traditional specialities of the island and are justifiably famous. The most well known and a speciality of the island is "Galaktoboureko" a sticky desert as if semolina pudding has been mated with Baklava!

Kalymnos is like the Clapham Junction of the Greek ferry system in the Dodecanese and there is a constant stream of Greeks in transit who hop up to Apostoli's to have the best coffee on Kalymnos and to take his deserts home as a very welcome gift when visiting families and friends.

This is a big change from the traditional policy:


Equo ne credite, Teucri
Quidquid id est,
timeo Danaos et dona ferentis

Do not trust the Horse, Trojans
Whatever it is,
I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts

Virgil (Aeneid)

Incidentally there is now a new Greek word, "Nokiaphobia", a fear of walking into a Greek using a mobile phone!


Pothia is a bit like a Monet, it looks better from a distance than close up but sitting on the harbour front at night surrounded by the hustle and bustle of this busy town with its illuminated churches and watching the ballet like motions of the implausibly large inter island ferries which enter and exit the harbour in less than 15 minutes you absorb something of the pride and spirit of this ancient crossroads which is uniquely Greek.



Farewell to Pothia



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