The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is the largest church in Gavalochori, so it is where services are held on major religious holidays like Easter and Christmas. It stands on the site of the first church in Gavalochori, the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, built after the arrival of Christianity to the village. That original church was demolished and the current three-dome church built in its place in 1908. Because the church is usually locked, you won’t be able to go inside unless a service or ceremony is being held in it. If you are in Gavalochori the Saturday night before Easter Sunday, don’t miss the burning of Judas in effigy that happens at midnight outside of the church (you will see the huge bonfire built there in the days preceding the event). Be sure to bring a candle with you so you can share in the communal celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.
The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is where regular church services are held in the summer (they are held in the Church of the Nativity of Mary in the winter). Services begin at 7:30 on Sunday morning and end around 9:30 or 10:00, depending, for example, on whether the priest delivers a sermon or if it is the remembrance day of someone who has died.
The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is the easiest of the Gavalochori churches to find. From the main square, follow the signs to the Folklore Museum. Go past the museum, and a few steps will bring you within view of this very large church.
The beginnings of the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus date to 1750, when a resident of Gavalochori, Emmanuel Pastrikakis-Thymianos, was looking for a turkey he had lost. He discovered it in some bushes at the side of the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen and found that the turkey had laid eggs next to an icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Agioi Sergios kai Vakchos, Άγιοι Σέργιος και Βάκχος). As a token of thanksgiving, he built a small, makeshift chapel dedicated to the two saints next to the church.
The Turks who occupied Crete at the time did not allow Pastrikakis-Thymianos to put a door on the chapel, so he blocked the entrance with a stick to prevent animals from entering. Despite his efforts, a pig broke the stick and barged into the chapel, breaking the pitcher of oil he had placed inside to light the small oil lamp that illuminated the icon of the saints. Saddened by the destruction, Pastrikakis-Thymianos talked with the Turkish mukhtar or mayor of the village and asked to be allowed to install a wooden door at the entrance of the chapel. The mayor agreed as long as he installed it at night so no other Turks would see it being built.
The Church of Saints Constantine and Helen figured again in Gavalochori’s history in 1770, when the village was struck by a plague, and almost half of its residents died. Gavalochori had two parishes at the time, and the dead from the lower parish were buried in mass graves at the cemetery of the church. Because of the ease with which the disease spread, the priests did not conduct funeral services from the church and instead officiated at the funerals from the rooftop of a nearby house. The mass graves of the plague victims were found during the digging to create the foundations for the new Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
In 1820, the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen was radically rebuilt. The wooden roof, which was falling apart, was replaced by a dome and three bell towers. In 1825, the chapel next to the church dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus was also rebuilt and enlarged.
The 19th century saw a secret school built behind the church. During the Turkish occupation of Crete between 1669 and 1898, educating Greek children was forbidden, but teachers Vasileios Fronimos and Nikolaos Karatsaz defied law and taught children in the village in the building. When the underground school was discovered by the Turks, it was burned down, and both teachers were executed. The plaque in front of the church that honors the two teachers reads, “Here two tortuous deaths took place of the teachers N. Karatzas and V. Fronimos while they were executing their sacred work at their Krifo Scholio. May their memory live on forever.”
A miracle was the impetus for the gift of land that now surrounds the church. In 1840, a Turkish lord who lived in Gavalochori had a child who was very ill. Although the child was taken to Istanbul for treatment, his condition did not improve. The Christian women of the village told the child’s mother, “Give your child as an offering to Saint Sergius, and he will be cured.” She told her husband, and after he gave the child as an offering to the saint, the child recovered. To thank the saint for the miracle, the Turk donated a piece of his land that became the churchyard for the church. Several years later, the child became ill again and died. The child’s mother lamented to her husband, “My dear, if we had once again offered our child to the Christian saint, he wouldn’t have died.” In response, in 1865, the boy’s father sold his property, left the village, and settled in Chania after donating to the church the land that surrounded it.
The church continued to be known as a source of miracles. It was credited with healing children, helping women conceive, preventing miscarriages, and helping pregnant women give birth easily and safely. Because he had witnessed many of these miracles, a doctor decided to build a new church inspired by Byzantine architecture on the grounds of the existing church. He and a priest in the village organized fundraisers and appealed for financial support from the residents of Gavalochori to build the new church. They also solicited funds for the rebuilding from former residents who had moved to other locations in Greece as well as to France and Africa.
Construction began in March of 1896 and lasted for 10 years. The architect Palamaras from the island of Tinos made the domes and cruciform of the roof in 1905, and the exterior was completed in 1907. The internal plastering; the external marble plastering; the doors; the windows; and a temporary iconostasis, the screen with icons that separates the sanctuary from the nave, were completed between 1907 and 1908. The dedication of the church took place on Easter Sunday of 1908.
Improvements continued to be made to the church. In 1930, the parish council built a stone wall with a gate around the churchyard with funds donated by the villagers. In 1939, additional funds were raised to re-tile the church floor, pave the stairs of the sanctuary, build church stalls, pave a portion of the churchyard with slabs, build the entrance stairs, level the courtyard, and plant trees in the garden. The current iconostasis of the church was built in 1952, again through fundraising in the village.
The church has three domes, and traditionally, each of the three domes is dedicated to a saint or a revered religious figure. The middle dome is dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus and the north dome to Saints Constantine and Helen, referencing the origins of the church. The third dome was never formally dedicated, but it commemorates the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her she would conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth who would be Jesus, the son of God. The south dome was not named for anyone at the time it was built because Vasileios Psaltsakis, the doctor who was inspired to build the church, died before his wish to name the dome The Dormition of the Mother of God could be carried out. He wanted to name the dome to celebrate the passing of Jesus’s mother from earthly life because a church by that name had stood in Gavalochori when the Turks invaded Crete (they used it as a warehouse for storage). Kyriakos Protopapadakis, a retired teacher, wanted to name the dome The Three Holy Hierarchs for three highly influential bishops of the 4th century AD who played pivotal roles in shaping Christian theology—Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom—and all of the teachers in Gavalochori supported his idea. The nun Paraskevi Fronimaki, however, proposed naming the third dome The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and years later, this was the name it was given.
The religious figures for whom the domes are named are all important figures in the Greek Orthodox Church. Saint Constantine (Agios Konstantinos, Άγιος Κωνσταντίνος), often called Saint Constantine the Great, was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, which happened in the 4th century AD. For this reason, he is considered the patron saint of converts. Saint Helen (Agia Eleni, Αγία Ελένη) was the mother of Saint Constantine and an empress of the Roman Empire. In her later years, she toured religious sites in places such as Syria and Jerusalem and is alleged to have discovered the True Cross, the cross on which Jesus was crucified. She thus is considered to be the saint of new discoveries. The name or feast day of both Saints Constantine and Helen is May 21. They share a day because they are mother and son and made their contributions to Christianity together. Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the church. The evening service begins at about 7:00 and the morning service at about 7:30.
The paired Saints Sergius and Bacchus were soldiers who served together in the Roman army in present-day Syria in the 4th century AD. They were closeted Christians whose faith was revealed when they refused to enter a pagan temple and perform sacrifices to Roman gods. They were chained and paraded around town in female clothing in order to humiliate them before they were executed. In Byzantine times, Saints Sergius and Bacchus were considered protectors of the army, and they are now sometimes seen as saints for individuals persecuted by authorities for daring to follow their conscience. Their name or feast day is October 7, and religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the church. The evening service begins at about 7:00 and the morning service at about 7:30.
The name or feast day of the Annunciation is March 25, which is the date when Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, and it is exactly nine months before Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the church. The evening service begins at about 7:00 and the morning service at about 7:30.
The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is the largest church in Gavalochori, so it is where services are held on major religious holidays like Easter and Christmas. It stands on the site of the first church in Gavalochori, the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen, built after the arrival of Christianity to the village. That original church was demolished and the current three-dome church built in its place in 1908. Because the church is usually locked, you won’t be able to go inside unless a service or ceremony is being held in it. If you are in Gavalochori the Saturday night before Easter Sunday, don’t miss the burning of Judas in effigy that happens at midnight outside of the church (you will see the huge bonfire built there in the days preceding the event). Be sure to bring a candle with you so you can share in the communal celebration of the resurrection of Jesus.
The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is where regular church services are held in the summer (they are held in the Church of the Nativity of Mary in the winter). Services begin at 7:30 on Sunday morning and end around 9:30 or 10:00, depending, for example, on whether the priest delivers a sermon or if it is the remembrance day of someone who has died.
The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus is the easiest of the Gavalochori churches to find. From the main square, follow the signs to the Folklore Museum. Go past the museum, and a few steps will bring you within view of this very large church.
The beginnings of the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus date to 1750, when a resident of Gavalochori, Emmanuel Pastrikakis-Thymianos, was looking for a turkey he had lost. He discovered it in some bushes at the side of the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen and found that the turkey had laid eggs next to an icon of Saints Sergius and Bacchus (Agioi Sergios kai Vakchos, Άγιοι Σέργιος και Βάκχος). As a token of thanksgiving, he built a small, makeshift chapel dedicated to the two saints next to the church.
The Turks who occupied Crete at the time did not allow Pastrikakis-Thymianos to put a door on the chapel, so he blocked the entrance with a stick to prevent animals from entering. Despite his efforts, a pig broke the stick and barged into the chapel, breaking the pitcher of oil he had placed inside to light the small oil lamp that illuminated the icon of the saints. Saddened by the destruction, Pastrikakis-Thymianos talked with the Turkish mukhtar or mayor of the village and asked to be allowed to install a wooden door at the entrance of the chapel. The mayor agreed as long as he installed it at night so no other Turks would see it being built.
The Church of Saints Constantine and Helen figured again in Gavalochori’s history in 1770, when the village was struck by a plague, and almost half of its residents died. Gavalochori had two parishes at the time, and the dead from the lower parish were buried in mass graves at the cemetery of the church. Because of the ease with which the disease spread, the priests did not conduct funeral services from the church and instead officiated at the funerals from the rooftop of a nearby house. The mass graves of the plague victims were found during the digging to create the foundations for the new Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus.
In 1820, the Church of Saints Constantine and Helen was radically rebuilt. The wooden roof, which was falling apart, was replaced by a dome and three bell towers. In 1825, the chapel next to the church dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus was also rebuilt and enlarged.
The 19th century saw a secret school built behind the church. During the Turkish occupation of Crete between 1669 and 1898, educating Greek children was forbidden, but teachers Vasileios Fronimos and Nikolaos Karatsaz defied law and taught children in the village in the building. When the underground school was discovered by the Turks, it was burned down, and both teachers were executed. The plaque in front of the church that honors the two teachers reads, “Here two tortuous deaths took place of the teachers N. Karatzas and V. Fronimos while they were executing their sacred work at their Krifo Scholio. May their memory live on forever.”
A miracle was the impetus for the gift of land that now surrounds the church. In 1840, a Turkish lord who lived in Gavalochori had a child who was very ill. Although the child was taken to Istanbul for treatment, his condition did not improve. The Christian women of the village told the child’s mother, “Give your child as an offering to Saint Sergius, and he will be cured.” She told her husband, and after he gave the child as an offering to the saint, the child recovered. To thank the saint for the miracle, the Turk donated a piece of his land that became the churchyard for the church. Several years later, the child became ill again and died. The child’s mother lamented to her husband, “My dear, if we had once again offered our child to the Christian saint, he wouldn’t have died.” In response, in 1865, the boy’s father sold his property, left the village, and settled in Chania after donating to the church the land that surrounded it.
The church continued to be known as a source of miracles. It was credited with healing children, helping women conceive, preventing miscarriages, and helping pregnant women give birth easily and safely. Because he had witnessed many of these miracles, a doctor decided to build a new church inspired by Byzantine architecture on the grounds of the existing church. He and a priest in the village organized fundraisers and appealed for financial support from the residents of Gavalochori to build the new church. They also solicited funds for the rebuilding from former residents who had moved to other locations in Greece as well as to France and Africa.
Construction began in March of 1896 and lasted for 10 years. The architect Palamaras from the island of Tinos made the domes and cruciform of the roof in 1905, and the exterior was completed in 1907. The internal plastering; the external marble plastering; the doors; the windows; and a temporary iconostasis, the screen with icons that separates the sanctuary from the nave, were completed between 1907 and 1908. The dedication of the church took place on Easter Sunday of 1908.
Improvements continued to be made to the church. In 1930, the parish council built a stone wall with a gate around the churchyard with funds donated by the villagers. In 1939, additional funds were raised to re-tile the church floor, pave the stairs of the sanctuary, build church stalls, pave a portion of the churchyard with slabs, build the entrance stairs, level the courtyard, and plant trees in the garden. The current iconostasis of the church was built in 1952, again through fundraising in the village.
The church has three domes, and traditionally, each of the three domes is dedicated to a saint or a revered religious figure. The middle dome is dedicated to Saints Sergius and Bacchus and the north dome to Saints Constantine and Helen, referencing the origins of the church. The third dome was never formally dedicated, but it commemorates the Annunciation, when the angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her she would conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth who would be Jesus, the son of God. The south dome was not named for anyone at the time it was built because Vasileios Psaltsakis, the doctor who was inspired to build the church, died before his wish to name the dome The Dormition of the Mother of God could be carried out. He wanted to name the dome to celebrate the passing of Jesus’s mother from earthly life because a church by that name had stood in Gavalochori when the Turks invaded Crete (they used it as a warehouse for storage). Kyriakos Protopapadakis, a retired teacher, wanted to name the dome The Three Holy Hierarchs for three highly influential bishops of the 4th century AD who played pivotal roles in shaping Christian theology—Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian, and John Chrysostom—and all of the teachers in Gavalochori supported his idea. The nun Paraskevi Fronimaki, however, proposed naming the third dome The Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and years later, this was the name it was given.
The religious figures for whom the domes are named are all important figures in the Greek Orthodox Church. Saint Constantine (Agios Konstantinos, Άγιος Κωνσταντίνος), often called Saint Constantine the Great, was the first Roman emperor to convert to Christianity, which happened in the 4th century AD. For this reason, he is considered the patron saint of converts. Saint Helen (Agia Eleni, Αγία Ελένη) was the mother of Saint Constantine and an empress of the Roman Empire. In her later years, she toured religious sites in places such as Syria and Jerusalem and is alleged to have discovered the True Cross, the cross on which Jesus was crucified. She thus is considered to be the saint of new discoveries. The name or feast day of both Saints Constantine and Helen is May 21. They share a day because they are mother and son and made their contributions to Christianity together. Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the church. The evening service begins at about 7:00 and the morning service at about 7:30.
The paired Saints Sergius and Bacchus were soldiers who served together in the Roman army in present-day Syria in the 4th century AD. They were closeted Christians whose faith was revealed when they refused to enter a pagan temple and perform sacrifices to Roman gods. They were chained and paraded around town in female clothing in order to humiliate them before they were executed. In Byzantine times, Saints Sergius and Bacchus were considered protectors of the army, and they are now sometimes seen as saints for individuals persecuted by authorities for daring to follow their conscience. Their name or feast day is October 7, and religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the church. The evening service begins at about 7:00 and the morning service at about 7:30.
The name or feast day of the Annunciation is March 25, which is the date when Mary was visited by the angel Gabriel, and it is exactly nine months before Christmas and the birth of Jesus. Religious services are celebrated the evening before and the morning of this day in the church. The evening service begins at about 7:00 and the morning service at about 7:30.
