Church of the Nativity of Mary and Church of Saint Charalampos

The Church of the Nativity of Mary, often called by residents of Gavalochori simply Panagia (Παναγία), which translates as “Virgin Mary” or “Holy Mary”), is really two churches, one a later addition to the other. The Church of the Nativity of Mary, built in 1628, is the original church and is on the right as you face the church, and the Church of Saint Charalampos is on the left and was added later. The two columns on the church at the left came from the archaeological site with the mosaic floor that is just west of Almyrida (Αλμυρίδα) on the main road. (Unfortunately, there is no explanation of the origin of the mosaics and their date at that site.) You can often see three flags flying near the entrance of the church—the blue and white Greek flag, the blue flag with yellow stars of the European Union, and the yellow church flag with a two-headed eagle. If you visit the church in the spring, you also will be greeted by a cascade of pink roses at the entrance. The priest lives in the home at the left as you enter the courtyard, so you are likely to see his children’s tricycles and toys scattered about. 

This pale yellow church that stands in the heart of Gavalochori is the church that is used for regular religious services in the winter (these services are held in the Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus in the summer). 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. This church is often open, so if it is, take advantage of the opportunity to see the inside of a Greek Orthodox church. 

To reach the Church of the Nativity of Mary and the Church of Saint Charalampos, start in the main square of Gavalochori, and take the road that heads uphill to the Venetian Wells. At the first intersection, take the road to the right. It will take you directly to the conjoined churches.

The Church of the Nativity of Mary and the Church of Saint Charalampos have a rich combined history. Plagues seemed to strike Gavalochori with some regularity throughout its history, and one in 1770 figured in the history of the Church of the Nativity of Mary. Almost half of the villagers died and were buried in mass graves at the cemetery surrounding this church. Because of how easily the disease spread, the priests did not attend the funeral processions for the dead and conducted the funerals not from this church but from the rooftop of a nearby house. This is when Saint Charalampos (Agios Charalampos, Άγιος Χαράλαμπος), for whom the other side of the church is named, comes into the picture. When the villagers prayed to Saint Charalampos, asking for his protection, the plague ended. 

In 1818, Turkish men living in Gavalochori occupied the Church of the Nativity of Mary. Priest Antonios Fronimakis killed three of them, which put an end to the occupation and prevented the church from becoming a mosque. The priest was honored in a rebuilding of the church that took place between 1848 and 1887 when a new gate in his memory was built on the spot where the old gate stood. Other renovations included constructing the bell tower, tiling the courtyard, and building the walls around the church. 

In 1848, the two Voutsades brothers from Gavalochori initiated the rebuilding of the church and initially funded the renovation work, but additional funds later were collected from people who belonged to the parish in which the church was located. The brothers renovated the roof and built a new altar and templo or icon stand. Above and on either side of the door of the church they placed two small statues that depicted themselves holding bags in their outstretched hands to represent the money that they donated for the construction of the church. When archaeologists removed the plaster at the spot where the statues were said to have stood, they found the outlines of the statues protruding from the wall. Why the statues were removed is not known. 

The Church of Saint Charalampos is considered a continuation of the Church of the Nativity of Mary. The date when it was added is unknown, but it was probably appended because of the important role that Saint Charalampos played in the history of Gavalochori (he is considered the patron saint of Gavalochori). He stopped one plague in 1770 and did so again in 1797. When another plague struck Gavalochori, residents of Gavalochori brought the holy belt of Mary, which had been brought from Mount Athos to Rethymno, to their village and circled the village carrying the belt. Again, the plague ended, with the miracle attributed both to Saint Charalampos and Mary. Saint Charalampos’s role in saving the village was reinforced when some villagers reported seeing a woman with fire coming out of her mouth (the plague) being chased away by Saint Charalampos near the entrance to Gavalochori on the road going to Almyrida. 

Saint Charalampos was seen as responsible for saving Gavalochori from other diseases as well. In 1810, many people died from a disease that started when priests representing the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the highest dignitaries in the Greek Orthodox Church, passed through Gavalochori and collected olive oil in large clay pots as donations. When they returned to claim the oil, however, they discovered that someone had taken it. The Patriarchate cursed the village, which is when the disease struck. Because it affected only Gavalochori and did not appear in other villages, it was given the name Gavalokako (Γαβαλόκακο). Again, the villagers asked for the help of Saint Charalampos, and the disease disappeared. In 1860, the animals in the village became sick and started dying from another mysterious disease. The villagers gathered all the animals and brought them to the churchyard of the Church of Saint Charalampos, where they prayed for the saint’s intervention. Again, the disease was halted.

Saint Charalampos was called on again by the villagers of Gavalochori in 1862, when a destructive rain fell on Gavalochori. Torrents of water rushed through the village, destroying houses and other property and drowning a number of residents. The water also loosened a huge boulder and rolled it about 2 kilometers (1 mile) along a small riverbed before depositing it at the entrance to Gavalochori on the road to Almyrida. Again, the villagers prayed to Saint Charalampos, and the village was saved from destruction by the boulder.

Saint Charalampos intervened in a very different situation in 1944. Some of the residents of Gavalochori killed German soldiers on September 24 on a bridge close to Almyrida. Fearing that the Germans would return to Gavalochori to capture and/or kill them in retaliation for what they had done, the villagers left their homes and the village. Only one resident of Gavalochori, Kyriakos Protopapadakis, chose to remain, and he went to the Church of Saint Charalampos and asked for the intervention of the saint who had saved the village so many times before. The Germans took no retaliatory action against the village.

Saint Charalampos was the bishop of Magnesia, near Smyrna in Asia Minor. About 198 AD, Sevirus, the emperor of the Roman Empire, appointed a governor of Asia Minor who began persecuting Christians, including Saint Charalampos. He was brutally tortured, but when his torturers were afflicted with dramatic physical injuries during the process, Saint Charalampos healed them. After these events, many people from Magnesia and other parts of Asia came to Saint Charalampos, confessed their sins, and converted to Christianity. Saint Charalampos performed many miracles by curing the faithful of illnesses, which prompted the infliction of more acts of torture on him and his performance of even more miracles. The pagans told Sevirus about these happenings, and he decided to have Saint Charalampos beheaded. He was captured, but before his execution, he prayed to Christ and died before the soldiers could behead him. Saint Charalampos guarded his people much as a shepherd would guard his flock, so he is considered the protector of shepherds and their flocks. His name or feast day is February 10 unless this date falls on the Saturday before Lent or on Clean Monday, the first day of Lent. Then it is celebrated on February 9. 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. 

Mary (Panagia, Παναγία), for whom the original church is named, is a very important figure in Christianity and in the Greek Orthodox Church. She is called Theotokos (Θεοτόκος), which means “God-bearer.” Mary was a first-century Jewish woman from Nazareth who conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit and accompanied her husband Joseph to Bethlehem, where Jesus was born. In the Greek Orthodox Church, Mary is considered the mother of all people, a symbol of protection and comfort. The name or feast day of Mary’s birth is September 8, 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.