Orthodox Parables and Stories: Spinalonga

When the island was deserted, only the priest was left to commemorate the lepers until 5 years after their death.

Hieromonk Father Chrysanthos Koutsoulogiannakis lived in Spinalonga and operated on lepers.

For ten whole years, Father Chrysanthos used to associate with lepers and served them communion without being contaminated!

One of the historical facts we know about the "island of the living dead" is that the Hansenites (People with leprosy) living in Spinalonga were angry with God because their illness was a great and unbearable test.

An elder dared to visit them once and to operate in Agios Panteleimonas, who existed and was living on the island, in company with his new inhabitants. They say that in the first Liturgy it did not hurt a soul.

The lepers could hear the chant from their cells, and sometimes they covered it with their groans and sometimes with their curses. But the priest went back. On this second visit, one of the patients appeared boldly on the church's doorstep.

"Father, I'll sit in your Liturgy with one condition though. At the end you will associate with me. And if your God is so powerful, then you will do the oblation and you will not be afraid of my leprosy."

The priest nodded sympathetically. In the nearby cells the chanting was heard and various people began to gather at the side of the temple, where there was a small ruin, with little view of the sanctuary. The Hansenites were at a loss at the end of the Liturgy and saw the father tearful and kneeling to make the oblation.



A month has passed. The Hansenites were waiting for him. They thought he would come this time as a patient and not as a priest. But the priest returned healthy and rose and began anxiously to ring the bell of the old nave.

Since then and for at least ten years, Spinalonga has had its priest. The Hansenes rebuilt the church on their own and also restored their faith. They regularly met and always peered at their priest at the time of the abolition to make sure that the "miracle of Spinalonga" was happening again and again.

In 1957, with the discovery of antibiotics and the healing of leprosy, the leper colony was closed and the island was deserted. Only the priest stayed on the island until 1962, to commemorate the lepers until five years after their death.

So, here is a modern silent hero, who was not honored for his work by anyone,.

****

The priest was a monk from a monastery near Elounda (I.M. Faneromenis Ierapetra), named Father Chrysanthos Katsoulogiannakis. He was born in 1893 and was a monk in 1911. It's worth saying that he volunteered in Spinalonga to help people. He rightly gained the reputation of Saint and died in 1972.