Church of Saint George Marathousa

LocationMarathousa

The temple was founded at the Archbishopric of the late Metropolitan Paul in 1954 without the presence of Naithrika. On the on-call of Father Christos Vogiatzis and Father Nicholas Paralis, a feast was made on Mount Athos and Mount Athos offered the timber for the temple’s roof and financial assistance. Toward the completion of the Temple, Father Christos made a grant to all Chalkidiki, recommending a Dean Committee. Today, the three-aisled church of Saint George is decorated with beautiful hagiographies and has the form of Byzantine Magnificence, which is only found in the Monasteries of Mount Athos.

The Temple is celebrated on August 23 and this day is another opportunity for the inhabitants to meet, to visit, to celebrate, to celebrate, to dance. We all know that festivals that are the peak moment of expressing the social and cultural pulse of local societies and are always dedicated to the memory of the patron saints, Local Saints. But for Marathousa this is not the case.

The church, while dedicated to St. George, celebrates the feast on August 23, the 9 th day of the Virgin Mary. Why; Here’s the explanation! Many years ago, the local inhabitants of Marathousas wanted the feast to become Saint George and the refugees wanted to become the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Thus, as a golden incision they found the double solution. That is to say, the temple is to be commemorated in the memory of Saint George the Trophy of the Feast and the feast is to honor the Most Holy Theotokos!

In the place where the church of St. George is located today, in the square of the village, once during the Turkish domination there was a mosque surrounded by a stone-built mantra, 2 meters high. This building the refugees turned into a temple and placed there the sacred heirlooms that they brought from their homeland.

According to testimonies, the highly religious refugees have transferred to their new homeland all the heirlooms among them:

  • A sweet-blooded bell that until 1962 was hanging in front of the main entrance of the church, also performing clock duties.
  • Screensavers of 70X90 cm
  • A wood carved cross of 20 x 15 cm
  • Three priestly uniforms, two of which were golden slices, Russian seam and origin.

This temple was burned down during the German occupation in 1944, along with the whole village and unfortunately all these sacred relics of great and invaluable emotional value for refugees and beyond, do not exist today. Also, for many decades and every year in the Holy Temple of Saint George of Marathousas, the honors of Agia Anna from the Skete of Agia Anna of Mount Athos came for blessing. The relics were accompanied by a monk on a mule, a horse that was adorned with cloth plaques and welcomed with brilliance, bells and incense.

The inhabitants and visitors worshiped the relics kneeling and after the request, in the evening, they stayed at home the housewife who gave the greatest vow. On the other day, the monk and the priest of the village went from house to house with the holy relics for worship and donations from the inhabitants, mainly grain, and after two days they left for Mount Athos with an oath.