A HOMILY FOR THE FEAST OF THE UNCOVERING OF THE HOLY RELICS OF SAINT RAPHAEL OF LESVOS
About the Wondrous Events at Thermi, and Their Meaning
Brothers and sisters!
Today our Holy Orthodox Church celebrates the memory of All the New Martyrs Who Suffered Under the Turkish Yoke, and she also commemorates one of the most important events of the twentieth century, an event that proved to be the beginning of a whole series of remarkable occurrences which, although widely known in Greece, may be quite unknown to many of you. Of your kindness, allow me to use the opportunity the day presents to say a few words about these strange and wondrous happenings for our enlightenment and edification.
For a long time -- as long as anyone could remember -- an unknown monk holding a censer had been appearing on a hill on the Greek island of Lesvos, also known as Mytilene, in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea. That hill was called Kaloyeros -- a Greek word meaning “monk” -- after this monk, who, having censed, would disappear in a blaze of light. Many Christians and Muslims had seen him.
In 1917 Hasan Bey, the Turk who owned the hill, also known as Karyes, hired the police officer of the local town, Thermi, to solve the mystery, but the investigation was abandoned when the indubitable conclusion was reached that the appearances were of a supernatural nature.
There was a little “chapel” of sorts there, dedicated to the Theotokos, and every year, on Tuesday of Bright Week, a Liturgy was served, with the gracious consent of the Turkish landowner, although no one knew why the Liturgy was served there on that day. Actually, the “chapel” was just an enormous, shady oak, and the holy table a large, broken slab of marble.
In the early 1920’s most of the Greek population in Asia Minor was expelled and exchanged for most of the Turkish population of Greece. Thus the hill passed into Christian hands. The appearances of the monk continued, and shepherds grazing their flocks frequently heard chanting and the sound of bells coming from the “chapel.”
After some years, it was decided to build a proper chapel on that hill, and in 1959, on this day, June 20 by the ecclesiastical calendar and July 3 by the secular Gregorian reckoning, excavations began. A grave was quickly discovered, and although the bones found in it were fragrant, the workers assigned little importance to them, and they were put in a sack by one of the men, Mr. Doukas Tsolakis. The head was found a short distance from the rest of the skeleton, with the jaw missing. A few days later Mr. Tsolakis stumbled over the sack, and threw it aside. When he had finished his work, he went to hang the bag on a tree, and something like an electric shock jolted his hands. This happened three times. At this point he crossed himself, which he had not done for twenty-seven years. Another worker, Mr. Leonidas Sideras, had kicked the sack, and his leg went numb. But after crossing himself, Mr. Tsolakis was able to hang the bag from the tree without difficulty.
A priest was asked to perform a Trisayion, a prayer service, for the departed person whose bones were found and, from this point on, an incredible series of visions and dreams were seen by the simple villagers. The information imparted by these visions and dreams was confirmed time and again by the subsequent excavations. The details are far too numerous for me to relate today, but I strongly suggest that if you do not have it already, that you purchase the wonderful book Saints Raphael, Nicholas, and Irene of Lesvos, Volume 10 of the edifying series “Modern Orthodox Saints,” written by Constantine Cavarnos. If you do have the book, you may wish to reread it, in order to refresh your memory. For now, I will continue with the briefest description of the events that followed and the historical and religious facts that were learned from them or confirmed by them.
Before the first memorial service, the person whose bones were found appeared in the night to the priest and revealed that he was named Raphael and was an archimandrite born in Ithaca, the island of Homer’s Odysseus. He had been martyred by the Turks on Bright Tuesday of the year 1463. At the same time other saints -- a deacon and monk named Nicholas, and a young girl named Irene -- also began appearing to the simple villagers, together with Saint Raphael. They too had been martyred by the Muslims. To adults, the saints mostly appeared in dreams; and to children, mostly openly, while the children were awake, in accordance with the prophecy of Scripture, Your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.[1]
In addition to these three, other martyrs were revealed in that area by the visions and dreams. Every historical and archaeological detail made known in the visions and dreams was confirmed by the excavations, down to the very least. Besides this, the saints worked innumerable miracles of healing, both for the villagers of Thermi and, later, for pilgrims to the site and Orthodox Christians everywhere. As a result the villagers, 80% of whom had previously been either unbelievers or religiously indifferent, now became devout Orthodox Christians, with very few exceptions.
The main facts revealed by the saints were as follows. In 1454, the year after Constantinople, the Queen of Cities, fell to the Turks, Saint Raphael and his disciple Saint Nicholas fled from Thrace to Lesvos, where they settled in the Monastery of the Theotokos on the hill of Karyes. In 1463 the Turks raided the monastery, and seized and tortured the monks. The Turks dragged Saint Raphael by his hair and beard, tied him to a tree, beat him, and seared him with heated, red-hot weapons. Then they sawed off his jaw from his head, thus killing him. This is why Saint Raphael’s jaw was not found with his skull. Saint Nicholas, who had also been tortured, died from a heart attack when he saw what the barbarians had done to his beloved teacher and elder.
The other martyr about whom most was revealed was the twelve-year old virgin Irene. The Muslims cut off one of her arms, then put her into a big earthen pot and burned her alive. Her father, mother, and teacher were all slaughtered by the Turks as well.
When Saint Raphael began appearing, he revealed where the bones of all the martyrs were buried, where the pot in which Saint Irene was immolated was to be found, and also the place where his own jaw was located. The remains of an ancient church were excavated on the hill, and various icons and other ecclesiastical items were found, exactly as Saint Raphael had predicted. Saint Raphael also revealed that his monastery had originally been a convent, which had been sacked by pirates in the year 1235. The abbess was named Olympia, and she and other nuns were martyred at that time, some after having been raped. The excavations directed by the saint unearthed the nun-martyrs’ remains, and in the abbess’ skull three large nails were found embedded. These had been hammered into her head by the pirates.
In 1963 a convent was built on the site of the nuns’ martyrdom, and eventually the sisterhood grew to include fifty members.
What is most important in all of this, dear Christians, is that, besides revealing the details of their martyrdoms, Saint Raphael and the other saints, indirectly and directly, confirmed by their appearances and the subsequent discoveries many truth and practices of our Holy Orthodox Faith for the benefit of the spiritually feeble Christians of our time. You will understand this clearly and be convicted and much profited by it, if only you take the trouble to obtain and read the little book I mentioned. But for now, here are a few of these points of truth and Orthodox practice:
First, the soul exists and is immortal, and that our God, as Christ says, is not a God of the dead, but of the living.[2]
Second, when they pass on to eternal life, the souls of the saints do not fall asleep, but increase in will, intellect, memory, and power, and appear in glory to those on earth when God wills, working many wondrous miracles.
Third, the saints proclaim the chief doctrine of our Holy Faith, the doctrine of the Most Holy Trinity. In his appearances, Saint Raphael many times confirmed this dogma.
Fourth, both by their deeds and admonitions, the saints, especially Saint Raphael, make it clear that Christians ought, with contrition and love, to entreat the saints to pray to the Lord on their behalf.
Fifth, the saints show the power of holy relics, employing them both to punish sin and reward piety.
Sixth, the saints confirm the Orthodox practice of making and venerating holy icons, since they both urged the villagers of Thermi to dig and find various holy icons, and they commanded that icons be painted of themselves.
Seventh, the saints, particularly Saint Raphael, support the Orthodox veneration of the Cross, our wearing of crosses, and our making the sign of the Cross. In the dreams and visions, Saint Raphael wore a cross, instructed others to do the same, held a cross, and made the sign of the Cross, both upon himself and over others. During his martyrdom, while the Turks were beating him, he pulled out his cross and proclaimed, “We venerate this, and will never renounce it!”
Eighth, by their martyrdom, the saints teach us to be willing and ready to accept martyrdom, and to lead a life of martyric struggle for Christ and for Christian virtue, even if we are not called to literal martyrdom. They also teach us to venerate the martyrs.
Ninth, the saints commanded that a liturgical service be composed in their memory, thus making clear the great value of such services to the saints; and they teach us to attend assiduously not just the Divine Liturgy, but both Vespers and Matins, which is when such services to the saints are chanted and read.
Tenth, the saints highlight the value and importance of monasticism. Saint Raphael and Nicholas were both monks, and Saint Raphael commanded that a monastery be built at the place where he was martyred. Commenting on this, Photis Kontoglou, the great reviver of Byzantine iconography in Greece and the author of the first full account of the events at Thermi, writes, “Let the enemies of monasticism open their eyes and learn.”
Eleventh, the saints confirm many of our Orthodox liturgical practices in their appearances. Saints Raphael and Nicholas cense, chant, and glorify God and the angels. The All-holy Virgin appears with them, and bells ring, sounding across the ages.
Dear brothers and sisters, as we meditate on these wondrous occurrences and their meaning, on how the immaterial souls of the saints return to earth and speak with the living, confirming all things pertaining to our Orthodox faith and way of life, let us hear Christ’s sweet voice saying, He that believeth in Me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.[3] It is the saints -- those who live in Christ -- who are the truly living. Those who occupy themselves only with the external side of the world are they whom the prophet Isaiah says hear and do not understand, look and do not perceive, and shut their spiritual ears and eyes. They are the truly dead. But as the Lord said, Let the dead bury their own dead.[4] Great is God’s compassion to us Orthodox Christians! The Lord illumines our darkness and enriches our poverty with imperishable riches. And so, let us repent and weep over our sins, and thank our God that He has given us such saints as the martyrs of Thermi, to stop the mouths of unbelievers and the impious, to bring us poor and errant Christians back to the Orthodox way of life, and to glorify His Own most holy name.
Wondrous is God in His saints, the God of Israel![5] Amen.
[1] Acts 2:17; Joel 2:28
[2] Matt. 22:32
[3] John 11:25
[4] Matt. 8:22
[5] Ps. 67:35
