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Sphakia – Impressions
There were exhortations to repent at once. And then it was finished.
Translation and compression destroy the flavour of this remarkable
performance. This bald, paunchy, dynamic Cretan was one of those
few who have a natural capacity for terrifying people.
I now see that he was not the first of his type to visit Sphakia. Shortly
after the Daskaloyiannis revolt a saintly monk came from the Holy
Mountain, a blind man who fasted perpetually. He pointed out the sinners,
expelled the renegadoes from his congregation, and preached so
powerfully that murder and blood feud came to a halt. Pashley tells
also of another saint who appeared in 1811, wearing a coarse garment,
an iron chain around his neck, preaching the necessity of repentance,
the imminence of earthquake and disease and war. He took no money;
but accepted voluntary contributions of sheep. He appears to have
astonished the credulous villagers with conjuring tricks. A shepherd’s
wife broke three eggs into a pan, had to go for a moment to the door,
and when she returned found four. ‘How is this, holy priest? I only
broke three.’
‘I blessed them,’ he replied, ‘and they are become four.’
The terror inspired by this man induced good order which lasted
until the 1821 rebellion.
The day after we heard this sermon I was still more embarrassed.
We had left our clothes and possessions on the rocks while we swam;
and the preacher, taking his morning stroll with his wife, noticed
watches and wallets lying in full view. Later in the cafe, he held us up
as models of natural goodness on the strength of this.
‘Look at them. Look at that trust. Where they come from you can
leave things around without their being pinched. Listen to them. They
don’t blaspheme like us Greeks, we blaspheme, we steal, we don’t trust
each other. That’s why Greece is in a mess today.’
I could not help pointing out that in England we should have been
more careful. The listening Greeks with whom we were contrasted
nodded meekly, but it was obvious that they thought us foolish. And
maybe they were right, because Elizabeth lost her watch in Sphakia.
But probably even this was due to carelessness rather than light Cretan
fingers.