Holy Church of Hagia Dynamis

On Sunday morning, the Athens marathon was taking place with tens of thousands of participants.  The race follows the ancient route from the town of Marathon into Athens and ends at the Panathenaic Stadium where the first modern Olympics took place.  With many streets closed and heavy traffic, we set out on foot for the Monastiraki neighborhood for more ancient sites, the main cathedral and a few other churches.  I'll write about the other sites in a different post, but I want to focus this on our best local experience during this trip.

The Holy Church of the Hagia Dynamis is old and tiny.  In fact, modern Athens has built up around it, and in the case of this church, literally over it as well.  The church couldn't move, so they just built the modern high-rise building around and over it.  As Wendy was taking my picture showing just how tiny this church is, the caretaker emerged from inside. She invited us in to see the interior.

She was very proud of her church and told us some of  its history as well as showed us several icons.   She spoke French as well as some English, both of which were far superior to our understanding of Greek.  Between remembering some of our high school French and her English, we were able to communciate just fine.

She invited us to light a candle which is very common in the Greek Orthodox religion. When I offered to pay (as is customary), she wouldnt hear of it.  This is my gift to you and to welcome you to Greece she said.   We asked to take a photo with her to remember this moment.  She declined.  However, if you look closely at the picture above with me standing next to the church, we can see her when she first exited the church and greeted us.

Perhaps this was serendipity.  Perhaps this was a little God-wink.  I do know that what we saw and felt today is rarely experienced by others as this church isn't able to be open like others in Athens.  For that, we are thankful.