July 3: Saint Gerasimos the Megalohorite is celebratedtranslated

Today the Church honors the memory of the poet Saint Anatolios and the Martyrs Hyacinthos, Theodotos, Theodotis, Diomedes, Eulambius and Asclepiados.

By LABROS K.SKONTZOU Theologian - Professor

During the years of Turkish rule, Agrafa became a breeding ground for freedom and the Christian faith, due to the peculiarity of the terrain. Many saints and New Martyrs emerged in the wider area. One of them was the holy martyr Gerasimos Evrytanas.

He was born at the end of the 18th century in the Megalo Chorio of Evrytania to pious parents and his baptismal name was George. Due to poverty, his brother Athanasios took him, when he was 11 years old, to Constantinople and made him a clerk in a local grocery store. One day his boss sent him to sell yogurts in clay pots, which he had poured into a pan. But, by the connivance of the wicked one, as he was walking and proclaiming his plight, he tripped over a stone, the pan fell, all the earthen pots were broken, and the yogurt was spilled. Little George sat at one end and wept bitterly, fearing the consequences of his awkward boss. From a mirrored window the…