Thursday, February 14, 2013
Crete’s highest mountain, Psiloritis, has many stories to tell, and one of them revolves around a small stone church located at 1200 metres elevation, near the village of Anogeia, built in honour of Crete’s patron saint of Love, Saint Hyacinth.
In 1998, the story of twenty year-old Hyacinth (98 AD) from Cappadocia, whose faith outgrew his fear of death, inspired Cretan composer and singer, Loudovikos from Anogeia, to introduce the Yakinthia initiative, a three-day festival held every year in July in Anogeia to celebrate "the Saint of emotions, remembrance and expectation."
Over the years, the festival has encompassed different forms of art, with strong references to the unique Cretan tradition, but has also grown into a significant forum of Mediterranean cultural exchange.
Nonetheless, Saint Hyacinth is more than anything associated with reclaiming innocence: on his feast day, July 3, people gather around the small church, designed in the style of a Cretan mitato (a round stone hut used by Cretan shepherds as a shelter), to honour the saint by lighting two candles; one for love lost and one for love regained…
