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Venice returns back relics of three Saints to Greece ( 12.02.2009 )

A Venetian church returned the relics of three Saints from the Greek Island of Kefalonia, back to Greece. Those relics disappeared from the island in the 14th century.

The relics of St. Gregory, St. Theodore and St. Leon have been found in a charnelhouse of the St. Zachary’s church in Venice, at the day of January the 30th.

The relics were moved to Venice in the 14th century, as Greece was in that time a battle-field of the armies of the Venetian Republic, Byzantium and the Ottoman Empire.

The Kefalonian priest Georgius Andzulatos was looking for the relics for about 25 years, starting his search on the basis of testimonies of Catholic priest and believers, which appeared to show that the relics have been placed in a charnelhouse under the altar of St. Zachary’s Church in Venice.         

More than 5 years of time and exchange of a vast number of letters between the representatives of the Catholic Church and Orthodox priests, and first of all, a team of experts in medical jurisprudence (forensic medicine) to confirm that the relics have been found.

Priest Georgius Andzulatos noticed that the relics found confirmed the facts that were coming from Church sources, that the three men were at the age of 60, 30 and 18-20 years when they died. The three were soldiers of the army of the Roman Emperor Constantius (337 – 361) in the 4th century, and left the army to live their lives as ascetics at Kefalonia Island. There was a Byzantium Monastery on the island and in that monastery the relics of those three Saints have been kept, before they were brought to Venice. 

 

 

Source: Дверибг.нет, Glixouri