Mitropoleos St, Syntagma, open
daily
Syntagma Square
with its fast food emporiums and cafes would seem to have obliterated old
Athens, but from its south west corner walk two blocks down Mitropoleos St and
you will find a tiny piece of 16th century Athens - Agia Dynami, The Church of the Holy Power - hunkered down on the pavement under
an umbrella of concrete provided by the adjacent office building and with only a
few potted plants to protect it from the pedestrian flow.
The Holy Power is Mary’s in her role as
protector of women during pregnancy and childbirth. Women would flock here
during those dangerous months and asked for her intercession. A surprising number of worshippers still
enter this single celled barrel-vaulted church each day to light a candle or to
pray. Well, surprising perhaps only
to foreigners who are unaware of how much a part of everyday life a visit to
church still is in Greece. Sometimes because of the crowds, the cabinet with
different sized candles and the stand with sand to receive them once lit are
placed outside to make purchasing a candle and lighting it even easier.
Agia Dynami was and is
a dependency of the Pendeli Monastery on Mount Hymettos although its original courtyard
and outbuildings are long gone. The church is modest in the extreme but it too had
its moment of glory in Greece’s complex history…
During Athens’ reign of terror under the infamous Turkish
Voivode Hadji Ali Haseki (1775-95) the Pendeli
Monastery was given the concession to make ammunition for the Turkish
garrison stationed on the nearby acropolis, a strange occupation for monks, but
these were strange times. Agia Dynami became an arms workshop and in 1821 the
factory churned out ammunition for the Turks by day and the Greek insurgents by
night. Smuggled out in the wash basket of a local old woman, they were taken to
the rebels who made good use of them.
The floor
inside sports a double eagle, a symbol of the Orthodox Church and found inlaid
on many church floors, even in tiny churches like this one.
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