“THEOSKEPASTI”

Once upon a time in the old days when people were talking of princes ,princesses kings, queens ,noble men, noble women, there was an island in the middle of the Aegean Sea and it was called snce the most ancient years Andros .

Anrdros was something like a small well known state full of towns and villages in which werw living lords, merchants, Gemizides ( shipowners ),craftsman and all kinds of hard working people and above all god-fearing people.

They envied by many for their abundance, but then came years when various ocypations and attacs by many enemies and pirates improverished the land , byt the Andriotans took care and managed to survive not loosing their .goods

It was then , that they had started to built for her Grace , the Holy Virgin Mary a great church above the days of Paraporti.that was a smallest dor from the castle and Nimporio place close to the Lower part of Castle near the sea , close to the shops and the shipowners’ homes .

All the Andriotans brought their offer ,they made the sing of the cross and the building of the church shared in the early springtime .

All people of the island passed by to see the foundation of the church , the walls to be build , the laying of the paving stones on the floor .Among them was passing , to see it , everyday and a very young girl called Despina.Despina was an orphan and all alone since she was a small child , she was living in a baccarat , a small stone byild room , at the towns end , with a small garden in front of it.Next to it was a long road and a mulberry ,lemon , bitter orange , almont trees , vinegards , weat fields and anything that you can imagine.

Only in pictures of fairy – tales yiu could find the stone-build shacj of Despina , always clean and milky , that is white- washed with lime and indigo blue ,with a small courtyard full of flowers , basil ,rosemary ,a lemon tree , an almond and an olive tree and oil seemed speaking to her in fairy tales. The stone –wall was small and low , with a small a canderada …vine –arbot , a small chicken –coop with two hens , a roosted and her dear kitten , Argyro.

All these were in her eyes of Despina as living beings in her own eyes ,flowers , plants and animals were talking , looking at her as if they were the eyes of God our Creator. Further down was the town and the silk workshops . The poor girl who had one of the loveliest names of the Holy Virgin Despina( Lady), was working to live ,wherever she could find a day’s work ,gathering herself a few savings to build a small dowry , since she was left with no relatives to look after her .

In the summer , Despina would work in the harvest ,in the large granaries . The young lads of the grand lords who supervised the work would single her out because their cocoons , she took at home the pierced cocoons to comb them and would get the wages for her work.

The Andriotans, as well as the other Greeks created verses , poems ,songs and legends for the circle of time and fairies and spirits of their nature .Despina when she could hear them during the breaks in the fields from good fairy tellers and rhymesters in her mind would come her mother’s voice , as she remembered her as a child …Sometimes in the winter, when raining and she was looking the rain in the window , alone with her cat Argoro, in the dim atmosphere, could see formed the shape of her mother and grandmother , the last relatives she remembered , since her father had died very young and she could not remember him.

As soon as the rain subsided , would come almost always at her house Captain Nickolas , son of the shipowner Gioras and would brink her wheat flour not to knead her bread only of cheap corn, . Nikolas loved Despina and cared for her, but since she was a sencible girl she realized that his mother wouldn’t not let her noble lad to marry an inferior. But she was certain that the Holly Virgin nd her mother’s and grand mother’s soul protected her and would have also a good fortune . She always liughted an iol lamp for Virgin Mary and two candles for the ones who grew her up.

Nickolas would tell her the news of the nobles responcible for the building of the church of Virgin Mary that in these years , the bad weather and the battles in the Aegean had not been in favor of the trade and the crops . She could not really understand what he was talking about , since poor people earned almost the same inbad years as in the wealthy ones of the few. What she could understand was that fall had coma the church was almost build , but they did not have wood to build the roof and it would remain uncovered during the rough days of the winter. The few commercial have wood to trade .The first rainfalls had started and the rain entered the church and people said that it was a bad sign for the coming year.Poor Despina knew just one think whatever man cannot do, prayer could brink it . Even the mightiest did not have anything else byt prayer , until one morning a ship, an Hydriot ship appeared on the horizon , laden with goods , it seemed coming from remove Russia , surely it would be bringing timber from the Russian woods . Everybody the chain of the port and the vessel entered and anchored proudly in the port .The merchants of the island were already there to bargain for the goods and sell the silken velvet , the olive oil, the olives and the lemons and buy whatever the island was lacking.Despina had also to sell a toll of fabric , a cheap alatza, a thin fabric woven of the remains of silk she gathered from her work. In the crowns on the wet pier she slipped and would fall in to the sea water ; if here hand was nit seized dy a Chiotan sailor ,Mathios (Mathiow)Truth is that Despina was so fynny ,though scared , that both fell to laughter , and didn’t delay to get acquainted .

The Hydriot captain had leather to sell, , silver but also good timber and bargain went on till the sunset . The captain had heard that in Andros they were building a new church and were lacking to timber for the roof , also that their trade was not going well , so he raised the price to buy their goods cheap. The Andriotans didn’t manage to buy the very expencive timber and dy late afternoon they watched the sailing vessel moving away in the sea,Despina had sold her merchandise and had said goodbuy to Mathios that propably would not see again.Very sad returned back home most of them and passing dy the roofless church , they turned teir eyes to heaven , they had no other hope , the church of the Holly Virgin would have no protection from the winds , the rains and the snow in the winter .

Despina was coming buck , sad too passed by the church , she wanted to offer her savings too if it were possible but their hopes were lost if it were possible but their hopes were lost, As she was looking at the roofless church and the people passing by sad to go buck home , she shaw a gentle woman with a headscarf loose on her head smiling to her , she had never seen her before , but looked familiar… when she looked again the woman was nit there . There was no time to think about it, it was getting dark and her house was at the town’s end , she walked fast since did not carry a lantern .

Reading home the weather was still good and the sea calm , but as soon she closed the door a strong North wind started blowing as this was not enough clouds gathered in the night sky. The clouds brought rain with thunders and lightings and the sea became rough. Despina was scared and feeling very lonely , bolted the shutters .Her cat, Argyro , was outside she opened the door and her cat squeezed in with the chicken . She breathed deeply , her entire world was there, everybody ? Her thoughts went to Mathios the orphan , in the sea struggling with the waves .

-My Holy Virgin she stammered , making the sgn of the cross.

On this instant each and everyone of the Andriotans was thinking of the church of Virgin Mary and a united prayer was rizing to heaven.

Early in the dawn, Despina’s cat started mewing strangely and scratching the door . Something is out in the storm and it’s still dark ,she thought and opened the door , outside was standing the unknown woman in the headscarf smiling to her .

-Come in you will freeze !Come in! I will offer you some warm food and milk to rest!

The woman smiled and was lost in the dim and still dark landscape , the rain had stooped and the soil was smelling .The sun rose in a fair weather , a new day started. After feeding the animals , she got ready to go down town to see what had happened to the church during the night . Drawing near she herd cheerful run and what did she? Below in the bay and on the shore tree trunks had been washed up as it by miracle. It seemed that the prayers of all the people were heard! Some made the sign of the cross and others rushed to carry the wood to the church . Really were did the godsend timber had come from ? Was it that yesterday’s vessel had shipwerecked? And if that was the case what had happened to the sailors , did they drown ?God have mercy ! Really where was Mathios ? Around her a great commotion .Some helped for the roof to de built so the rain would not enter again in the winter until the evening the church was covered by the hand of God they felt so and it called Theoskepasti ( Covered By God ).

In few days the church was completed , the concecration was celebrated and the first Holy Communion was offered ,all the people , wealthy and poor , all in line waited to received it , the voice of te priest was heard “What comes from You and is Your Body we offer to You”. That is really the phrase that included everything this day , since the Holly Communion and Holly Bread offered as a thanksgiving to God , were a part of His creation,the same is the symbolism pf the Communion, the same is the symbolism of the Holly Communion , the same was the roof of the church of theoskepasti.As they took the Holy Bread from the hand of the Priest they came out to the courtyard, they heard the joyous news of the wedding of Nicolas with the daughter of captain Apostolos, Lenio , the math was arranged by his mother. The wedding would be celebrated next Easter , for the trousseau to be prepared and the house of the bride to be finished. Despina’s friends were sorry , because they believed that Nicolas would marry her and she would escape from her bad luck . But she didn’t mind for this , but she went back to the church to pray for Mathios. As she bowed to worship the icon of the Holy Virgin she saw in Her face the woman with the loose headscarf on her head and she made the sign of the cross. What was this sign given to her ? Coming out of the churh , there was nobody in the courtyard but even if there was to whom could she tell about it? There are some things , that even told Cannot be believed!

It was then that astonished she saw Mathios coming from the port , they fell on each others arms ,she was so worried for him!But he cared for her too. Indid their ship had wrecked shortly after their departure from Andros , their goods were lost and he was saved dy Myconian fishermen and he decided to come back to her for ever if she wanted it too, he could work as labored in the fields of the island and the could make their humble home happy with lots of children not lacking anything. The happiness of the poor girl can’t be described .

Their wedding was celebrated the following Sunday and all the Andriotans came to the feast , in a great spree with bagpipes , tambors and violins, you see the Andriotans despite all their social class difference they are all united in all their histirical moments wealthy and poor of the Theoskepasti tey are all Theoskepastoi ( covered by Good ). Mathios and Despina lived their own miracle as many others too. Despina did not find a Prince like others we know but surely they both lived happily ever after.