Agios Minas Cathedral is one of the main Churches in the city of Heraklion, is located at the Venizelos square, and is one of the largest in Greece, with a capacity of 8 thousand people. The commemoration day of the saint, on 11 November, is a patronal feast and official holiday.

The abode of the Cretan Archbishop is to the right of the cathedral, and, to the left, there is a small, authentic church of Saint Minas, which has been built in 1735. It’s the predecessor of the functioning Cathedral and was itself the Metropolitan Cathedral during the Turkish occupation. Now it houses a museum of icons and various church utensils.

A story tells of an event happened on the Easter of 1826, when a crowd of Muslim Turks headed to the church to destroy it and to attack the Christians, but a mounted officer named Ayan Agha (Ayan means “a noble” in Turkish) dispersed this crowd, and the Greek Christians took it as a miraculous intervention of Saint Minas, after which the saint was declared patron of Heraklion.

The construction of this large three-nave Cathedral began in 1862 and lasted for 33 years. At the beginning of the construction, gold, bronze and silver coins of different nations have been laid in the foundation of the Cathedral on the place of the altar. In 1895 the Cathedral was consecrated in honor of St. Minas. Despite the Turkish rule, the celebration on this occasion lasted for three days.

The cathedral is equal-shaped cross in plan view, has a majestic dome, and two high bell towers. Its walls and vaults are built in Greco-Byzantine style, and its powerful dome is decorated with traditional Byzantine frescos.

One of the modern testimonies of the miraculous patronage of St. Minas is the salvation of the Cathedral from the heavy bombardment that took place on May 23, 1941, when the bomb that fell to the roof of the Cathedral did not explode. Honoring this event, a mock-up of this bomb is placed at the northern wall of the Cathedral.

St. Minas was an Egyptian soldier called Abu Menas in the Roman army in Phrygia (on territory of modern day Turkey). He was Wonder-worker and martyred because he refused to recant his Christian faith. Always he is portrayed as a warrior, often mounted.

Church of Crete, read in the following issues of the newspaper.

September 2017