Patrick Comerford
On a sunny afternoon, as I was making my way from the Cathedral of Saint Minas in the heart of Iraklion to the Martinengo Bastion above the city to see the grave of Nikos Kazantzakis, I stopped to visit the mediaeval Byzantine Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites in the maze of streets in the old city.
This church with an unusual name is a monastic foundation linked to Saint Catharine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai, the oldest continuously inhabited Christian monastery, and it holds one of the most important collections of icons in Crete today, dating from the 16th to the 18th century.
The church is also intimately linked to events at the end of the 19th century that led to the end of Ottoman rule and the incorporation of Crete into modern Greece.
I had last visited this church in September 2013. The church, on Taxiarchou Markopoulou street, is near the bustling city centre of Iraklion and Saint Minas Cathedral. But it is a quiet residential area, with traditional white-washed houses, cobbled streets, and cosy tavernas and cafés.
The two-aisled church is set in a shaded courtyard about 500 metres south of the cathedral of Saint Minas. The present building dates back to just after the earthquake of 1508.
The earliest references in the lists of churches in Candia say the first church on the site dated back to the second Byzantine period (961 to1204 CE), a significant period of cultural and economic revival for the island after its reconquest from Arab rule. Saint Matthew’s was regarded as ‘Great and Unique’ and was inextricably connected with life in the city.
The Byzantine church of Saint Matthew Sinaitón or Saint Matthew of the Sinaites (Ναός Αγίου Ματθαίου Σιναϊτών) was rebuilt after the earthquake of 1508. The new church of Agios Matthaios (Saint Matthew) was probably built, as a family chapel in the early 17th century on the site of the older Byzantine church that had been destroyed in the earthquake. The founding inscription says it was built in 1600.
After the Ottomans captured Crete and Iraklion in 1669, the Church of Saint Catherine was turned into a mosque. Through the intervention of the Sultan’s interpreter, Nikosios Panagiotakis, Saint Matthew’s Church was then given by way of compensation as a metochion or small monastic establishment to the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai and its monks.
The seat of the Archbishop of Crete, and the icons, paintings and pulpits that had once adorned Saint Catherine were transferred to the church, and it has been known ever since as Saint Matthew of the Sinaites.
However, it cannot be said with certainty whether the school of iconography at Saint Catherine’s operated on the church grounds during this period, although it was located there later, and was moved to the small Church of Agios Minas around 1750. The school continued to function through the work of Georgios Kastrophylakas and loannis Kastrophylakas, father and son, and Ioannis Kornaros, who had attended the school.
The church is known for its striking architecture and serene ambiance. It has an elegant façade, and the interior is equally captivating, with its frescoes and icons. This is a two-aisled, vaulted church with a transverse narthex. The complex also includes two neoclassical buildings and a newer building.
A relief marble slab above the north entrance of the church depicts Saint Matthew the Apostle. The church was expanded at the end of the 17th century, and the south aisle was added and dedicated to Saint Paraskevi. The flat-roofed narthex was rebuilt in the 18th century, and a chapel was added at the north-east end and dedicated to Saint Charalambos.
Today the church holds a rare collection of icons with important works of the Cretan School of Iconography in the Venetian Era.
The icons include the Crucifixion by Georgios Kastrophylakas (1752); Saint Catherine and Saint Symeon the God-Receiver by Jeremiah Palladas; the Crucifixion (1772) and Saint Titus and Scenes of the Lives of the 10 Martyrs of Crete by Ioannis Kornaros (1773); the Crucifixion, attributed to Palaiokappa; and two unsigned icons by Michael Damaskinos, Saint Symeon Theodochos and Saint John the Baptist (16th century).
Other notable icons in the church include: Saint Phanourios by John, priest of Kolyva (1688); Saint Paraskevi (17th century); the Prophet Elias with scenes of his life, by Georgios Kydoniates (1752); the Lament (1753); Saint Charalampos and the martyrdom of the saint, by Ioannis Kornaros, (1773); and the Virgin Mary or Panaghia by Victor (1780).
For many decades, Saint Matthew and Saint Minas long remained the two principal Orthodox churches in Iraklion, and many influential members of the Christian community in the city were buried in the churchyard.
Many of the people slaughtered by the Turks in the massacre in Iraklion on 25 August 1898 are also buried in the churchyard. They include Lysimachos Kalokairinos (1840-1898), who had been the British Vice Consul in Iraklion from 1859 and a British subject since 1871.
Kalokairinos was killed when his home was burnt down during the violence in 1898, and most of his archaeological collection and that of his brother, Minos Kalokairinos (1843-1907), dragoman at the consulate, were destroyed. Minos Kalokairinos was an amateur archaeologist known for the first excavations at the Minoan palace of Knossos, and his excavations were continued later by Arthur Evans.
During the violence, known the ‘Candia Massacre’, it is estimated 500-800 Christians were massacred in Iraklion, 14 British military personnel were murdered, and Lysimachos Kalokairinos and his family were burnt alive in their home. A significant part of Candia was burned down and the massacre, which continued for four hours, ended only after British warships began bombarding the city.
The massacre on 6 September 1898 (Old Style 25 August) accelerated the end of Ottoman rule: the last Ottoman soldier left Crete two months later, on 28 November 1898, ending the 253-year Ottoman rule on the island. Crete became an autonomous state in 1899 and was incorporated into the modern Greek state in 1913.
The Church of Saint Matthew of the Sinaites remains a ‘Great and Unique’ church. It is an important part of the spiritual heritage of Crete and it is cherished as a landmark that has played a key role in the religious, political and cultural history of Iraklion.
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