The Epitaphios processions make their way through the streets of Rethymnon on Great Friday or Good Friday

Good Friday evening 2025 in Rethymnon, Part 1: the procession of the Epitaphios leaves the Cathedral (Patrick Comerford, 2025)


Good Friday evening 2025 in Rethymnon, Part 2: the procession of the Epitaphios reaches the Church of the Four Martyrs (Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

I spent three or four hours last night (18 April 2025) at the Cathedral in Rethymnon, following the Great Friday or Good Friday prayers and services, presided over by Metropolitan Prodromos of Rethymnon.

The cathedral was packed inside, and there was as many people waiting patiently outside as a military detachment stood ready to provide a guard of honour.

Towards the end of the service, Metropolitan Prodromos came to the steps at the front of the cathedral to cense and bless the throng outside.

Acolytes had their candles lighting, and a group of young women and teenage girls were stood with their baskets of petals to be strewn before the Epitaphios.

As the Epitaphios came down the steps of the cathedral, with a large number of intoning and chanting priests, deacons, readers and cantors, people in the crowd jostled for positions to join the procession.

From the cathedral, we pushed and heaved our way through the narrow streets of Rethmynon, through the Porta Guora, the city’s old Venetian gate, and into the square in front of the Church of the Four Martyrs.

Similar processions from churches throughout Rethymnon, each with its own decorated bier and Epitaphios, were converging in the square, as they do on Good Friday each year. There a choir was singing traditional solemn Great Friday hymns to a square that was packed with thousands of people, many only able to cram into the side streets and alleyways.

From the steps of the church, Metropolitan Prodromos delivered his Great Friday address, and blessed the massed crowd.

As each Epitaphios was carried away solemnly, back to its own waiting church, the choir resumed singing on the steps of the Church of the Four Martyrs.

The Easter celebrations begin tonight with the first Eucharist of Easter beginning before Midnight.

Metroplitan Prodromos censes the people outside the cathedral in Rethymnon (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Acolytes wait patiently for the procession of the Epitaphios outside the Cathedral in Rethymnon last night (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)