The three students found themselves in the martyred and heroic Northern Epirus during the difficult years after the fall of the Enver Hoxha regime. Easter 1994. They accompanied the clergyman from Greece to serve the religious needs of the faithful in the Himara region during the holy days of Holy Week. The Greeks of Northern Epirus themselves requested it, to celebrate Easter after many decades. And the modest Levite responded to their request. He traveled from the Peloponnese to Northern Epirus.
It seemed like a dream to the young student chanters. They had heard a lot about the suffering that the Greeks of Northern Epirus went through during the years of the dictatorship of Enver Hoxha: Persecutions, imprisonments, exiles, forced labor and many other things, which were engraved in their memory, hurt their souls, blackened their lives and were all recorded by history. The students saw before them people tortured, tired, but brave with an indomitable spirit, with love for their homeland and deep respect for the faith, for the Church that they were deprived of.
Among the blessed residents of Himara was Mrs. Antigone, a genuine Northern Epirus grandmother. She lived alone; her house was near the church of All Saints. She had been engaged in her youth, but the borders were closed and her suitor stayed in Greece. She never got married like that. She always waited for him to return, faithful and devoted to the man she saw as her future husband.
The children met her, they started talking to her. They were amazed that she knew Greek history so well, that she remembered ancient Greek philosophers and so much more! They didn't want to leave her side. They let her talk and enjoyed the way she said it, her passion and love for Greek letters. At one point, one of the group interrupted her, saying:
– Lady – Antigone, we would like you to tell us something else. How have you endured all these years? How have you kept your faith? Wasn't it difficult?
– Difficult? It was just difficult! But we couldn't leave our faith. It kept us alive. It reminded us of our ancestors, our fathers. We didn't forget anything from the blessed habits of our faith. We kept what we could, as we could.. We even dyed eggs red and threw their shells into the river to remember that we have Easter...
He continued to tell stories, and the group of students listened attentively, with admiration, with wonder... But time passed.
– Lady Antigone, we will leave, but we will come back to tell us more.
– Come back tomorrow afternoon! I want to take you up to the Castle, to tell you and show you something else.
The grandmother greeted the young men, crossed them, and sent them off to God's blessing.
The three students did not miss the opportunity to be close to Mrs. Antigone again. They really wanted to hear firsthand the story of the suffering Hellenism of Northern Epirus. And tonight, all three of them were in her poor house.
– Come on, my children!
He welcomed them and never stopped thanking them for helping the people of Northern Epirus understand Easter, to experience Resurrection, after so many years of being unemployed, unsocialized...
– May the blessed Pope Nicholas be well, may he rejoice in his kingdom, his priesthood, but also in you who help him and sing for him, she would say, and her wishes would be given and taken. Tonight, my children, Easter Sunday, which is and you have no Service, I will take you to the Castle of Himara; I want you to see something.
The young people looked at each other. What would the grandmother want to show them?
They set off. She in front, the children behind. What if she had 75 years loaded on her back? She walked upright and strong, with a quick and courageous step. They eventually reached the Castle. The view was magnificent from up there. A small chapel dominated like a painting in the middle of the Castle.
– Yesterday you asked me how we kept the faith in those dark years. Here we go!
She went behind the sanctuary of the temple, to the middle niche, knelt down and tried to remove a stone from the wall. She had difficulty, but she managed. She removed the stone, put her elderly hand deep in and took out a smoldering lamp.
– Do you see it? this candle never went out. ! It has been burning inside the closed church for years now. When they closed our churches and prevented us from coming to worship the icons, to light the lamps on the graves of our dead, the women of the area of the Castle of Himara made a decision: Every night, each one in turn, to go up here to the Castle – without anyone noticing us; neither the men, nor the children and grandchildren knew – and to light this little lamp to the Virgin Mary and our Saints. And we begged, crying, that God would have mercy on us, to save us…
The children were amazed. They were moved and amazed!
This lit candle kept people alive, faith ablaze, our Northern Epirus Greek!
(From the Orthodox Christian Magazine “O SOTIR” issue 2261, p. 142)
