The Saint Amongst Us

By Christine Marketos-Cuomo

Author Christine Marketos-Cuomo is a 30 year career employee of the federal government. She retired in 2008 from the Bureau of Alchohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Tampa, Florida. She was producer/director of her own public access television program called "Follow The Sun" for Cox Communications, Pawtucket, Rhode Island and Access Pinellas in Clearwater, Florida where she transferred to in 2001.

Christine is the mother of three children, Rosemaria, Peter and George.

She is also a very proud grandmother of Alexa, George Jr., and Evangelia (her son George's three children). She has two daughter-in-laws Taryn and Amy and a son-in-law Thomas that she is also very proud of.

Christine earned an Associate in Science Degree in Paralegal Studies in 1995, and then went on to earn a second Associate in Science Degree in Criminal Justice in 2001 from Fisher College in Boston, Massachusetts. She pursued her goal to obtain these degrees in order to set an example for her children. Today, all of her children are successful professionals in their career choices and they all graduated with honors from Universities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Florida.

Christine decided to write this book at the time her Uncle, Archbishop Dionysios was alive. It began with a thought that a cook-book of the monk's diet would benefit today's health conscious society. The Archbishop provided the recipes that were prepared in the Monastery of Iviron, Greece where he began his monastic life. Prior to finalizing the book, the Archbishop reposed on December 28, 2005. The book was put on hold and Christine decided to write a book about the Archbishop's life to include the cook-book. Enjoy the book and I promise that you will be inspired by it's contents.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse
• Release date: Aug 3, 2011
• ISBN: 9781452037387

Book preview

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© 2011 Christine Marketos-Cuomo. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 11/11/2011

ISBN: 978-1-4520-3736-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-3737-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4520-3738-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2010908969

Contents

Archbishop Dionysios

Chapter One

Chapter Two

A True Accounting By The Late Archbishop Dionysios Of Recipes

Author

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This book is dedicated to the memory of our beloved

Archbishop Dionysios

reposed on December 27, 2005

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Archbishop’s niece

the late Despina Kafetzaki

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Archbishop’s

Mother: Theodora

Father: Antonios

Chapter One

The Saint Amongst Us

The story begins in a small town of Mahaira located approximately two hours away from the main city of Iraklion, Crete. It begins with a young couple in their early 20’s who meet on the Island of Halki. The young man named Antonios was handsome and had the typical good features that Cretan men possess dark hair, dark brown eyes and sun-bronzed skin. Antonios went to the Island of Halki to pursue his career as a sponge-diver. This type of profession was more lucrative in Halki, than it was in Crete. As time went by, Antonios met the woman of his dreams. She had blond hair and blue eyes, and very petite in stature. These features were prominent with most of the women from the Island of Halki. The young woman’s name was Theodora and just by her name interpretation in the Greek language, Theo (God) Dora (gift), Antonios knew immediately that she was a gift from God and was truly the woman of his dreams. He didn’t want to lose his chance of marrying her, so he asked her father for her hand in marriage (this was the practice of all men who wanted to marry). The father told Antonios that he would give him an answer in a few weeks. Theodora’s father was determined to find out what type of person Antonios was. Everyone he asked gave a positive response, and that was that Antonios was nothing short of being a perfect match for his daughter. To that the father gave his blessings, and a marriage ensued. After the couple married in the typical Greek wedding tradition consisting of a two day continuous reception, the young couple decided to leave Halki for the Island of Crete where Antonios’s routes were from and where there were more opportunities for them in his native village. Antonios felt that sponge diving should come to a hault since it wasn’t a profession for a married man. He wanted to be a full time husband. Not someone that would spend time at sea. So, the young couple settled in a little village called Mahaira (English interpretation Knife). The village probably acquired it’s name because the Cretans are famous for manufacturing various styles of knives, each being unique and each inscribed with different Cretan poems on the cutting edge of the knives. Thus, the young couple became very content in their new surroundings and never returned to Halki.

The couple began their married life with Antonios cultivating the land they purchased in Mahaira which contained every type of vegetable imaginable including hundreds of olive trees and grape vines. Together they worked from morning to night cultivating this land. The olives that they produced into pure olive oil brought in enough money to set aside for their future and enough to start a family. The home they had was in a cave like setting with no door other than a curtain draped at the entry way leading to their one-room home. The entire house was made of stucco. Inside there was no heat other than that produced by the tzaki (stone brick oven). In the deep winter months, they had to cover themselves with pure wool blankets made from sheep’s skin in order to keep warm. There was no modern stove, but rather Theodora cooked on the tzaki. They both took turns going to the nearby well to carry water for their daily use such as taking a shower, and use for drinking and cooking. The shower was outside of their home and nothing to compare with our modern day showers where all you have to do is turn the nozzle to begin the flow of water. This shower consisted of someone standing outside of the shed which was opened on top and actually pouring the water over the person. There was no toilets, but rather there was a common outhouse used by all of the villagers. Everything that we do in today’s society is taken for granted since this couple really had to struggle to maintain their daily lives. Theodora began to sew her clothes by hand, and made a little extra money by also sewing her neighbors clothes. Antonios did not pursue the sponge diving since he had so much daily work with his property, especially maintaining the olives for the production of pure olive oil. In today’s modern society, the olive oil is produced almost effortlessly by machines. Antonios had to first gather the olives which was a chore, in itself, since he had thousands of olive trees. Then he had to manually cold press the olives using a stone slab with a crank. This crank was very hard to turn because of the weight of the stone.

Their dreams came to a halt when Theodora kept having one miscarriage after another with a total of five miscarriages altogether. Theodora was devastated that she could not carry a baby full term. The couple went to see the local village priest, who in those days was not only the priest who served their local village church, but he was also the family counselor. They asked the priest if he believed the miscarriages were a punishment from God for something they had done. They wanted to see if their was a religious reason as to why this was happening. Where they not worthy of having children? The priest responded by telling them they were being tested by God, and that God was a loving God and not one that would punish. Upon hearing the priests comforting words, they decided that if God would hear their prayers, and if they would bear a healthy son, they would dedicate him to God by sending him to a Monastery to become a monk. Their prayers were answered and their first born was a healthy daughter named Maria, then came Katerina followed by three sons Alexander, George and Michael. Then came a double miracle in 1919 when Theodora was expecting twins. Of course in those days, only when the woman actually had the birth did she know how many