The story of Athanasia Kriketou-Samaris, who died in February 2020 (her death occurred on 20/2, her funeral took place two days later, the news, however, was released on 28/2) is more or less well known. For half a century, the self-proclaimed "Saint" occupied the news, either because she "conversed" through messages with the Virgin Mary, or because she was often in courtrooms, accused of fraud.
Beloved "saint" of a diverse crowd that started with ministers, statesmen, priests, prominent lawyers and reached the masses of her fanatical followers, but also a favorite subject of journalistic investigation and shows like "Reporters" in the 80's, where the property of "Agia" or the pretentious agyrtida, as the Holy Synod had called it in its official announcement in 1967.
A story that confirms that people are capable of believing in anything and anyone, ignoring logic, science and ultimately reality. It started in 1945, when the young shepherdess Athanasia Samari saw - as she said - a vision with the Virgin Mary, who appeared in front of her in a flash.
But because a shepherd next to her cursed, the Virgin Mary disappeared and began to communicate with the young maiden in her sleep. In order to convince her fellow villagers in Manolada, she showed the marks on the upper part of her chest, a cross and a large P (from Panagia). A little later she was also posting text messages to convince her fellow villagers in Manolada. Her relatives, however, knew that Athanasia suffers from dermatographia, or dermographism.
The condition indicates a sensitivity of the skin that, due to scratching or friction, presents red bumps. The skin, that is, at the point where the phenomenon occurs, is raised and red.
A "Saint" against the communists
Athanasia would have been a picturesque presence in Manolada, let alone in Amaliada where her uncle Giorgos Kintos took her with her, if he did not pay attention to her and "legitimize" her in the Christ-named crowd, which began to flock outside the house of the young shepherdess , the Metropolitan of Ilia himself, a German. Together with the commander of the gendarmerie and other representatives of the official authorities. We are now in 1948 and in the war against the godless communists ... the holy and the faithful are enlisted. Why not Immortality?
First, the confirmation that "he is indeed talking with the Virgin Mary" from the most respected metropolitan who, as the newspaper "Patris" of the Tower wrote, "after Samari stayed around ten minutes, leaving the room moved , apparently from the narration of the shocking details of the apparition of the Virgin" and then something else, more exciting, with a deeper meaning.
Germanos explains to the crowd that "Repeatedly the Mother of God has appeared to devout Christians and urges people to repentance with prayers".
Athanasia leads the litany that follows. At the head is the Metropolitan, the other hierarchs of the region, "the Mayor, the Municipal Council, Judges, Doctors, Lawyers and together the people of the city and the villages... With the appearance of the young woman, new shivers shake the pilgrims, which, being crossed, form a corridor for the lucky daughter to pass through" the good newspaper
informs usAs the official church blesses and accepts the "visions" of Athanasia, the "fortunate daughter" is also visited by the commander of the Gendarmerie of Pyrgos, Pournas. After a week Athanasia dies! At her house, shocked, the priests arrive again, the commander, who enter. Outside, the crowd mourns. Not for long. Athanasia will ... be resurrected and will tell that the Virgin Mary had taken her by the hand, led her to Kalavryta where they saw rebel prisoners being executed together. Theomitor, who loves the whole world, but not the communists, says to the budding "Saint":"Do you see my child? This is what happens to those who do not believe".
This, in fact. It is a miracle in its entirety. "When the soul returned to the body, the foundations of the house shook. Then the Virgin Mary asked for a glass of water, and immediately the little daughter said that the Virgin Mary had asked her for it. And indeed it was brought and the Virgin Mary drank half of it. The world saw the glass high in the sky and the water to decrease without being spilled" describes without anyone understanding what "Patrice" means. Does not matter. Below is the whole story:"When she came to her senses, the Governor of Pyrgos asked her and then she confessed to him about the massacre that was taking place in Kalavryta. And the Governor said:It is as you say"
The civil war ends, Athanasia is no longer useful, the noise stops and the little girl, who is slowly growing up, does various jobs to survive. In 1951 she will marry Spyros Kriketos and will move with him to Aegaleo. There where, at the urging of a friend, she returns more fiercely with the messages of the Virgin Mary.
After every Sunday service he appears with the wishes of the Virgin written on his chest. In her house, hell. Kosmos and Kosmakis run, only to be "crucified" by Athanasia, the woman who talks to Megalochari. They ask her for favors, give them money, jewels and start a gold business always "with the blessings of the Virgin Mary". The money begins to flow, as the (easy) believers are willing to give anything, even their backlog, as long as they secure the favor of the Magnificent. At the same time, it is her army that fills the courtrooms to defend her in the first complaint against her (1960).
"Stupidity not fraud"
"The Court is convinced that this is group stupidity and not fraud" declares the president of the A three-member misdemeanor court, acquitting Kriketou and essentially opening the way for the expansion and development of the business.
The illiterate shepherdess divorces her husband, moves to a bigger house, gets a mercedes and a driver, who will later become the treasurer of the association-company she founded. He is the same friend who had foreseen that the visions and written messages of the Virgin Mary in the breast of Athanasia were nothing but the hen laying the golden eggs. It is the time when he will be ordained a saint and will invent various patents to collect money.
At her house on Vardousion Street, which is slowly being transformed into a church, hundreds of her followers gather every day, with the association "Panagia i Faneromeni" in general command. In the summer of 1961, she sends invitations to aeronauts, parliamentarians, journalists, scientists and other interested parties, claiming that at 10 a.m. on Sunday, August 6, she would make announcements revealing what the divine power brought to her in her sleep.
The intervention of the gendarmerie sends Kriketou to the department, where "Agia" asks to speak only to the journalists. He declares that he will soon reveal the location in Aegaleo of the fountain with the miraculous water that (of course) only those who believe will drink and promises to establish an orphanage for the good Christian children. He will not build an orphanage, but a nursing home, as it is easier to extract assets, even pensions, from old men and women.
Athanasia's property is flourishing, well done to the Christians who think that the woman is talking to the Virgin Mary. After all, when he finds them dark from Judges or despots, he sends messages through the Virgin, who writes (always misspelled) on her breast among others and these beautiful ones:
- NO ONE WOULD BE ABLE TO JUDGE HER (at the 1960 trial)
- NO INNOCENT SOUL SHOULD BE ABUSED (again in 1960)
- FATHERS WELL AND WOE IF YOU DO NOT BELIEVE THE SAINT (a Despot from Kozani questions her sainthood)
- DON'T BE ANGRY DON'T LOSE MY GRACE. HE WHO WORKS ENJOYS (this particular message is addressed to laborers who were digging foundations for a church in her village and remain unpaid. When they dared to ask for daily wages, the ... Virgin Mary responded with a stern remark. He who works enjoys is eerily similar to work liberates who welcomed dying prisoners to Auschwitz)
- HELP ALL THE ORPHANS-One hundred okadas of oil (so we ... know what we will get)
- SOTIRI GAVE THE ESTATE TO ATHANASIAN (order to the archimandrite of Eleusis)
Supporting the junta
Her activity continues unhindered, the crowd that follows her grows, Immortality dominates thousands of people. The official church will react with a decision taken by the Holy Synod in November 1967. It blasts Immortality and practically hands over all the evidence against it to the authorities:. Having absolutely no spirituality, she presents herself as conversing with the Virgin Mary and receiving revelations other than God. Psychoneurotic, with manifest religious delusion, she calls herself "the light of the world". She proclaims that "those who believe in her will have their sins forgiven". . It threatens those who do not believe in it, with hell and such. It presents intense dermographism, a scientifically known disease and deceives and exploits the religious sentiment of simple Christians. It infects the whole of Attica.
She accumulates plenty of money and lives a lavish life, following her circle of blind followers. It therefore became a stumbling block for every right-thinking Christian. In order to protect the Christians from the action of Athanasia Kriketou in Agyr, the Holy Synod decided to place the file in the view of the competent authorities with the request that the written laws be applied and that there be no end to the scandalous activity of the Agyrti of Aigaleos".
Invited (!) by the expatriates of New York, Panagia takes a stand against the Royal Juntas, displaying on the breast of Athanasia the clear message:"GREECE OF GREEK CHRISTIANS - MY WILL".
Only, Agia is not such an easy opponent. The junta that has already emerged gives her the opportunity to make high-level acquaintances. He will get to know the dictator's protopalikars firsthand and when the failed movement of Constantine breaks out, he will take a stand.
Invited (!) by the expatriates of New York, Panagia takes a stand against the Royalist opposition, displaying on the breast of Athanasia the clear message:"GREECE OF GREEK CHRISTIANS - MY WILL". Somehow her relationship with the Archdiocese will begin to thaw (later, in 1980, it will be fully restored).
Meanwhile, business continues. In 1967, Dimitris Dimitrakopoulos wanted to donate a food store for the needs of the nursing home (which operates in Mantra Attica). However, since the union does not have the right to maintain such a business, the shop is written normally and by law in the name of "sister Athanasia".
In 1970, again after complaints, the Court of First Instance of Athens decided to dissolve the union, however high-ranking juntaians intervened and overturned the decision.
The photo with Laskaris
The fall of the dictatorship finds "Agia" continuing its action unhindered. Her loyal followers, in fact, are now even more useful since, among other things, they also vote. The ND MP and later Minister of Employment, Konstantinos Laskaris, was the first to realize this and became a patron of Cricket.
It is the period when, in his capacity as Minister, he submits the famous law 330, on "labor organizations and trade union freedoms", which found fierce resistance from the opposition parties and unions. In his introductory report, K. Laskaris underlines that the "exploitation of man by man" has been abolished and speaking to journalists he emphasizes that "we must not allow class struggle".
Class warfare is prohibited by the minister, handshakes and smiles with the "Saint" of Aegaleos are of course allowed. The photo published by Rizospastis, together with a list of the "famous" friends of Kriketos, causes a stir but also shows the power of the para-religious enterprise that started from clear charlatanism, but reached the point of being almost a state within a state in Western Attica.
In 1977 in the association's balance sheet one can read the income-expenses distribution. In the income, the amount of 5,019,063 drachmas from pensions (that is, the food money of the Nursing Home!) and 1,052,726 drachmas from donations is noted. The expenses amount to the overwhelming sum of 1,000 drachmas, for entertainment and excursions.
"Our Lady of Manifestation", with all due respect, could also be described as "Matsomeni", as the foundation's property includes factories, plots of land, shops, cheese factories, animals and estates that will later be cultivated (without payment, of course) by believers. Athanasia alone owns 46 properties.
The "Reporters" take her to the center
A series of broadcasts by "Reporters" (Giorgos Lianis, Kostas Hardavelas, Yiannis Dimaras) in the early 80s, created a lot of noise about its activities. The enormous size of her property is revealed, the way the nursing home operates (without a license and with inhumane living conditions), any "sanctity" of hers is questioned, regardless of whether the church has restored relations with her and allows the bishops to meet her.
He does not seem to be afraid even when an inquiry is made in parliament by four members of parliament and justice intervenes again. Prosecutor Theofanopoulos is prosecuting her for ongoing fraud against 21 people and a felony.
The trial will take place in 1986 and terrible things will be heard. An IKA inspector will testify that at the Mandra Nursing Home "the old and old women who could not move from their beds were watered with hypnotics. They were motionless and skeletal and waiting for death..."
The investigator Dimitris Kyritsakis (later deputy prosecutor of the Supreme Court) noted in his report that he had seen "bedridden and dying patients being given psychotropic drugs and not being allowed to get up from their beds. The doctors who had visited the nursing home in Mandra found old people with open wounds rotting in their rooms, while many of them suffered from angulation and depressive symptoms"
The prosecutor of the five-member appeals court, Giorgos Zorbas, suggests the guilt of Kriketou and her two associates, calling Athanasia "a dark person, who claimed to cure patients, living richly on other people's property, employing lies about communicating with the God". .
Acquittal by the five-member appeals court
On 12/3/1986, however, the court with a vote of 4-1 decides the acquittal of Athanasia, amidst celebrations by her followers who throughout the trial thumped the ... enemies of "Agia". The fraud, according to the judges, was not proven and Athanasia could raise a glass of water, drinking as the title of "Liberty" wrote in the "health of Justice".
She didn't go to court alone, after all. Two psychiatrists testified that her symptoms did not indicate dematography, but ideoplasia (which is scientifically unexplained), while her defense was undertaken by two distinguished lawyers. Professor Alexandros Katsantonis and Yiannis Papadogiannakis, later secretary general at the Ministry of Justice in the last government of Andreas Papandreou. Athanasia is deified, gets into a white Mercedes "like a Hollywood star and drives off" according to the papers.
It is said that at one time it had a fleet of taxis and the total assets of the institution are estimated at tens of millions of euros.
She is now free to deal with her business. Little by little he stops the messages of the Virgin (they don't need them, after all) he makes various investments, it is said that at one time he had a fleet of taxis and the total property of the foundation is estimated at tens of millions of euros. In recent years she suffered from repeated strokes and in February 2020 she breathed her last and left behind untold wealth.
... canonical Saint Athanasia, celebrated on April 18, lived in Aegina in the 9th century, married against her will twice (the first husband was killed by pirates). Before becoming a monk, she decided to distribute her wealth to the poor. Well, he didn't "talk" to Panagia either.