Agia (Saint) Anastasia
Saint Anastasia ‘Farmakolitria’ (: somebody who uses medicine to heal wounds) is annually celebrated on the 22nd of December. According to tradition, there is an interesting story behind the name ‘Farmakolitria’: during the dark times of Christians’ persecutions (in around 3rd century), Saint Anastasia, and before she became a martyr herself, used to fearlessly visit the Christians’ prison cells and take care of their wounds by using several ointments and healing cures.
The church is located at the same alley that leads to Saint Alexandros’ church (you will find the alley by following the road that leads to the Castle in, around, 1klm before the Castle, on your left). It is an imposing, stone-built church, surrounded by lush trees.
Furthermore, Alexandros Papadiamantis, Skiathos’ greatest novelist, in one of his novels, specifically refers to his visit to this majestic -yet, desolated- small church. He describes his wandering around Skiathos’ countryside, as well as his meeting with his cousin ‘Maxoula’, whom he had not seen for almost 20 years. In fact, the writer thoroughly describes a particular incident from his past, in which Maxoula performs a peculiar ritual inside Saint Anastasia’s church, so as to “free” her son from the love’s “magic” that has trapped him. By carefully reading his novel, in which Papadiamantis himself is the protagonist, we immediately identify his intense passion, a passion from which he cannot/won’t escape. The story’s hero seeks refuge inside the Saint’s Farmakolitria’s church as, according to tradition, the saint held the power to “save” everyone from the magical “power of love”, as long as they girdled the church, seven times, using a rope made of authentic wax!
