Fanuropita: How the custom of the “tracking machine” dessert came about and how it’s made

If you’ve lost something and can’t find it, don’t worry. There is an infallible method, tested over the centuries: you will bake a pie for the soul of the mother of Agios Fanourios.

This is exactly how the grandmothers-custodians of the institutions have always expressed it.

This is not a real pie with leaves etc., but a fragrant cake without eggs and butter, only with oil, so that it is fasting.

This preparation called fanuropita must contain seven or nine ingredients and while you prepare it you must have a candle lit.

In many places they burn incense even before they start.

The basic ingredients are oil, flour and sugar. Additionally, orange juice, walnuts, raisins, cinnamon cloves are added. In a recipe from Rhodes, instead of orange, they put semi-sweet wine and the result is also nice. In only one case, refugees from Cappadocia speak of a fanuropita anevati (that is, with yeast), flavored with anise instead of cinnamon cloves.

The ritual and history of Agios Fanourios

When the lantern pie is baked, the pious take it to the church to be read and then distribute it. First they must distribute at least seven pieces outside the church. The rest can be taken home to share with family members, neighbors and friends. In many churches there are chapels of Agios Fanourios, where every Monday lantern pies are read. Many don’t take them to church, they just hand them out. Before eating the piece, you must say three times: “God bless the mother of Ai Fanouris”.

All these folk rituals have nothing to do with the theological side of the matter. In the synaxari of the saint there is nothing that connects him with phenomena. He is even called Phanourios the Neophanis because he was unknown until the 14th – 15th centuries. Then, his icon was found in Rhodes (which is why he is the patron of the whole island). The saint is depicted in the uniform of a Roman soldier, young in age, holding a cross, the upper end of which is a lighted candle. His martyrdoms are painted all around the picture, but neither when he was martyred nor any information about his family is known. So the story that the saint had a sinful mother and, when you lay pie for the forgiveness of her soul, he reveals the lost objects to you is probably a folk legend with no evidence.

Gastronomos

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