The relics of Agios Nikolaos, Archbishop of Myron of Lycia, in the I. N. of Agia Barbara

The opportunity to worship the holy relics of Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of Myron of Lycia, the inhabitants of the basin will have, in Holy Church of Agia Barbara.

The reception ceremony of the relics will take place on Sunday, April 14, at 7 pm, in front of the holy pilgrimage, located on the street (Eleftheriou Venizelou 42), in the presence of clergy and people.

• The holy relics of Agios Nikolaos and their “historical adventures”.

The honest relic of Agios Nikolaos, after he fell asleep, he was carried by the hands of Bishops and, with an honorable procession, he was placed in a special monument-sarcophagus in the temple of Myros in Lycia. Myrrh flowed from the saint’s relic, which cured mental and physical illnesses.

He writes characteristically Constantine the Porphyrogenitus (10th century) in his work “On Subjects”: “Behold the city of the Lycians, they smell it and the trisolvion, while the great Nikolaos, the healer of God, pours out the myrrh against the name of the city.”

In the year 1087 AD, during the reign of Emperor Alexios Komnenos (1081-1118 AD), the province of Lycia and the city of Myra suffered from the Agarines. That is why the monks, who ministered at the pilgrimage of the Saint, seem to consent under the state of fear to the proposal of “merchants” from Bari, Italy, who were actually Latin clergymen, to carry out the recovery of the holy relics that were finally stolen and moved to Bari. In the year 1100, the Venetians participating in the First Crusade, led by the son of the Doge of Venice, John Vitale Michiel and Enrico Contarini, Bishop of the Castello of Venice, deliberately ran aground on the coast of Lycia, in order to capture the remaining shrines relics of the Miraculous Saint of Myrrh which the “merchants” of Bari had in their haste neglected to capture. They took them along on the armed pilgrimage to the Holy Land and eventually brought them to Venice, where they were deposited in the Church of Saint Nicholas on the island of Lido. From Bari and Venice fragments of the holy relics have been transmuted to various countries and temples.

Fragments of the holy relics of Saint Nicholas are kept in the Holy Monastery of Saint Nicholas of Vathia, in the city of Rimini in Italy, in Germany, in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, the Archaeological Museum of Antalya, etc.

The holy relics – which we will receive – come from the preserved holy relics of Saint Nicholas in Bari, which were offered to the Archbishopric of Siena, as evidenced by the certificate of authenticity signed by the Archbishop of Siena Tiberio Borghese, in 1780.

• The church of Agios Nikolaos in Myra, Lycia

The city of Myron, which is located between the gulf of Makris and the gulf of Antalya, was one of the largest cities of Lycia. According to Stefanos Byzantios, its name was taken from the “myrrh”, a white flower, which is still found in the surrounding hills. In ancient times it was known as the “bright city” and was the seat of a Metropolis with 33 Bishoprics. The golden age of the Myrrhs is the 4th-7th centuries, when Hellenism flourished and Christianity triumphed.

The famous Church of Agios Nikolaos in Myra occupies a prominent place in the consciousness not only of the people of Asia Minor, but also of the entire Christian world, and even to this day. The basilica (church) is built on the foundations of an older early Christian church, in which the Saint served as Bishop. The church is considered by experts to be the third most important Byzantine building in Anatolia.

During the 5th or 6th century, a basilica was built on the site of the tomb, some relics of which were preserved from the north-west and south-east areas, where the sarcophagus with the saint’s relic was located.

This architectural masterpiece today is located approximately 10 meters below ground level. It is flanked to the north, west and south by a roofed P-shaped peristyle, which forms the narthex. In the Holy Vima, rises an imposing large pediment with 10 steps, the marble base of the Holy Altar and the ciborium with its four also marble columns.

During the 8th century, a new imposing temple was built, a three-aisled basilica with a dome, where most of the older buildings are included, especially those in the southeast area with the chapels.