Snakes of Kefalonia

 This tradition fascinates me, the miracle snakes of the Virgin Mary, which appear around the 15th of August every summer on the island of Kefalonia.  

Kefalonia is one of the Ionion Islands near Corfu and Ithaki, home of Odysseus. 

These snakes have velvety skin they say, not hard and scaly and have a cross on their heads.  They are harmless and unafraid of humans, even friendly.

Photo from the internet 

If they don't appear some catastrophe or tragedy will befall the island and its people.  It has happened twice, they say.  August 1940 just before WW11 and occupation by Italian troops.  Think 'Captain Correlis Mandolin'.  As a side note, one of the most horrific massacres took place on the island in 1943 when Italy broke from Germany and the Axis powers.  The German Wehrmacht invaded, and in a bloody slaughter executed over 5,000 of the Italian troops on the island.

The 2nd time the snakes did not appear was August 1953.  Kefalonia suffered a devastating earthquake on August 12th of that year. 

The snakes appear every August near 2 chapels dedicated to the Virgin Mary.  The snakes crawl around the church and visitors can move among them, touch them, pick them up without harm.

This year on August 8th 3 snakes appeared at one chapel and a few more at the other.  Church bells pealed merrily to announce the arrival.  More will have turned up since then.  They disappear mysteriously after August 15th.

The Orthodox Church does not acknowledge the 'miracle'.  However it's a local tradition which brings thousands to the island, pilgrims and intrigued tourists.

It has all been commercialised of course and has turned into a massive fiesta, they say.  I visited Kefalonia, back in the summer of 1974 on my first trip to Greece, but not during this celebration.

How much is true and how much of the story has been embellished I don't know but it has turned into a colourful cultural tradition.  

**A comment from friend Judy reminded me that although we didn't see the snakes we did visit a Monastery to gawp at the mummified body of St Gerasimos.  Back then I knew nothing about the Orthodox religion and how to behave.  I was staying on Kefalonia with 2 friends and we read about the mummified body of the saint. We took a taxi to the monastery and it was just us and 2 nuns, and the taxi driver, in a huge church with the Saint lying in a glass coffin.  I don't know what we expected but it was creepy, a dried up corpse and a silent church. Most embarrassing.  We had no idea what to do. I don't think we even lit a candle. 

Greek Orthodox visitors would have been crossing themselves, kissing the glass over the dessicated body and saying a prayer  with great reverence.  We just stood there with the nuns looking on.  Heaven knows what they were thinking, watching 3 heathen tourists. 

I hope we were at least decently dressed