The Snakes Who Fought Pirates & Then Became Religious
A world-wonder you likely haven’t heard of — these snakes put even the most spiritual to shame!
Greece is known for its beautiful scenery, stunning white island homes, music, and delicious grilled meats. It’s also home to some very unusual animals — religious snakes with a penchant for attending church!
Kefalonia, the largest of the Ionian islands, is known to be a bit eccentric. It’s famous for its white Robola whine, the Melissani cave lake, a geological water phenomenon known as Kathavrathes, and a beach with white pebbles! It also has a very rich and interesting wildlife — sheeps and goats with golden teeth (that I discuss here), endangered sea turtles, and the subject of this story — religious snakes! So this is not just any island but a rather peculiar one that defiantly deserves to be added to your must visit travel bucket list.
Dormition Holiday
Now before we can get into the fun juciy part about these snakes, there is some important background information to help you better understand the importance of this occurrence. There is a holiday called the Dormition of the Virgin Mary which celebrates the falling asleep of the Mother of God. The holiday is celebrated on August 15th, while from August 5–15th, the believers hold an vegan fast abstaining from animal products to prepare for the celebration of this feast.
Holidays and feast-days aren’t unusual, especially not in Greece. But their visitors can be! Every year, small snakes appear in Kefalonia, at the monastery of Panagia of Langouvarda. For the non-Greek speakers, Panagia is one of the two greek names for the Virgin Mary. Her other name is Theotokos.
This monastery Langouvarda is named after the Virgin Mary after she miraculously saved nuns of that monastery who petitioned her to save them from a great looming danger. The miracle and the unusual history around this event, is aften referenced as the Holy Snakes.
Pirates of the Meditarrenan
Once upon a time, back in 1705, a group of nuns were living in the Langouvarda monastery. On one horrible day, they saw a pirate ship quickly approaching their village.
Although it sounds strange to us, it was not unusual to see pirates in this region or time period. This area of Greece was under rule of Venetians who were having a pretty bad fortune, since the Ottoman Empire declared war on Venice.
So Venetians and their ruled lands, were at the time heavily targeted and attacked by Ottoman pirates. The pirates were led none other then by the famous Barbarossa brothers, known as the Pirate of the Algiers! No this is not the same Barbarosa in which Willie Neslon played a part in the film. The pirate attacks stretched for over 200 years, from 1500’s to 1700’s. This event was towards the end of the pirates reign in the area of Kefalonia.
Danger Looming
The pirates back then were known to attack, plunger, and abuse/rape people they come across in their vandalistic journeys. The area where the nuns resided is very small and the land around them quite open. They didn’t see the pirate ship early enough for it to give them enough time to escape by fleeing. Instead, they decided to remain hiding in the monastery and to pray to the Virgin Mary to protect them.
After all, the nuns only had locks, which could hold off the pirates but only temporarily as the pirates carried many weapons with them. The women gathered together in fear, and prayed on their knees to the Virgin Mary to save them from sure destruction, physical assault, and likely death.
As they prayed, they heard the pirates approaching closer and closer so they increased their prayer. Suddenly, they heard the men screaming and running away.
Motherly Intercession
They were very confused by this, especially when seeing the pirates go back to their ships and depart. The nuns walked out and in shock suddenly realized they are surrounded by an unlikely army of slithering snakes. This was quite unusual as they had never seen snakes around there before, and certainly not a whole sea of snakes that had now appeared!
The pirates were afraid and retreated upon finding the many snakes both leading up to and inside of the monastery. It appeared to them that the place must have been abandondoned, since there was such a snake infestation. They didn’t want to risk getting bitten by what may or may not be poisonous snakes, just to steal some valuables.
And using and wasting their weapons to kill off the tons of snakes was a waste of their resources and time. So they agreed to leave. Shortly after the pirates left, so too did the snakes. They turned around and went out into the wilderness and disappeared in the forest without harming any of the nuns. The nuns rejoiced greatly and thanked the Virgin Mary for her loving and clever use of God’s creation which both acted as heros to the nuns and friends to the pirates, whom they didn’t harm.
An Unlikely Family Reunion
When all was said and done, one would think the nuns and the snakes had bed each other adieu forever. However, the snakes had other plans.
After the incident, every year in that same Kefalonian village of Markopoulo and in that same monastery, on the day of the holiday of the Dormition of Virgin Mary, a strange group of parishioners appear — the snakes!
A group of snakes appeared one year, came to this monastery and climbed up the the icon of Virgin Mary and stayed there. Like a pet who rests next to their owner. They remained on the icon for the entire duration of the liturgy, as if this was something normal for any animal to do. Then after the liturgy had finished, they started retreating back to the wilderness. This same scenario repeated every year following, and it has not stopped since! It became like an unlikey family reunion day.
Now, one might think these are some snake nomads that just wonder in and out of places year round so they just happened to waltz into a church. Except for that the rest of the entire year, they are gone and hide in the forest and none of the locals see or run into them except the hunters who see them very deep in the forests.
Snake Parishoners
The snakes only come out on August 15th, which is the feast of the Virgin Mary. It’s a bit too coincidental. Another peculiar thing about them is that the snakes have a pattern on their head that resembles a small cross and their tongues are also in the shape of a cross. They even dress the part for the liturgy service, which is more than can be said for their human counterparts who don’t always dress appropriately for church!
The snakes appear meak and cuddly during the feast. They show no fear while the services are held and are harmless during the service. However, after the liturgy on August 15th, they become hostile and aggressive. Post litergy, they disappear back into the wilderness, not to be found until the following year. People, even children, play with them. The parishoners often put the snakes on their shoulders, hands, head in uter amazement of their changed tame nature. There have been no incidents of bites or anything of that sort.
Scary Omen
Historically, the snakes of the Virgin Mary have only failed to appear twice and both times their absence was catastrophic. The first time they didn’t appear was in 1940, shortly before the outbreak of World War II. The second time was in August of 1953, when Kefalonia suffered a tremendously destructive earthquake. Thus, it is believed to be a bad omen if the snakes miss their annual church service. The church was nicknamed “Panagia Fidousa ” by the local people, which in Greek means “Virgin Mary of the Snakes” .
About the Snakes
These snakes are small and unlike most snakes, their skin is velvety to the touch. They seem to be unafraid of humans and are considered very friendly.
Scientifically, these ‘spiritual snakes’ are known to belong to the Telescopus fallax species, also known as the European Cat Snake. Which is also an interesting name, since they do get very cuddly and wander all over the church, much how cats are cuddly and also climb on objects that they shouldn’t.
When coming to church, the multitude of snakes appear in and around the courtyard of the church, on the walls and on the bell tower and ofcourse on the main Virgin Mary icon. Believers also link this unusual phenomenon with Bible verses that speak about Virgin Mary crushing the snake/serpent and another Bible verse which mentions carrying snakes (Mark 16:18).
With times everything changes. The pirates have been reduced to a distant sounding cinematic fad. The Venetian Republic is no longer an empire. It is relatively unkown considering it was a big empire for so long. After 1,100 years as royalty, this empire dissolved and is rarley referenced. The Ottomans too, suffered a great loss and dissolvation after a succesuful 700 year reign.
Yet, three thing from this event still remain to this day: the monastery in question, the snakes, and the celebration & intervening of the Virgin Mary in times of danger.
Although the times have changed, one thing has not. The locals love and respect for the Mother of God, Virgin Mary, is still strong and they stil petition to her for help in hardships. What also survived and strenghtened is the love of these special snakes, who taught everyone how mysteriously wonderful all creation is.
What I particularly like about this unusual historical phenomenon, is that it made me appreciate snakes more, who I have an irrational fear and phobia of, and to realize how special all the animal species are and that we need to care for and protect all species as they all play an important part on our beautiful planet.
If you too, are not a snake fan, perhaps you can skip this holiday. But be sure to visit the monastery on any other days, for its stunning art and architecture, paired together with its stunning beautiful island and beach views.
