THE HOLY WEEK

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    MEETING OF THE EPITAPHS ON GOOD FRIDAY
    On Good Friday evening at 9 PM, the Grand Procession of 5 Historic Epitaphs from churches in the center of Thessaloniki takes place. The event is held at Aristotle Square, where the 5 epitaphs arrive in a procession accompanied by crowds of faithful, philharmonic bands, chanters, and priests. The epitaphs belong to the churches of:

    • Hagia Sophia (Of God’s Wisdom)

    • Saint Gregory Palamas

    • Panagia Chalkeon (Virgin Mary of the Coppersmiths)

    • Saint Theodora

    • Saint Nicholas of the Tranos

    GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE EPITAPHIOS
    From the beginning of the second millennium AD, the Byzantine Empire saw a cultural shift toward antiquity with a focus on humanity—an early “humanism” before the Western Renaissance. This shift also influenced the Church. The tradition of lamentation around the dead Christ emerged, marked by hymns emphasizing not Christ’s divinity but the Virgin Mary’s human and heartrending grief. One of Good Friday’s hymns, considered by scholars among the finest in world literature, is the well-known:     “O my sweet Spring, my sweetest child, where has your beauty vanished?”

    Church embroideries began depicting this deeply human scene of maternal mourning, known today as the Epitaphios. The world’s most exquisite embroidered Epitaphios, crafted in 14th-century Thessaloniki, is housed in the city’s Museum of Byzantine Culture.

    In Byzantine tradition, the embroidered Epitaphios was carried in procession. During Ottoman rule, it was placed on a flower-adorned wooden bier (kouvouklion), a practice unique to Greek-speaking churches, likely due to Greeks constructing the original bier at Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre (destroyed by fire in 1808). This ritual echoes ancient Greek Adonis worship, where his flower-decked corpse was paraded in spring—a cultural continuity spanning millennia.



    CHURCH OF HAGIA SOPHIA (OF GOD’S WISDOM)
    This UNESCO World Heritage Site, one of Thessaloniki’s oldest and most significant churches, remains the city’s Metropolitan Cathedral. Built in the mid-7th century atop a ruined Paleo-Christian basilica (likely destroyed by an earthquake), it was originally named for Saint Mark but rededicated to Christ as     Hagia Sophia (“Divine Wisdom”), mirroring Constantinople’s famed counterpart. It served as the city’s metropolitan church until 1524, when it became a mosque. After a fire in 1890, restorations by Byzantinist Charles Diehl revealed a stunning 9th-century mosaic of Christ’s Ascension in its dome.



    CHURCH OF PANAGIA CHALKEON (VIRGIN MARY OF THE COPPERSMITHS)
    This 11th-century Byzantine church, also a UNESCO site, lies near Aristotle Square under Thessaloniki’s ancient Roman agora. Named for the coppersmiths (    chalkeis) who historically worked here, it was founded in 1028 by protospatharios Christophoros, a Byzantine official. A classic cross-in-square domed church of the Macedonian Dynasty, it reflects architectural trends of Constantinople. Christophoros’s tomb likely lies within its vaulted chamber.



    CHURCH OF SAINT NICHOLAS OF THE TRANOS
    Once located on Mitropoleos Gennadiou Street, the original church was destroyed in the 1917 fire. Rebuilt in 1935 as a dependency of Saint Theodora’s Monastery, today’s small church is a hidden oasis in the city center.



    MONASTERY OF SAINT THEODORA
    Located on Ermou Street, this monastery was originally dedicated to Saint Stephen. Theodora, a 25-year-old noblewoman from Aegina, became a nun here with her daughter Theopisti. After her death, miracles and myrrh streaming from her relics transformed it into a major pilgrimage site. Despite Ottoman conquests in 1430, the monastery survived under the protection of Mara Branković (stepmother of Mehmed the Conqueror). It housed 200 nuns until fires in 1890 and 1917 destroyed much of it, sparing only its 18th-century bell tower. Rebuilt in 1935, it now hosts the Center for Hagiographic Studies (since 1981).



    METROPOLITAN CHURCH OF SAINT GREGORY PALAMAS
    Dedicated to the 14th-century Archbishop of Thessaloniki, this church replaced a 15th-century Saint Demetrios church destroyed in the 1890 fire. Designed by Ernst Ziller and completed by Xenophon Paionidis in 1914, it blends Byzantine elements with eclectic architecture, notable as the first post-Ottoman church in Thessaloniki with a dome (previously banned for Christian buildings). Its frescoes, painted by Nikos Kessanlis, were redone post-1978 earthquake. The church houses Saint Gregory’s relics and a crypt beneath its altar, now an exhibition space on the Macedonian Struggle.