On little planning and even lesser sleep, Jenna and I began our 14-hour journey at 6 am. We walked to the metro in Syntagma, took the sub-rail to Eleonas, and walked another 10 minutes to the Kifissos bus hub. We bought a round trip ticket to Megalopolis and discussed life and books over the 3.5 hour bus ride each way. Being that tourist season is over, the small town of Megalopolis was slow and quiet. We took a taxi over the mountain to Vasta to see the quiet miraculous church of St. Theodora.
The story of St. Theodora is of a young, pious girl who grew up in a poor Orthodox family in the ninth century. She so desired a life of virginity that she went to the only monastery in the area. The problem is that it was a men's monastery. She presented herself as a male and introduced herself to the abbot as Theodore. Theodora becomes an exceptional monastic, fully trustworthy, and takes on the labors of the male monastics with obedience. At a point when famine had taken over, the abbot asked her to go door to door of the Christian households and ask for bread. In one household there was a young girl that was secretly pregnant and accused Theodore of raping her in order to hide her shame. Many people from the village became infuriated and rushed to the monastery to take revenge on Theodore. Theodora takes her sentence with meekness, and like a lamb to the slaughter, she utters no word in her own defense. She is dragged to the village of Vasta and there is killed, likely by beheading. Before Theodora's martyrdom, she said this prayer: that her body becomes a temple, her hair trees, and her blood a stream of water. It is only then that the disguise is revealed, that she was a woman and not a man. The villagers mourn for their dreadful mistake and the abbot and monks of the monastery are left speechless.
Today there stands a chapel, a small stream flowing around it, and trees growing from it's roof with no sign of roots. To this day the church cannot be scientifically explained. You can read more about the science of it here.
