The Dormition at Ekatontapyliani

The feast of the Dormition at Panagia Ekatontapyliani is the principal religious observance of Paros, kept on 14 and 15 August at the church that stands a short walk from the harbour of Parikia, the island’s capital. Vespers on the eve closes with the procession of the Virgin’s epitaphios around the precinct of the Holy Pilgrimage; on the morning of the feast a hierarchal concelebrated liturgy is served, and in the afternoon the icon and the epitaphios are carried through the streets of Parikia and along its waterfront.

Ekatontapyliani is among the oldest and best-preserved Christian churches in Greece. Tradition attributes its founding in the 4th century to a vow of Saint Helen, mother of Constantine the Great, who put in at Paros on her voyage to the Holy Land; the building took its monumental form under Justinian in the 6th century. The name means the church of the hundred doors, and tradition counts 99 of them, holding that the hundredth remains hidden. The Holy Synod of the Church of Greece has designated the church a Pan-Hellenic Sacred Pilgrimage, its founding charter published in 1992, and a governing committee presided over by the Metropolitan of Paronaxia administers the shrine.

Faithful from across Greece reach the island for the feast, and thousands pass through the church on 15 August. After the afternoon procession the celebration moves to the town: a festival of island music, Parian wine and local dishes runs until the early hours, and fireworks are set off from the fishing boats in the bay of Parikia.