The Feast of Saint Spyridon at Corfu
Corfu keeps the feast of its patron Saint Spyridon on 12 December, when the saint's relic is taken from its Vienna-made silver reliquary and set upright at the door of his shrine for three days of round-the-clock veneration.
The Feast of Saint Spyridon is Corfu’s annual celebration of its patron, held on 12 December at the Church of Saint Spyridon in Corfu Town; in 2026 it falls on a Saturday. Spyridon, a fourth-century bishop of Trimythous in Cyprus, has been the island’s protector since 1456, when his relics reached Corfu from Constantinople after the city’s fall.
The church that keeps the relic was raised in 1589 by the Voulgaris family, into whose keeping the saint had passed, and the body reposes to the right of the sanctuary in a silver reliquary made in Vienna in 1867. The shrine has been recognised since 1967, by presidential decree, as the Holy Pilgrimage of Saint Spyridon of Corfu, a legal entity under public law.
The observance runs across three days. On its eve the relic is taken from the reliquary at a Service of Supplication and set upright at the entrance of the shrine, in the position tradition knows as “at the door”. It remains standing there through the feast, and the church stays open day and night for veneration; Metropolitan Nektarios of Corfu, Paxoi and the Diapontian Islands presides at the services.
The four great litanies of Corfu, in which the relic is carried upright through the lanes of the old town, fall on other dates: Palm Sunday, Holy Saturday, 11 August and the first Sunday of November, each commemorating a recorded deliverance of the island. By tradition the silk slippers on the saint’s feet are replaced each year at the feast; the faithful hold that Spyridon wears them out on his travels.