The Arkadi Monastery is one of Crete's most venerated symbols of
freedom. The defiant defence of this fortress-like monastery during
the 1866 Cretan rebellion against the Turks is still legendary and
inspirational. By the mid-1800's, the Turks had occupied Crete for
more than two centuries, despite frequent bloody uprisings by
Cretan rebels determined to win independence and union with Greece.
Then came the revolution of 1866, instigated by a 16 member
revolutionary committee. Arkadi Monastery became the rebels'
headquarters, owing to its central position on the island and
strategic location atop a craggy inland gorge.
When the Turkish Pasha in Rethymnon learned of the rebels
operating out of the monastery, he sent an ultimatum to Arkadi's
Abbot Gabriel Marinakis: either expel the revolutionary committee
or the monastery would be destroyed.
But Abbot Gabriel was himself acting as chairman of the
committee. He refused the Pasha's demand. The rebels began
preparing the monastery for the anticipated Turkish attack. At dawn
on November 8, 1866, the Arkadi defenders awoke to find the
monastery surrounded by 15,000 Turkish soldiers armed with 30
cannons. The monastery walls were manned by only 259 armed men,
including 45 monks and 12 of the 16 revolutionary committee
members. There were also almost 700 unarmed women and children from
nearby villages, seeking refuge from the encroaching Turks.
The Turkish commander's demand for surrender was answered by
gunfire. The battle was on.
Turkish troops stormed the monastery gate in waves and hundreds
were mown down by heavy fire from the defenders and from seven
Cretan snipers who had barricaded themselves in a windmill outside
the walls. As night fell on the first day of the battle, the fields
around the monastery were heaped with Turkish corpses. The snipers
had died one by one. But still the gate and walls held.
In the dark of the first night, the two Cretan rebels were
lowered by a rope from a window, dressed as Turks, to slip through
enemy lines and seek reinforcements from a nearby town. When it was
learned that no help was coming, one of the rebels crept back
through Turkish ranks to return to Arkadi.
The second day of battle broke with a bang, as the Turks opened
fire with two heavy artillery guns
they had dragged up the gorge from Rethymnon during the night.
As the walls and gate smashed
and crumbled under the incessant pounding of the shells, Abbot
Gabriel gathered the defenders into the Arkadi Chapel to receive
the last sacrament. The Abbot urged them to die bravely for their
cause and then went up to the walls to do so himself.
Aware that the Pasha had ordered him to be taken alive, Abbot
Gabriel showed himself on an unprotected terrace and opened fire on
the Turks. At first the Turks obeyed orders and did not shoot back.
But at last the big Abbot, standing in clear view in his black
flowing robes, blazing away at anything that moved, made too
inviting a target for one Turkish soldier.
A bullet caught Abbot Gabriel just above the navel and he fell
dead - but not before he had given his blessing to a desperate plan
hatched by an imposing rebel fighter named Konstantine Giaboudakis.
What the refugees at Arkadi feared more than death was to fall into
the hands of the Turks. So when Konstanine Giaboudakis presented
his plan to the defenders, it was unanimously approved.
Design of the Flag hoisted at the Arkadi Monastery during the
1866 Cretan Uprising, and preserved by Charikleia Daskalaki (*)
By the afternoon of the second day, the Turkish heavy artillery
had pulverized the outer walls. The defenders killed hundreds more
invaders, but the end was clearly near - ammunition was running low
and the gate was almost breached. As darkness fell, the Turks
launched a massive final assault, pouring through the gate into the
inner courtyard, where the rebels fought them hand to hand.
Meanwhile, Giaboudakis was preparing to carry out his plan. He
led more than 600 women and children into the monastery's gunpowder
storage room, where they said their prayers and waited until
hundreds of Turks were swarming over the roof and ramming away at
the bolted door. As the door splintered, Giaboudakis put a spark to
a gunpowder keg.
The massive explosion killed all the refugees, along with
several hundred Turkish soldiers. When the smoke cleared, 864
Cretan men, women and children lay dead, along with 1500 Turks. The
Turks took 114 prisoners whom they immediately put to death. Only 3
rebels managed to escape to tell the tale.
News of the slaughter at Arkadi Monastery, with the heavy loss
of women, children and clergymen shocked the rest of Europe and won
much support for the Cretan rebels' cause. In 1898, with help from
Greece and the Great Powers (England, France, Italy and Russia),
Crete won its independence and the Turks withdrew from the island,
which they had held since 1669. Then in 1913, the long-fought-for
goal was achieved and Crete was united with Greece.
Nur wenn man aufmerksam die Geschichte, die Kunst und das Leben
in den Klöstern und das orthodoxe Mönchstum studiert, kann die
Wichtigkeit, die Bedeutung und den Sinn verstehen, was diese Orte
und Institutionen für die Kirche und die Nation bedeuten.
Das in einer Höhenlage von ca. 500 m über dem Meer gelegene
Kloster Arkadi, ist eine imposante im Festungsstil erbaute Anlage,
in deren Zentrum sich die zweischiffige Klosterkirche befindet. Das
Kloster Arkadi wurde zu Beginn des 13. Jahrhunderts von einem Mönch
namens Arkadios gegründet, und seit Jahrhunderten brennt hier das
Licht des Glaubens und ebenso werden die Mönchstugenden
gepflegt.
Das Klster Arkade wurde während des kretischen Aufstandes von
1866 gegen die Türken in der ganzen Welt bekannt und zum Symbol für
Friheit, Selbstaufopferung und Heldentum erhoben.
Das Drama von Arkadi -der Holokaust- wurde zum Meilenstein der
Geschichte Griechenlands und der ganzen Welt, die ihren Verlauf und
Geschicke der Insel Kreta veränderte.
Aus all diesen Gründen sollte jeder Forscher und Pilger, aber
auch jeder einfache Freund und Bruder nicht versäumen, dem Kloster
Arkadi einen Besuch abzustatten, um sich wenigstens eine Weile hier
oben an diesem geographisch und historisch unvergleichlichen Stätte
zu verweilen, wo zugleich ein Ort der geistlichen Wiederbelebung
und des Gebets ist