Panagia Gremniotissa ( el, Παναγία η Γκρεμνιώτισσα) or Panagia Gremiotissa ( el, Παναγία η Γκρεμιώτισσα) is a Greek Orthodox church in

Ios iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

Legend

According to the legend, during the Ottoman occupation of

, some people in

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

afraid of the Ottomans wanting to protect their religion and its symbols put a religious image of

Panagia Panagia ( el, Παναγία, fem. of , + , the ''All-Holy'', or the ''Most Holy''; pronounced ) (also transliterated Panaghia or Panajia), in Medieval and Modern Greek, is one of the titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern ...

in a wooden raft with a candle on it with hopes that someone will find it and rescue the image. Later on, some Herder during a night noticed a light in Milopota's beach and found the raft and the image. Then, they took it and gave it to the church of Saint Nikolas. The next morning, according to the legend, the image mysteriously moved to the church of Saint Eleftherios in Palaiokastro. After the phenomenon was repeated three times, convinced by her miracles, the locals decided to build a church for the image, but every time they started building they found the bricks next to the Church of Saint Eleftherios. After that, the people of

decided to build the church in a place where

is visible, and people of all ages from all over the island got together and started building the church.

Name

The church, due to its high altitude as being almost on the top of Chora's cliff has the name Gremniotissa with means 'of the cliff', and

is the patron saint. All together literally means Virgin Mary of the Cliff.

References

{{Churches in Greece Ios Eastern Orthodox church buildings in Greece Churches completed in 1797