Joseph Samakos

Venerable Joseph Samakos was a monk of the monastery of Saint John the Theologian at Candia (Heraklion), in Crete, born in 1440 and died on 22 January 1511. He is venerated by the Orthodox Church; our sources give no day of commemoration apart from the day of death.

He was born in Crete in 1440, in the village of Keramos, of a well-⁠to-⁠do family. The village of Keramos has been identified with the village of Azokeramos in Sitia, but Stergios Spanakis has pointed out that this village is not mentioned in the Venetian censuses. In the Venetian censuses of the sixteenth century a village named Keramos is mentioned in the province of Kainourio, near Kourtes, which Spanakis considers the birthplace of Samakos. From childhood he received his education from a monk-⁠teacher at the monastery of Saint John the Theologian. After his parents' death he distributed his property to the poor. Then he became a priest and went on pilgrimage to the Holy Places. He lived and laboured at the monastery of Saint John the Theologian at Candia in Crete. His life is marked by almsgiving to his fellow men.

He died at over 70 years of age, on 22 January 1511, and was buried in his monastery. His fame as a wonderworker was established when there were testimonies of the healing of the blind and the sick. At the exhumation of the relics, his body was found intact and is said to have given off a fragrance. It was placed in the katholikon of the monastery church. His relics were moved in 1669, when the Ottomans took Candia, to Zakynthos, specifically to the monastery of Saint John of Mantineios in Xerovounia. Since 1915 his relics have been in the church of the Pantokrator at Gaitani, in Zakynthos.