THE MIRACLE OF SAINT PARASKEVI
THE MIRACLE OF SAINT PARASKEVI
Description
One night, the evening of the festival of Saint Paraskevi, Giannis Badanis is driving in Naxos. Through the wind and the darkness, he hears voices from the sea, calling for help.
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Credits
Field Reporter
- Euthymia Papagiannopoulou
Interviewee
- Giannhs Mpardanhs
Sound Designer
- Nikolas Kwnstantinou
Sound Editor
- Dhmhtrhs Papadakhs
Video Director
- Giwrgos Athanasiou
My name is Giannis Bardànis. I worked at the Public Power Company in Amorgos, but in the summers, I came here to Kleidos, in Naxos.
It was ‘89 around the eve of the feast of Agia Paraskevi. Every year, they have a bazaar in honour of Agia Paraskevi, the local saint and, that year, I wanted to go. The weather was a little bad. I have a caïque and a small inflatable dinghy, but, because it was a little stormy, and I didn’t want to get wet and go straight to church from the caïque and have to change and all the rest of it, I decided to go by ferry. I got in my car to head to the town and get on the boat to be at Agia Paraskevi on time. However, I couldn’t stop or be delayed, I couldn’t talk to anyone until I got to town and made it to the boat, because I left Kleidos a little late.
There was a boy on the road about a kilometre from here, from my home. I stopped to hear what he was saying, despite having decided to not stop anywhere. He was shouting that someone was calling for help from the sea. It was night, of course, and it was windy, so I said to him: ‘Are you sure he was calling from the sea?’ ‘Yes’, he replied, ‘from the sea. Someone’s been calling for help for about an hour now.’ I went back and got into the caïque. The child asked: ‘Do you want me to come, too?’ And I replied: ‘Come on.’
I took the boat and left immediately. I headed out into the open sea and turned in the general direction of where the voices had been heard. I held the tiller steady between my legs; the boy was at the bow keeping a lookout.
After about two miles, I found myself between two people who could not swim because one didn’t know how and the other had something wrong with him. I stopped and I shouted: ‘Come over here!’ One of them said: ‘Forget about us! Go find my wife!’ ‘I find two people in the middle of the night, who you wouldn’t be able to find in the... And you want me to go find your wife? What are you talking about?’, I shouted, ‘Get over here!’. But nothing. They weren’t coming.
I got closer and grabbed them. I got them on board, together with the boy who was with me, we pulled them onto the caïque. The one of them didn’t speak, he didn’t... Although I kept asking him, I never got an answer. I gave him a couple of slaps to maybe bring him round... Nothing. Because I’ve done lifesaving, I understood what was happening, so, I said: ‘Give me a sign with your finger, give me a sign with your eyes!’ Nothing. He couldn’t give me any kind of signal. ‘How many of you are there? Two? Three?’ No answer. I asked the woman’s husband. I said to him: ‘What direction did you hear your wife shouting from?’ And he says: ‘Over there.’ I turned in the opposite direction to what he said, because I know that someone in shock gets things wrong. And he shouts: ‘Not that way, my wife is over there! She shouted at me, “I’m going to drown. Look after the children!”’. And I turned in the opposite direction.
And, in fact, we went for about half a mile, and without me doing anything else, without... I was suddenly in front of what looked like a drowned woman. I saw something white in the waves, which didn’t break like a wave does. A wave came, and you could see the white cap of the wave, but that broke, this didn’t, so I guessed it must be her.
I got a little closer and said to the boy who was with me: ‘Do you see her?’ He said: ‘No!’ And I replied: ‘Use the binoculars!’ He scanned right and left, ‘Yes, I see her!’ he said. I stayed at a distance so as not to create a cross current, for her to swallow her last gulp and sink before we reached her. And he says: ‘Should I dive in?’ And I replied: ‘Dive.’
So, he does, gets close to her, and goes to take hold of her, and I shout: ‘No! Don’t get hold of her!’ I said, ‘Dimitri, grab her by the hair, hold her there, and I’ll come over. Don’t do anything else, just hold her by the hair.’
So, he held her by the hair, I got closer, held out my hands, and took hold of her arms from underneath. I said: ‘Now help me to...’ ‘I can’t do anything to help’, he said, ‘I can’t move.’ He was in shock. Anyway, after a struggle, I managed to get her onto the boat and get him onto the boat, because he couldn’t climb aboard and I had to help him, as well.
I got them sorted, lay them down. I did what you are supposed to do: kiss of life, heart compressions, but I also had to sail, regulate the speed, steer, and I also had to speak via VHF radio.
I got on the radio and called a guy in Koufonisi. I said: ‘Kosta, do you have a doctor there?’ He said: ‘Yes. What do you need?’ I said: ‘I’ve picked up a drowned woman, and she might survive if there’s a doctor.’ As soon as he heard ‘drowned’, her husband got up, screamed, pushed the boy I had with me, and went to jump into the sea, breaking the VHF antenna. I was now without a radio, so I decided that I had no choice but to go to our harbour, for them to take her to the health centre. I carried on with the heart compression and the kiss of life; I also had to keep an eye out: it was night...
At some point, I heard her moan, she made something like a moan. And I thought, ‘OK, if she did that, she’ll survive.’ I massaged really hard, breathed into her mouth with force, put my ear to her face, and understood that there was a moan, and I thought, ‘OK, she’ll survive.’
I came into the harbour at speed, and jumped onto the sand and shouted: ‘Everyone, get over here.’ I told my brother, who knows about compressions from having sheep and goats: ‘Keep up the compressions and keep giving her air until she gets out the last drop of water and take all three of them to the health centre.
I called Apeiranthos, where there is a doctor, to go and examine them. I called the doctor and she said: ‘She’ll not make it.’ And I replied: ‘No way, Doctor, that’s not possible. She could have been in the water an hour, but I know you have two and a half hours leeway when there’s a drowning, when you are drowned. She’ll make it!’ ‘No,’ she said, ‘she’s not going to make it.’
They went down to the health centre... And, in fact, in two days, she was in the health centre for two days, then she came out and was fine.
The guy who had the boat had taken them fishing with him, without them having the faintest idea about boats, the sea, anything. While they were fishing, it was a little windy, and they took on some water. He went to bail it out, and without him knowing, the other guy—now, this is a Chris Craft, you know, with a heavy engine at the back—went to help him, capsized the boat and they were thrown into the sea.
Sometimes, when we got together in Athens for them to take me out for dinner, and we went to the sea to eat, the captain, the owner of the boat, once we’d finished, took his glass and his chair, and went to sit on the pier and just look out to sea, like this. And his wife said: ‘This happens whenever he’s near the sea. He takes a drink and a chair and goes and sits, looking at the sea.’
This is the thing: when I sat down to think about all this, I realised, that, without me really trying, I kind of just came across them; I mean the two men and then the woman. It’s unbelievable! Without doing anything, with the tiller between your legs, do you just come across two people out at sea? No, you do not. Nobody will believe it, whoever you tell it to. It was something like, I mean, like someone was guiding me. In fact, I believe it was Agia Paraskevi, St Paraskevi; she was guiding the boat. Because I did nothing to... I just sat still as a statue, with the tiller between my legs, and that brought me to two people.
I believed the woman would live. I thought there’s no way. If Agia Paraskevi helped us to find her, she didn’t help us find her for her to die. I believed that she would live.
I think that was the only year that I didn’t get to Agia Paraskevi. It was… It was a significant day, and, when I went the second year after I’d left and gone to Amorgos, we went by caïque, and, because I passed by that area, I remembered all this, and I went to Agia Paraskevi, and I lit a candle.