After a man died before atoning for his crimes, he came back from the dead as a vampiric Vrykolakas when his wife failed to follow his final wishes. What followed was a month full of terror and haunting.
Perhaps the sunny Santorini is not the place people think vampire-like creatures roamed, although history would tell you otherwise.
Read More: Check out all ghostly tales from Greece
From the text from a French priest, we have some of the oldest stories of the vampiric Vrykolakas from Greek folklore documented in writing. One of them being the tale of a merchant from Patmos called Patino.
The Atoning Vrykola
One of the stories we have written down from a Jesuit priest came from the cousin of a man who had died on Santorini. He was known as a usurer and money lender named Lanettis. He is also sometimes given the last name Anapliotis. Lanettis reformed in the last year of his life and started to make amends to the people he had wronged. When he died he asked his wife to pay his remaining debts, and rectify his wrongdoings if the people came to her.
Read Also: The Shoemaking Vrykolakas Vampire from Pyrgos Castle
She ended up not adhering to his final wishes though. Instead, she spent the money meant as alms on people she liked, not those in need. Lanettis began haunting his village six weeks after his death as something between a vampiric monster and a revenant ghost.
Almost like a poltergeist, Lanettis started terrorising the villagers. But as a Vrykolas, as the Greek knew these types of the returned dead as.
Read More: The Vrykolakas Vampire in Patmos
He was known to be yanking the bedclothes off of sleeping people, waking up the priests for matins, emptying wine kegs, and generally abusing and terrorizing people. It seemed to not be targeted toward any particular person, and everyone could become a target.
He visited the Mother Prioress of a Dominican convent, awakened her by rolling her rosary on the floor, jeered at her prayers. She spat in his face and asked what he wanted. as a parting joke, threw her shoes into the water cistern. Simply praying the ghost away would do no good.
Exhuming and Exorcising a Vrykola
This haunting went on for around a month. His wishes to atone in his life had turned into terrorising more people in his afterlife. After a woman lost her speech for three days after encountering him, the villagers gathered up the courage to go to his wife, trying to make her do the right thing and comply with her husband’s final wishes.
This was not enough however, certain rites had to be done to make sure he strayed in his grave. His body was exhumed, and examined. According to the story, his body didn’t really show signs of being undead, and was badly decayed. Just for good measure though, he was exorcised for an entire day with prayers before being dismembered before he once again was buried. This happened not only once, but twice, and he didn’t stop his haunting until his wife repaid his debt back to everyone to atone for his sins in life.
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References:
Vampirólogos. Francois Richard
By Light Unseen – Vampires in Media and Culture
Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas
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