After terrorizing his village, the Vrykolakas Vampire from Patmos in Santorini were taken to an inhabited island and set on fire. The question is, did it really work?
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 Merchant from Patmos
The story was relayed to the Jesuit Priest, by the abbot of the Greek Orthodox Monastery of Amourgo on an island not too far from Patmos, Santorini where the story is set.
A merchant from Patmos called Patino went on a business trip to Anatolia, the peninsula in West Asia that is mainly the land area of Turkey today. While he was there, he died, although the sources don’t say from what. They put him in a coffin and got him ready to be shipped home for his burial. When lifting him into the boat, one of the sailors on the ship was placed on top of it, and claimed he felt something move inside of the coffin.
He talked the other sailors to lift the lid of the coffin to check it out, and saw that his body was perfectly preserved, with no signs of decay. It doesn’t really say how long time had passed since his death though. According to the story, the sailors said nothing of what they had seen to his wife when they returned her husband.
The Merchant Returning as a Vrykolaka
His wife had him buried with full honors according to the story, so his transformation wasn’t because of anything with an improper burial as many vampiric stories allude to. He began appearing in houses in the area, violently assaulting people and causing damage. Fifteen people are said to have died after his beating, or just in pure terror.
Read Also: The Shoemaking Vrykolakas Vampire from Pyrgos Castle
Prayers and exorcisms were fruitless in stopping the haunting. Patino’s body was ordered sent back to Natolia, but the thoroughly spooked sailors charged with its transport stopped on the first island they passed and burned it, which ended the phenomena.
The same Jesuit priest notes elsewhere in his writings that vrykolakas were commonly thought to be unable to cross salt water by themselves, and they were often dispatched on uninhabited islands. Like on the island of Amourgo, where they were said to roam freely often in groups of five or six, feeding on raw green beans. Who knows, perhaps there is still someone roaming the sunny islands around Santorini?
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References:
Vampirólogos. Francois Richard
By Light Unseen – Vampires in Media and Culture
Greek Accounts of the Vrykolakas