You went to Messolonghi
on the day of Christ,
the day the hills bloomed
for the child of God.

Dionysios Solomos,
“Hymn to Freedom” (1823)

It was Christmas Eve 1822. Messolonghi was surrounded by 11,000 Turkish soldiers under the leadership of Omer Vryonis who, together with Kioutahi, Hursit Pasha and Yusuf Pasha, besieged the Holy City by land and sea for two months.

In his tent, Omer Vryonis had gathered all the Pasha’s and the discussion was “on fire”.

The wet and bad weather of Messolonghi had decimated many soldiers, who were falling ill and dying.

Something had to be done. Kutahi, with vigor, argued that from the beginning they should attack and make the “giaouris” worship with the sword.

Omer Vryonis, who until that moment had been in favour of negotiations, agreed given the situation.

Besides, his informants were not correct either.

When in early November the Hydra ships, chasing away Yusuf Pasha’s fleet, reinforced the city with Greek chieftains and prostitutes from Mani, Kalavrita, Karytaina and Gastouni, together with ammunition and other supplies, Omer Vryonis had been informed that they had arrived to worship the Pasha and to turquoise.

He waited in vain for them to come.

Instead of the lords of Moria, a letter arrived from the Messolonghians saying: “If you want our land, come and take it”.

“Well, yeah, well! We’ll take him,” exclaimed the Pasha, and decided to attack before dawn, when the Christians would be in their churches.
Victory, according to them, is a given. But they had not calculated correctly. In the room was the Epirote Yannis Gounaris, whom Omer Vryonis had kept his children and his wife and had made him his subordinate.

His heart “tightened”. As much as he loved his beautiful wife, as much as he longed for his baby children, he could not bear to let the nation suffer such evil. At the first opportunity, he said he was going hunting and moved to the lake, alerting the besieged.

Christmas Eve 1822. The people of Messolonghi were preparing for the Birth of Christ. But not like every year. The churches, for the first time, would not open. The lads “awake” with their guns on the walls, the women and children pretending to celebrate and the bells ringing joyfully as if there were a mass.

At Christmas morning, the lagoon of Messolonghi was painted red with the blood of the Ottoman soldiers and the Pasades were leaving “humiliated” to return to Ioannina.

After the victory, everyone flooded the church of St. Spyridon, first singing the chant of victory and then decorating the sacred vaults of the church with nine flags, which they had captured.

All except Yannis Gounaris, who, mourning the loss of his family, dedicated the rest of his life to God. It is located in a cave above the chapel of Panagia Eleousa in the gorge of extraordinary beauty of Kleissoura, near Messolonghi.