by Michael Capsilis
My father is from Katavasis (the area where St. Matrona performed her ascesis). When I was in Chios an old man from my father's village told me about the time the church to St. Matrona was being built. Every day the villagers would work on the church, and every morning they would wake up and see that what they had built was up higher on the mound near the village and so not much was being accomplished. This went on many days, and the villagers stayed up to see what was happening during the night. They saw a woman dressed in black go and pick up their work brick by brick and move it up higher. They talked to her and she said, "This is where I performed my ascesis and this is where I want my church to be". So the villagers were forced to build the church there, but since it was a little too far from the village they built a second one later.