The Priest

Sunday after Sunday, in the whitewashed Greek Orthodox churches of the neighboring villages, priests delivered a warning--beware of those who would corrupt the church. But in tiny (pop. 220) Kyprianades, in the northern part of the sun-drenched Greek island of Corfu, Father John Costeletos, 45, kept silent. There was little need for him to talk: everyone in town knew that he and his affair with the 37-year-old Widow Theodora Pra had prompted all the other sermons in the first place. And so, one day, when his church bell rang for the congregation to gather, the people of Kyprianades wondered whether Father John might at last be ready to make public confession of his sin.

When they were settled, the priest appeared before them, tears streaming down his cheeks. Not only did he confess to the affair, but admitted that Theodora had borne him an infant daughter. Then, white-faced, he went on to describe how he had tried to strangle "the fruit of my sin" with his own hands. When the strength drained out of his hands, he had seized the belt of Theodora's cotton dress and wrapped it around the baby's neck until life was extinct. As Father John finished his tale and stumbled toward the door, his stunned congregation kept silent.

The priest disappeared inside his two-story house, and soon a crowd gathered around it. Finally, a window flew open, and there stood Father John clasping a small bottle in his hand. "Take it!" he cried, flinging it down. "Now you can laugh. Now you can gossip. I do not care any more. I have taken poison and am dying." When they got to him, he was already unconscious, and shortly he died.

In the eyes of the church he had committed his third sin, and the church refused to bury him. The people of Kypr-anades went further: they shaved off his beard just as if he were alive and had been unfrocked.

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