In an atmosphere filled with emotion but with simple ceremony, as befits her Doric style, she was buried today in Chiliomodi, Corinthia. Irini Papa.

A crowd of people gathered in the Church of St. George, inside and outside the temple, to say goodbye to the great actress, who passed away at the age of 96, for the last time.

Among them are Minister of Culture Lina Mendoni, Deputy Minister Nikos Tagaras, Head of the Department of Culture SYRIZA Sia Anagostopoulos, director Manousos Manousakis, set designer Dionisis Fotopoulos, actors Giorgos Vogiatzis, Nikos Verlekis and Ayas Mantopoulos, who was also the nephew of the deceased, but also many residents of Kiliomodio, where Irini Papa was born and lived almost to adulthood.

The funeral ended a little later, when the parishioners sang “Overmach stratego”, a hymn that Irini Papa sang with great courage in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, as well as “Oh my sweet ear”: “A hymn to your burial they offer, peace.”

The procession of the body of the great actress at the Kiliomodi cemetery began to the mourning ringing of bells and to the accompaniment of the Philharmonic of the municipality of Corinth.

Relatives, friends and hundreds of residents of Chiliomodi accompanied Irini Papa to her last residence, where she will rest from today.

There, at the family tomb of the Leleku family, Manousos Manousakis said goodbye to Irini Papa with a handful of earth, but also with the word that came from the lips of everyone and will always accompany her: “Immortal”.

Irini Papa: how women from her village remember her

“I was a student of her mother, she was a wonderful teacher. I knew Irini, I was a little blonde, and she took me in her arms, as she was a few years older than me, and curled my hair,” says Ms. Angelica, retired kindergarten teacher, APE-MPE.

She describes Irina as a “living being” and “an imposing personality”, the daughter of a strict and cultured teacher who, in order to temper his four daughters and only son, forced them to walk barefoot from the local monastery to the house. them in the village.

For her part, 25-year-old Eugenia, daughter of family friends of the Leleku family, as was Irini’s maiden name, speaks of a dynamic character who personally struggled to get an open-air theater in her homeland. “I admired her, she was a great woman,” he says.

Farewell Lina Mendoni

Those who said goodbye to Irini Papa at the end of the funeral procession also spoke of this mixture of ability and sensitivity.

Lina Mendoni spoke of the “Ambassador of Hellenism”.

“We met in 1999 when I took over as General Secretary of the Ministry of Culture. One of the first things he told me was to give ancient theaters for performances, as happened in Italy with the theaters of the Hellenistic period. He did not budge when someone present at the discussion remarked that the archaeologists would object. “You are an archaeologist too, convince them,” he insisted, said Lina Mendoni.

Ten years later, Irini Papa will return: “You’ve done well so far, but you still have a lot to do,” she told her.

“It’s impossible for me to talk about Irene in the past tense. You are always in our thoughts and hearts. My God, the world, ”Manusos Manousakis said emotionally at parting.

Source: RES-IPE