By John Sanidopoulos
While vacationing in Paris back in 2016, on my last full day before returning home, I decided to visit the famous Père Lachaise Cemetery, where you can visit many of the elaborate graves of well-known personalities from the past who died in Paris. Among the dozen or so that I eagerly wanted to see was that of Maria Callas, the renowned Greek-American opera singer. With map in hand, I visited each grave that I could locate, and the last on my list was that of Maria Callas. Hers was the most difficult to find, taking me about a good 45-minutes of searching. I finally found someone to ask, who pointed me to the location. I was told however that her body is not here, though it was originally, and what is merely left is a memorial. When I inquired as to what happened to her body, I was informed that she was cremated and her ashes were scattered in the Aegean Sea. Since cremation is typically frowned upon in the Greek Orthodox Church, it got me thinking as to whether or not she died an Orthodox Christian. That night in my hotel room I did a brief search on the internet about this, and found some interesting things scattered in various sources. I found it interesting enough to write something about it when I returned home.
