The only detailed account of the events of April 4th 1676 is found in the Chronicle of the Capuchins who were known for striking a deal with the pirates, particularly with Hugo de Crevelier. Since the Capuchin’s account is heavily biassed, we chose to base our story on the unsung heroes of the attack, two unnamed women of the Kastro who nursed the wounded pirates after the attack and later served as the first two Ursulines nuns, as well as the Jesuit monk Robert Saulger who opposed the Capuchin policy and spearheaded the counterattack against the pirates.
From the book Nikos A. Kefalliniadis – ‘The Sanudos’ Castle in Naxos Chora’:
“The Catholics of the Castle, in order to be able to better cope with the frequent raids of pirates during this period, decided to repair the walls and bastions of the castle of the city and build most of the doors and windows. So as we read in the Chronicle of the Capuchins:
1675 month of November arriving, they began the repair of the walls of the Castle and the erection of defences everywhere, they built in all the windows of the houses and a few low to the outside and all the doors outside, they left only the three common doors, the whole work was completed, month of January of the present year and the door of our garden was lastly closed with difficulty because of our resistance (p. 118)
One of the most fascinating pirate raids against Naxos is the one in 1676 when the Catholic Archbishop himself with the Jesuit monks armed with guns and swords attacked the pirates. Here is how the Chronicle describes this engagement:
‘1676. On this day, April second – Great Thursday about noon, the pirate Little Daniel arrived with a galley, and on Holy Saturday, April fourth, all the survivors landed, and five or six remained to guard the galley, And the rest of the people went forth, unarmed for the most part, to take the lambs and the meat, and the shepherds went out to the castle, but the Castrians, fearing lest they should pass the passover in fasting, fled and went out against the dispersed leventes (= gunner sailors or corsairs from the East)
The archbishop and the Jesuits exhorted them to this, and encouraged them, and stood at the head: the archbishop bearing a sword, and Robert the Jesuit with guns, urged them boldly to strike and fearlessly to assault them, because they were responsible for all these things in France and in Melito, and against the pirate Hugo Crevelierus, who bore the flag of the Gallicans. The rest of the Jesuits went armed, some with swords, some with swords, some with guns, and some with clubs, namely, Piperius, Peter, Francis, Charles, Thomas, and others, and they met only one Naxion, called Metaxius, by the temple of the Holy Ghost, which they slew and cut down. Koursakis Justinianus struck the first blow against him, and they struck another from Melita behind the garden of Scleros, which they slew with a sword. These two corpses were left unburied, and the dogs ate the liver and the heart of the first, after which they were buried in the field beyond the temple of the Holy Spirit.
They also arrested many others this day, whom, having abused and wounded, they brought to the castle, where they drove them to the castle, where they drove them to the house of the Jesuits of Calvary of Caecelia, where they called Daniel, on purpose to speak to him, But he, not wishing to go, took a promise that they would not molest him, but went to the monastery of the Jesuits, until the Castrians told all things to Creveliaer, who was in Parikia.
Wherefore the archbishop, Robert, and the Castrians, being assembled with the Jesuits, desired to go to Crevelier, but Robert would not go, fearing lest he should meet some on the way, and so the opinion of all being decided to write them, the archbishop and Robert wrote, and the next day, the fifth of April, the fifth day of Easter, the letter was received, but because the wind blew fiercely, they received no answer speedily, so that on the second day, the sixth of April, they delivered the pirate and his men, who returned to the galley, being reconciled to him, and having been bound and promised upon the gospel, that he should never again do any harm to the island of Naxos, from which he had suffered a calamity, and for this purpose the archbishop guaranteed.
On the eighth day of April, Wednesday, the bearer of the reply of Ugonus Crevelieros to the letter of the Castrians arrived, but the matter had been settled.’