Church of Agios Ioannis Prodromos in Katirli

The settlement of Katirli was small and could not afford a church. But the inhabitants longed to build one. On their initiative, without an appointed priest or prior approval from the Diocese of Thessaloniki, on August 29, 1932, they managed to celebrate the memory of St. John the Baptist in a brick building measuring 11 × 7 metres (118 × 75 feet). The construction of the building was considered illegal, but the “Association of Residents of the Neo Katirli Settlement” submitted a memorandum with two hundred signatures to the Minister General Governor of Macedonia requesting that the church not be demolished. In the memo, they stated that they would not burden the state financially because they would pay the priest themselves and that in the upcoming elections, the whole settlement would show its gratitude in practice. Finally, in November 1933, Agios Ioannis Prodromos became a parish church with the official approval of the Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs.