ABSTRACT
This chapter shows the double usage of Catholic or Orthodox churches and the embracing of different religious practices and new principal religious figures were reported by visitors on the Greek islands from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. It examines shared- or double-identity churches and more specifically highlight the: reasons behind such innovative practices, actual innovative elements in the architecture and art, indicating a parallel usage of the churches by both Orthodox and Catholics living in the Greek islands under Venetian domination, and related religious practices in and around these churches. Because under Venetian rule Orthodox clerics were placed under the authority of the Catholic Church, there was one Catholic bishop on the islands. The enforcement of the Gregorian calendar by the Catholic Church and Venetian State was the most radical innovation that shook the island communities under Venetian rule. However, Orthodox decorative arts are the architectural modifications of the churches that are the main visible legacy on the islands.
