Real Miracles and Angel Visits - SIFNOS ,The Island of Miracles

On 21 OCT 07 Scott wrote BibleProbe.com:

I was reading your web site, and wanted to share this photo of a ANGEL WITH MY SON.    This picture was taken the afternoon before my son was to have surgery, at the time of the picture being taken, prayers were being said for his safe recovery, the photo has been tested for 2 years by photograph professionals, and churches, and has been found to be 100% real. my son is healthy and strong now thanks to this powerful servant of GOD.  

  THANKS  SCOTT  ROCKFORD MICHIGAN .

 SIFNOS ,The Island of Miracles

Once upon a time, fishermen offof the Greek island of Siphnos noticed a glow under the Aegean Sea. When theytrolled the spot they were amazed at what their nets brought up: a statue ofthe Virgin Mary.The fishermen brought the VirginMary icon to Chryssopigi, a small seventeenth-century monastery church onSiphnos located at the end of a spit of land jutting out into the sea. TheVirgin of the Golden Spring soon came to be regarded as the protector of theisland.The Virgin’s protective powerswere evidenced several years later when pirates, who regularly made lifemiserable for residents of islands in the Aegean, stormed the Siphnos shorechasing a group of nuns who were on their way to the Chryssopigi monastery. Thenuns prayed as they ran with the pirates close behind. As the nuns reached thechurch containing the Virgin there was a great rumble, the neck of landconnecting the church to the main island split open, and the pirates fell intothe sea.

And that’s how Siphnos came tobe known as The Island of Miracles.

Every year the Miracle of theVirgin is celebrated on Ascension Day, a movable feast that falls in late Mayor early June. On this day the icon leaves its home in Chryssopigi and is handcarried to the port of Kamares. Small churches on the island take turns withthe honor of caring for the icon along the way.From Kamares the icon begins itssymbolic journey home. A commercial ferry boat changes its route on this oneday in order to bring the icon back to Chryssopigi. The ferry also carries acoterie of church dignitaries in long colorful robes.When the icon is returned it iswelcomed back by a majority of Siphnos’s 2000 residents, old men and women inblack, young children in their best clothes, wealthy Athenians and a smallhandful of tourists. The crowd gathers on the bridge that today connectsChryssopigi to the south end of Siphnos. Blue and white pennants wave fromlines strung from church roof to surrounding walls. Flowers frame the church’sdoorway. The aroma of baked lentils creeps out of the narrow dining room.

The whole of Ascension Day takeson a vibe that’s a mix of a family reunion, celebrity-watching and a festival. Theday ends with an all-night feast and drinking party—Greeks take their religionseriously, but not solemnly.

During the rest of the yearSiphnos (often spelled “Sifnos”) is much more quiet and laid-back. To enjoy thepeaceful island at its best arrive between September and June. In July andAugust the pensiones and small hotels are filled.

More than 300 churches, chapelsand monasteries dot the island, some so small they hold only one person at atime. The white-washed chapels with bright blue doors decorate the pastures androcky hillsides like snowy linen handkerchiefs dropped by a passerby.

Although the island’s roadnetwork reached the last of the isolated seacoast fishing villages twenty yearsago, walking is still the best way to experience the island. For a true Siphnosexperience stop by the small tourist office by the ferry boat landing, buy oneof their excellent Siphnos walking path maps, and set out by foot to explorethe Island of Miracles.