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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Weeping Icon Draws Thousands Tears Seen As Miracle, Warning Of Calamity

Associated Press

Thousands of pilgrims led by the head of Cyprus’ Greek Orthodox Church gathered Sunday at a mountain monastery to pray before an icon of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus that reportedly has begun to weep.

Many Greek Cypriots regard the 400-year-old icon’s tears both as a miracle and a sign from God that a major calamity is impending.

Monks at the 11th-century Kykko Monastery first reported last weekend that they noticed tears forming in the eyes of both the Virgin and Jesus and flowing slowly down the icon.

Hundreds of pilgrims have since traveled to the monastery, but Sunday’s congregation, estimated at 2,000, was by far the biggest in a single day. More than 20,000 stopped at the icon throughout the day, said Nikiforos, the monastery’s abbot.

Sunday’s pilgrims braved snowy weather to travel to Kykko Monastery, 60 miles southwest of Nicosia, to join Archbishop Chrysostomos in a supplication for forgiveness.

Chrysostomos is the head of the Mediterranean island’s Greek Orthodox Church. Wearing gold vestments and a heavy golden crown, he knelt before the icon to lead the congregation in prayer and to venerate the icon.

“We pray to you Holiest Virgin to save us from all evil and to support our just struggle for the liberation of our enslaved and occupied country,” the white-haired archbishop said while monks chanted Byzantine hymns.

The archbishop was referring to the Turkish occupation since 1974 of the northern third of the island. Turkey invaded Cyprus then, ostensibly to protect the small Turkish Cypriot minority in the wake of a failed coup by supporters of union with Greece.

Some 180,000 Greek Cypriots, or one-third of the island’s population, left their homes in northern Cyprus and fled to the south in the wake of the invasion. Some were forcibly expelled.

“We pray and beg you to assist our refugees to return to their homes and to enable them to pray once more in their abandoned churches which have been desecrated by the infidel invader,” the archbishop said.

Reports of such icon-related “miracles” are not uncommon in Cyprus and often attract hundreds of pilgrims. Icons occupy a special place in the lives of most Greek Cypriots, who keep them at their homes, in their cars and offices and even in their purses.

None of the pilgrims saw tears on Sunday, but some onlookers said they noticed a faint, reddish stain below the icon’s eyes.