REALITY or hoax? Visitors who have seen the Virgin Mary’s ‘tear tracks’ running down the 1,500-year-old icon in the church of Arakapas in the Limassol district are undecided.
But Father Demetrios, caretaker of the small but impressive 19th century church in the remote village, did not try to offer any explanation of the phenomenon yesterday.
“We should not try to explain the tears,” he told the Sunday Mail. “Our human minds cannot possibly comprehend such a phenomenon.”
Father Demetrios was the first to spot the ‘tears’ as he prepared for a Christmas morning service; he says they have been running on and off since then.
The icon is very old: it was brought to Cyprus from Constantinople in around the sixth or seventh centuries, to prevent its destruction. It was rolled up like a papyrus, wrapped in fig leaves to protect it from moisture.
It was later placed on wood and placed in the church where it has been ever since.
Limassol Bishop Athanassios visited the church this week, but was non-committal. He would say only that God loved humankind and would not try to hurt people.
No expert is understood to have seen or examined the icon, leaving the phenomenon open to speculation.
Some say the ‘tears’ could be the Virgin’s disapproval of the sinful lives people are living, or even tears joy at the restoration of peace in the Church of Cyprus after it was dragged through the mud earlier this year in a volley of accusations between the Limassol and Paphos Bishops and their supporters.
Sceptics say the ‘tears’ come from the wood on which the icon is mounted. But why they appear to come from the Virgin’s eyes no one can explain.
Father Demetrios says that many people, including Bishop Athanassios, have seen the tears flow on the icon “like rivers”.
Yesterday only the tracks of ‘tears’ could be seen. And apart from Father Demetrios, the church was empty, as a downpour of a more explainable kind kept people away.
The priest said yesterday that it was the third time this particular icon of the Virgin had been seen to weep. The previous times were in 1922 and 1974, he said, two years associated with the persecution of the Greeks of Asia Minor by Turkey and before the 1974 invasion of Cyprus.
Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos, however, has warned people not to be gullible, arguing that the ‘miracle’ could be serving personal interests.
“I have heard they are building a new church there,” he said this week.
Although there were no signs of any major construction work yesterday, it was obvious that the church’s exterior was being repaired.
The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.
