THE DOCTOR of a paralysed man who got up and walked for the first time in a year in what is being claimed as a miracle said yesterday he had no other explanation for what had happened to Marios Stylianou on Saturday.
The miracle happened on the feast day of the Apostle Barnabas, when Stylianou visited the grave of the saint in the grounds of the monastery near occupied Famagusta.
According to reports, Stylianou, 40, arrived at the grave and within minutes stood up and began walking with the aid of people who were with him. The incident was captured on television cameras, which had accompanied worshippers to record the feast-day celebrations.
Stylianou later told reporters that some time ago he had had a dream where the Apostle Barnabas visited him and told him to write a book about his life. When it was finished, he was to visit the grave in the north and he would be able to walk again.
Stylianou lost the use of his legs over a year ago when he went to the UK for an operation for a slipped disc, which left him paralysed and in a wheelchair, his neurologist Michalis Protopapas said yesterday. He was told by all the experts that he would never walk again.
However, he decided to put his faith in his dream and did what the apostle asked. On Saturday, he visited the grave and he said when he got there he saw a vision of Barnabas approaching him, holding out his right hand to him.
He said he then felt a sensation like an electric shock and was raised out of his chair to stand on his own two feet.
Most people at the church that day believe they witnessed a miracle, although the Church, as a body, was being cautious.
However Dr Protopapas said yesterday he could not rule out that what had happened was in fact a miracle.
“He had cervical myelopathy,” Protopapas told the Cyprus Mail yesterday. “He was in a wheelchair.”
Asked if he thought it was a miracle, he said: “I don’t know what else to call it but it is something that I can’t explain,” he said.
Paphos Bishop Chrysostomos, who is acting head of the Church, said he believed in miracles and had witnessed miracles but he did not want to rush to immediately diagnose a miracle. “Yes miracles do happen,” he said.
“This person said his personal experience has helped him to walk despite what the doctors said, then why not believe that it’s a miracle?”
