Church warns against dial-a-miracle

GET your own miracle for €35 over the phone.

Or at least this is what women who call their potential customers say they are offering.

They claim to be calling on behalf of the Orthodox Cultural Centre and say that they are in possession of an icon from the Vatopedi Monastery in Mount Athos.

The icon – apparently depicting a female saint – is a healing specialist, alledgedly adjusting its powers according to the affliction of its petitioner.

A source at the Church of Cyprus affirmed that this was impossible since, as the faithful already know, the only Vatopedi icons that can perform miracles are those of the Virgin.

Indeed, the monastery is dedicated to the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Built in 972, Vatopedio contains 31 chapels and houses a host of monks.

When informed of the dial-a-miracle business, the resident monks claimed to have nothing to do with it.

The women behind the operation are not pioneers in the spiritual affairs market.
The New Thought Spiritual Community ‘Fellowship for Today’ was founded in 1983 in the United States.

This “dynamic community (of) co-creating love and healing” has its very own ‘Dial-A-Miracle’ team.

The team engages in the more modest activity of recording inspirational messages, instead of claiming to be in a possession of a catch-all, miracle-spouting icon.

Cypriots are known for their attraction to relics and their holy powers.

Last November, faithful from all over Cyprus paid their respects en masse to the skull of Saint John Chrysostom, which was on a national tour.

The skull showed off its powers when a woman whose leg had been broken in a car accident threw off her cast after visiting and a boy who was semi-paralysed after a stroke was able to walk after worshiping the relic.

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.