Feast Day: September 24th
About the Icon of Our Most Holy Mother of God of The Myrtle Tree: At that time, a shepherd was tending his sheep in a deserted valley which was filled with myrtle bushes. On September 24, forty days after the Dormition, the Mother of God appeared to him and told him to seek her Icon which had been brought to that place many years before. The shepherd fell to the ground in amazement, praying to the Theotokos. As soon as he got up and turned around, he saw the Icon in the branches of a myrtle bush…
+
+
The Miracle of the Healing of the paralysed man
Theodoros Koumbrianos was a relative of the shepherd who first discovered the Icon. He himself suffered from paralysis but never forgot her Grace. That is why every year on September 24, the day when the finding of the Icon is honored, he sent his relatives to participate in the Divine Liturgy and to light a candle for him.
One year after a lot of begging he was transferred to the main Church. The time came when a loud roar was heard from the sea. A woman in panic started shouting that pirates were attacking the Church, thus causing its desolation within a few minutes. And in the middle of the Church, Theodoros, alone and helpless, began to supplicate God, since he could not move.
Suddenly, like the former paralytic of the Gospel, he “takes his bed” and begins to walk towards the exit of the Church. There, his relatives, unable to believe this great Miracle, came out of their hiding places.
Pirates of course were nowhere to be found! Everyone understood that it was a plan of the Divine Economy to leave the paralyzed man with the Icon alone. And since then, Theodoros and his whole family celebrated with special brilliance the memory of the Myrtidiotissa.