Archangel Michael celebration-1, Mantamados Lesvos

During the dark age of piracy in the Aegean sea, Archangel Michael appeared and saved a young monk from a pirate attack at the inland Lesvos village of Mantamados. Overwhelmed by the sight of the angel and death, the monk, coming down from the roof of the monastery as the only survivor, mixed his fellow monk's blood with the earth and the tears of his lost mind, to create the sculpture of the warrior angel. Since then, this picture is considered miraculus. There are many reports of poeple who have been miraculusly healed after having prayed or envisioned the angel. So, a lot of people come as a pilgrimage from all over the island and the country to kiss the picture and pray. Most of them come in the big celebration two weeks after Easter. People of Lesvos call the Archangel "Archonta-(Lord) of just "Filos"-(Friend). This is how i come to meet him, as a friend and as the Lord in me. A new way of encountering divine, in contrast the preast wanting us to give power to something outside of us...(continued in the next post)