Thousands queue outside Cyprus church after reports of miracle-working relic

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The Associated Press Published: November 13, 2007
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NICOSIA, Cyprus: Thousands of Cypriots queued for hours outside a church in Nicosia Monday to kiss the skull of a 4th century Christian saint that Greek Orthodox officials credit with two miracle cures in the past four days.

The rumors surrounding Saint John Chrysostom's skull, visiting Cyprus in a rare departure from its home in a northern Greek monastery, whipped up religious fervor on the Mediterranean island where 78 percent of the population is baptized into the Greek Orthodox Church.

"People are looking for a miracle," said Father Ioannis Ioannou, who assisted in services for the saint's annual feast day Monday in the newly consecrated church of Saint John Chrysostom.

Kyriakos Kyriakou, 39, waited with his wife and children to pay his respects to the silver-encased relic at the church in the island capital's southwestern Lakatamia suburb.

"We came because we believe ... they said the relic worked miracles," Kyriakou said. "I might have reservations, but I still believe."

Father Paraskevas Agathonos claimed that the skull — in the Vatican's possession until three years ago — was responsible for "striking miracles" on two pilgrims, a partially paralyzed teenager and a woman with a broken leg.

"The pain left, she got rid of the crutches and took off the cast," he said of the 42-year-old woman, who allegedly recovered after visiting the relic Saturday.

The other cure reportedly involved 16-year old Panayiotis Panayiotou, who had been unable to move his right arm and the right side of his face following a brain hemorrhage.

Father Paraskevas said the boy regained full mobility after worshipping the skull.

Panayiotou told private TV station Sigma that "the numbness was gone...yes, it was a miracle."

The relic arrived on Cyprus on Saturday and will tour several monasteries before returning on Nov. 19 to its home at Vatopedi Monastery in the all-male monastic community of Mount Athos.

Saint John Chrysostom was an early Church father and author of the liturgy still recited in Orthodox churches 1,600 years after his death on Nov. 14, 407.

Kept in Constantinople — Istanbul in modern Turkey — the relic was looted by crusaders in 1204, and ended up in Saint Peter's Basilica in the Vatican. In 2004, Pope John Paul II returned it to Orthodox officials, as part of an effort to reconcile the two churches.

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