ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, February 10, 1997 TAG: 9702100139
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: KYKKO MOUNTAIN, CYPRUS
SOURCE: Associated Press
Thousands of pilgrims led by the head of Cyprus' Greek Orthodox Church gathered Sunday at a mountain monastery to pray before an icon of the Virgin Mary and the child Jesus that reportedly has begun to weep.
Many Greek Cypriots regard the 400-year-old icon's tears both as a miracle and a sign from God that a major calamity is impending.
Monks at the Kykko Monastery first reported a week ago that they noticed tears forming in the eyes of both the Virgin and Jesus and flowing slowly down the icon.
Hundreds of pilgrims have since traveled to the monastery. Sunday's congregation, estimated at 2,000, was by far the biggest in a single day. More than 20,000 visited during the day, said Nikiforos, the monastery's abbot.
Sunday's pilgrims braved snow to travel to Kykko Monastery to join Archbishop Chrysostomos in a supplication for forgiveness.
Chrysostomos is the head of the Mediterranean island's Greek Orthodox Church. He knelt before the icon to lead the congregation in prayer and to venerate the icon.
``We pray to you Holiest Virgin to save us from all evil and to support our just struggle for the liberation of our enslaved and occupied country,'' he said as monks chanted.
The archbishop was referring to the Turkish occupation since 1974 of the northern third of the island. Turkey invaded Cyprus then, ostensibly to protect the small Turkish Cypriot minority in the wake of a failed coup by supporters of union with Greece.
Some 180,000 Greek Cypriots - a third of the island's population - fled their homes in northern Cyprus to the south. Some were forcibly expelled.
Reports of icon-related ``miracles'' are common in Cyprus. None of the pilgrims saw tears Sunday, but some said they noticed a faint, reddish stain below the icon's eyes.
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