A story of miraculous events
The building
of the Christ's church in Spata, a village 27 kilometers outside Athens,
Greece, is a story of miraculous events. As early as the 1920s, years before
the church was built, people walking by its current site would experience
unusual energy and many reported supernatural phenomena.
Most miracles, however, occurred after a young and destitute refugee from
Asia Minor, Mrs Eleni Danielidou, born Gavrielidou, came to live in the
area.
On 30 August 1930, the 18-year-old Eleni had a visitation from a monk who
told her she was pregnant and gave her advice about future difficulties.
Upon his leaving the house, she looked out of the window. The monk was nowhere
to be found, and no one in the neighbourhood had seen him.
In the following years, and after she moved into a nearby house, Mrs Danielidou
had a number of similar visitations. The monk would appear in a variety
of guises, always knocking three times on her door, and would offer advice,
foretell events, give instructions, and even heal her children.
One day, he indicated the place where an outside stove stood near her house
and asked her to set it aside for a church dedicated to him. When she enquired
about his identity, he told her he was Jesus Christ and disappeared in blazing
light. Mrs Danielidou related these events only to others in the
village. Amazingly, even those who doubted her story had remarkable dreams
of the Christ. Soon the entire village joined forces and erected the
church dedicated to the Christ.
The monk also instructed that a particular stone half-buried in the site
be unearthed, cut, inscribed "The Resurrection of the Christ",
and entombed on the left side of the church's entrance. The trims of the
cut stone were distributed among the villagers, who reported many miracles
by their use. One of the most remarkable phenomena occurred on 9 January
1938 when, during a baptism, a shadow was seen coming down from the image
of Christ on the church's dome and disappeared into the water; then a cloud
high in the sky revealed the Christ in golden attire blessing the congregation.
Since the late 1930s, the church has been one of the major pilgrimage sites
in Greece and many healings have taken place there.
Source: Manolis Melinos: The Christ in Spata
Editorial note
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