Why snakes on a Greek island venerate the Virgin Mary on August 15

[TK421]

Why snakes on a Greek island venerate the Virgin Mary on August 15 --Aleteia

The friendly snakes appear each year on the Greek island of Kefalonia always around the feast of the Assumption.

aleteia.org

In 1705 a group of Orthodox nuns living on the Greek island of Kefalonia were worried about pirates that were threatening their monastery. With no way to defend themselves, the nuns prayed to the Virgin Mary for help. She responded by sending a host of snakes to their monastery, which in turn scared away the pirates, who didn’t want to go any further…

 

[edward_george1]

The headline is already great, and then you read the story and it gets better, since pirates are involved.

-Fr ACEGC

 

[Tis_Bearself]

So when St. Patrick drummed them out of Ireland, they simply emigrated to the pleasant climate of Greece

 

[Cruciferi]

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[Uliana988]

Awesome! ray:t3:

 

[dochawk]

The headline is already great, and then you read the story and it gets better, since pirates are involved.

argh, Fr. Matey!

 

[TK421]

I thought I already found the coolest title of Our Lady, but “Our Lady of the Snakes” is currently trending very high. I wouldn’t mind taking a visit. Always been a big fan of reptiles.

 

[dochawk]

On the scales of titles, this one ranks highly!
:crazy_face:

 

[twf]

I can only imagine what the fundamentalist Protestant “Eastern Orthodox/Catholic Bishops are diabolical as demonstrated by their snake staffs” crowd would think of this!! Haha.