The icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, the Fading Color, which resides in a Greek monastery on Mount Tabor, is known to the entire Orthodox world.
Georgy Nazirakis, who lived on the island of Crete, bought this simple black and white paper lithograph in the mid-1950s. He put the icon with the candle and the incense in the bottle. In a note, he wrote that he would like the icon to be in the Holy Land, and asks to pray for it; but if, at its unworthiness, the bottle lands on the shores of Crete or Greece, then let the icon be sent to a monastery on the island of Tinos.
Three months later, two Orthodox Arabs from Nazareth, trapped in Jaffa on the seashore, noticed a glowing object not far from the sea. Fearing that it was a floating mine, they began to throw stones at it; something cracked but did not explode, and then they entered the sea, picked up the bottle and took out a rolled-up paper icon, a note, a candle and incense.
They did not know how to read in Greek and gave everything they found to the priest, who handed the find to the bishop in Nazareth.
In 1958, the icon that was found was placed in an Orthodox church in Nazareth, where the countless miracles of the Mother of God began. When in 1973 the icon was transferred to the Greek monastery of the Transfiguration of the Lord at Favora, the abbot of the monastery, Hegumen Hilarion, found Georgi Nazirakis in Crete. He was already very old, lived as an ascetic, fed only from the labors of his hands. Hegumen’s father was especially pleased that George Nazirakis kept the old church calendar (the Jerusalem Church, like the Russian Church, did not accept the new style). George Nazirakis died in 2002, he was over a hundred years old. Father Hilarion, after the death of George Nazirakis, traveled around Crete with a story about him and about the miraculous icon and was very upset when he was asked: "Just please, less about miracles - we have more and more educated people."
Now believers go to this shrine from around the world. The icon is hung with offerings. Around the frame of the icon are photos of those who have been healed. There are also letters about the miracles granted by the Mother of God.
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