The following miracle is published on the official website of the Ecclesiastical School of Lamia, whose patron saints are Saint Katherine and Saint Stylianos.
On the 8th of the month of April on a Wednesday between 9:00PM and 9:15PM, at the time when the Ninth Ode of the Great Canon was being chanted, the icon of Saint Katherine began to move at a very slow pace, right and left. At that time all of us children were in the church, at the chanter's stand and in the seats, the sanctuary and other places.
Regarding the movement of the icon of Saint Katherine, it was brought to our attention by a child who was sitting near the icon. Then all of us went near the icon to see and certify that it was moving. Indeed, when we arrived in front of the icon we saw and certified that the icon of Saint Katherine was moving.
At first we thought that somewhere wind was blowing and moving the icon. Thus we stabilized it, that is, we made it stop. But before each of us returned to our seats and the chanter's stand, the child near the icon yelled out again saying that the icon resumed moving. Then all of us, seeing this wondrous event, knelt down and chanted the apolytikion to the Great Martyr Katherine as the icon continued moving right and left, before all of the full of ecstasy and fearful eyes of the 20-25 children.
Once the Service of the Great Canon ended we notified the Scholarch and Deputy Director of the School. Having informed them of this extraordinary event, they approved our proposal to invite the priest of the parish of Saints Constantine and Helen to do the Supplication Service to Saint Katherine, and in addition whoever wanted could spend the night before the icon of the Saint chanting supplications and reading chants from the chanter's stand.
So we invited the priest from the parish of Saints Constantine and Helen, Father Christos Karagiannis, who came immediately and we began to chant the Supplication Service to Saint Katherine. In the middle of the Supplications to the Saint, the icon again began to move at the same pace and at the same time, right and left. When the Supplications ended, the Priest told us how truly Saint Katherine did this miracle with the movement of this sacred icon.
After the departure of the priest we continued to chant before the icon spiritual chants and hymns and odes from the liturgical books of our Church, the Supplications and Akathists to our Most Holy Theotokos. We spent the night chanting in this way and in the morning, specifically at around 7:00AM, the icon began to move again as the other times.
At around 8:00AM the Scholarch and other teachers with the Deputy Principal arrived as usual. Everyone venerated, but they did not arrive on time to see the icon moving. But while regular classes began as usual, during the first teaching hour the icon began to move again. We informed the Scholarch and the other teachers. Immediately we stopped our lessons and together went to the chapel to chant the Supplication Service to Saint Katherine.
However, the miracle of the icon of Saint Katherine is not restricted to only the movement of the icon. Simultaneously we observed a change in the features of the face and hands of Saint Katherine. The face of the Saint began to darken in the cheeks and in the arches of the eyes and between the eyebrows. The neck seemed intensely physical, with swollen blood vessels, while the left hand of the Saint resting on the wheel of her martyrdom also began to redden showing the vessels, and looking like every physical hand of a person. Also the face and the general form of Saint Katherine appeared to express a joyful sadness while other times an austerity and rebuke.
We the students of the Ecclesiastical School of Lamia became eye-witnesses of this wonderful sign of Saint Katherine full ecstasy and fear of God, Who makes His saints wondrous, and we invite the pious pilgrims to experience this mystery in silence and faith. The message of death can be discovered by each of us in the depth of our soul and mind, in the life they lived and live and to find the meaning they deserve.
The Students of the Ecclesiastical School of Lamia
April 1992
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
