On the first Sunday in November the island of Kerkyra commemorates with a procession of his relics the miraculous intervention of Saint Spyridon in saving Kerkyra from a deadly plague, which twice visited the island in the seventeenth century. The history of the procession goes back to 1673. The pestilence was first identified in one of the suburbs and soon spread all over the town; the entire population was gripped by the terror of death. For three nights a light was seen by the local inhabitants on the bell-tower of the Church of Saint Spyridon and the figure of Saint Spyridon, carrying a cross in one hand, appeared driving the pestilence away. The Venetian Governor, at the request of the people of Kerkyra, sanctioned by decree on the 29th of October 1673 that the procession be held every year on the first Sunday in November.