The tradition of Mandamados in Mytilene holds that during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974,

 Of good against the forces of darkness. According to religion, the Taxiarch is the commander-in-chief of the angels in the heavenly paradise. On Earth, the Archangel is the protector of our air force.

The tradition of Mandamados in Mytilene holds that during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the icon of the Taxiarch at the entrance of the church disappeared and reappeared a few days later. Every year, hundreds of thousands of believers arrive in Mandamados from all over the world to venerate the icon of the Taxiarch. Inside the church, in a prominent place, there is a sword offered as a vow to Archangel Michael. All these years, those who know well say that this specific sword was the offering of a man who believed that he owed his life to the Archangel. Through our investigation, we searched for and found this man and asked him to describe the incredible story you are about to hear. Michalis Diamantis opens his heart for the first time, describing the experience he had twelve years ago, when for six months he had fallen into a coma, and the doctors gave him no hope of survival. In essence, I was dead, let’s say. The doctors had no hope. Of course, they hadn’t given any hope to my wife either, because I didn’t understand anything at that time. His relatives found the path of hope for the first time the moment this man moved his hand. There is, let’s say, a light, like a sun, which is not for the eyes, and it tells me, “Michalis, I will raise you up.” After six months, my right hand moved, and my wife did certain things. They even transported me, to put it simply, on a plane with a stretcher. And when we reached above Skiathos, where the pilot was saying thirty-five thousand feet, I stood up like Lazarus as if I had nothing, and I got down completely healthy. At that moment, I felt such great joy, but I did not know who had healed me, what that light was, because at that time, it had not told me. I only saw the light. It told me, “I will make you well.” And after some days, that same light came again and told me, “You will go to Mandamados in Mytilene. All the churches in the world that belong to Archangel Michael are my churches. Mytilene is my home. There you will go, because I want you.” I had absolutely no connection with Mytilene. Nor can I say I was particularly religious. I simply believe I am Orthodox, I believe, but I’m not very much a church-going person, let’s put it that way. After all this ordeal with his health, this man felt the need to offer a gift to the Saint and to the church of the Taxiarch in Mandamados. I was crying inside, I venerated his icon, and I said, “What offering do you want me to bring you for this good you did to me, for raising me up?” And the answer was, “I do not want you to bring me an offering. What you will bring to my church, I will give it to you myself.” One morning, at dawn, someone knocked on the door of my room. It seemed strange to me, because I said, “Five in the morning and someone knocks on my door without a call from reception—something isn’t right.” Finally, I opened the door to see what was happening. I saw a man about one meter ninety-five tall, dark-haired, holding a long package in his hands. He said to me, “This is for you.” At the moment he said it, he gave it to me, and I took it. I turned my gaze to look at him and ask who he was, where it came from, and why—but he had disappeared, and the package remained in my hands. I didn’t know what the package contained. I went inside, closed the door, and opened it. Inside, there was a sword. This is the sword you see in the church of the Taxiarch in Mandamados, Mytilene. Then the same light came again, the same presence, and told me, “You will take this to my church and to my icon.” I told the priest about the event. Whether he believed it or not, I don’t know exactly. He told me, “Sir, swords are not placed on icons.” I told him, “I have an order for this to go there. What you do as a priest is up to you.” At that moment, the priest took the sword. He was filled with awe. He held it in his hands, and without realizing it, the sword entered into the icon as if it had been measured precisely—as if we had taken exact measurements and crafted the sword specifically for that icon. Not even a centimeter bigger or smaller. Then the priest was astonished. At some point, he tried to take it out, but he could not remove it. At this point, we must confess that hearing this entire story in detail left us speechless. We thought that such things could not happen in life. This narration from Mr. Michalis Diamantis sounds strange and beyond all logic. He himself understood that and tried to convince us by telling us an incident that happened in front of many people. At one moment, I told them about this small icon that Archangel Michael had given me. By coincidence, a woman took it and began to guard it. Then another took it, then another. At some point, it reached a young woman. As soon as she took it in her hands and went to kiss it—well, you can imagine; you know how it is. The crowd opened up as if forming a circle. There were at least three hundred people, including army officers. The crowd opened like a circle inside the church. And this young woman stood there holding the icon, and someone was beating her—hitting her repeatedly—but no one could see who it was. I went, took the icon from her hands, pulled it away—and as soon as I took the icon, the beating stopped.