The Monastery of the Mother of God on Salamis Island

The worthy Father Laurence, founder of the monastery of the Mother of God "Phaneromenia", on the island of Salamis, was born in the town of Megaris (Attica) in first half of the17th century. He married and was the father of two children, working as a mason and ploughman, hiring himself out to work in various places. After seeing apparitions of the Mother of God on three consecutive nights; the Blessed Virgin ordered him to build a church for her on the island of Salamis, but he remained undecided and full of doubt. The All Holy One appeared to him again, spoke to him severely, showing him the precise plan of the church and monastery that she had ordered him to build. Laurence decided to cross over to the island, but the sea was too rough. Then he heard a heavenly voice ordering him to spread his cape on the sea. He obeyed this time without hesitation and found himself miraculously transported to the island of Salamis. He had no trouble finding the place indicated, as he came across the ruins of an old church and discovered an icon of the Mother of God. From that moment on, Laurence rejected any attachment to the world and he became a monk. He convinced his wife to do the same, and devoted all his resources to the construction of the monastery. Among the inhabitants of the island, who came to work with him, some became monks and the community grew quickly, under the protection of the Blessed Virgin who granted Saint Laurence the grace of achieving many cures for Christians and also for Moslems. It was in this way that he cured the wife of an Ottoman dignitary of a fatal disease. As a sign of thanksgiving her husband returned properties back to the monastery, which had been previously confiscated. Thus by God's grace, the saint completed the construction of the monastery in 1682, and passed away in peace on March 9, 1707, wearing the heavenly crown of the trusty servants of the Mother of God.