Miracle Church Bells In Aegina

 Miracle Church Bells In Aegina

Aegina is where I live and this is where the miracle church bells are

I'll explain what I mean about the miracle church bells in Aegina later.

How I ended up here, I really do not know, but I did, and
I'm very grateful I did, because it's a great place to be.

I should explain that Aegina is a Greek island, about 40 minutes by
hovercraft from mainland Greece.
If  you want a vacation do come here. It's got lovely beaches, restaurants and countless bars.
And , it oh so beautiful.
The food is truly excellent with fish being one of the main attractions, and plenty of wonderful fruit
and vegetables.

As for the weather, well the sun beams down most of the time.


It's a very calm place with low crime and an.
 easy going style.

The locals are very polite and helpful .

But the church bells !!

My goodness are they into church bells here.

Some days they start at 7 in the morning and go on all day.

The bells have different styles.

In the Winter there are the slow, mournful ones, indicating death;
Since the evil crisis arranged by the E.U. the death rates have gone up
amazingly.

When I first came here about ten years ago there would have been about one
funeral a week, but now?
In months like February the mournful bells ring almost non stop.

And I have heard of quite a few suicides on this island.

Also deaths caused by alcohol induced car or motor bike crashes, with people
trying to escape the hell of paying money to the utility companies that rob them
every month, and buying food that has  an absurd 24% VAT on it.What daylight robbery this is.
No wonder tradesmen, shops, restaurants and bars fiddle the books. Who can blame them,
up against a system that is no different to the mafia ?
Then again, you have the happy church bells.
The ones celebrating marriage or baptisms.
They can go on all day too.

Aegina also has a lot of  clocks

, and they chime all day too.

So what with the church bells and the clocks it can be quite noisy here

But they say that , bells keep evil spirits away, so maybe it's good.

This is a very old belief.

Ancient Jews wore bells tied to their belts to ward off evil.

People used to believe that the ringing of bells at the time of death kept evil spirits away.

In Medieval times bells were rung when disease was rampant.People thought that the bells would stop
the disease spreading.

The Buddhist bell, the Gharta, is meant to drive away negative entities.

In Africa a bell used to be tied to a child to ward off evil.

There are loads of churches in Aegina, but the most famous one is the church and monastery of Agios
Nektarios.

This is one of the most visited places in Aegina.

Saint Nektarios of Aegina ( 1846-1920 ) is one of the most widely known Greek Saints.
 He was  known as a great miracle worker,
Every year thousands of people from all over the world come to Aegina to visit the tomb of this saint to heal themselves..

Agios Nektarios could, it is claimed,heal any disease;he was also a writer, philosopher, moralist,educator. ascetic and mystic.
He was a man of deep prayer.
In 1904 he established a monastery for nuns in Aegina.. It is called The Holy Trinity.

Now for a personal story.

A couple of years ago I was in a lot of pain. My back was giving me hell; it took me half an hour to get  out of bed in the morning.Why or how I got this , I have no idea.

I used to lie in bed dreaming of walking again- yes, it was that bad.

I was really worried that I would never be able to walk again.
The thought of being able to walk through Aegina town, to me was heaven.
I would have paid thousands of euros to do this if only I could.
I remember that my dreams were all about the wonder of the simple act of  walking without any pain.
In the end it was the only thing I would dream about.In fact, my dreams got so extreme that , in the end,
I was dreaming that I was flying above Aegina.

One day, as I lay in agony on my bed, I prayed as I have never prayed before to be able to walk
again.

The very next day I was able to get out of my bed and walk to the sea side.
The very next day !
Yes, I still was in pain, but slowly the pain vanished.
Three days later  I was so much better and I had to go and sit in the church by the seaside and thank
God, for want of a better word, for a miracle.
I'll never forget that moment.
I sat in my pew filled with gratitude, then stood up and walked out of the church into the sun-drenched street .
I had no pain at all, and since then have had no back problem at all.
I remember the church bells ringing out as I left the church.
It was like they were saying; ' hey, there you are, you're cured'.
And I was.
Does the spirit of that great saint Nektarios  still linger over this island ?
 I believe so.

No wonder so many people come from all over the world to be healed here.

But maybe those church bells that are so consistent have a say in this also.

Oh, the church bells in Aegina- keep ringing !!

Mike Selley.