Church of the Virgin Mary of Charos

The famous church of Lipsi with the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary (Panagia tou Harou) holding Christ in her arms, not as an infant, but crucified on the Cross of the Martyr (hence the Virgin Mary of Charos, or Death). Most of the year, the icon is kept at the Cathedral of Saint John the Theologian in Chora. The church of the Virgin Mary was founded by monks of the Monastery of Saint John of Patmos around 1600 AD. It is a three-section Byzantine church with a low dome. It celebrates with a festival every August 23, when many pilgrims come to touch the icon of the Virgin, where lilies placed in 1943 are said to miraculously bloom again each year.