The two week period from 1st -15th August every year , is a time for fasting and confession in the Orthodox Church.
During this time we celebrate two big feast days. We celebrate the Transfiguration of the Lord on August 6th .We also celebrate on the 15th of August the Dormition or Falling asleep of the Virgin Mary.The island of Kefalonia in Greece has many churches. In the village of Markopoulo , every year around the middle of August, you will see many small snakes making their way to towards a particular church. The snakes only go to this church. It is believed that this scene occurs due to divine intervention.

On the actual day of the Dormition, the snakes are seen all over the icon of the Virgin Mary.

This happens when the church is filled with people while the liturgy service is in progress. The snakes crawl over the furniture and over the people too. The snakes are not frightened. They behave as if hypnotized. They move around people's feet and move onto the icon.

The people are not frightened because they know they will not be harmed . They are happy to allow the snakes to be in the church and some even hold the snakes fearlessly. Many come just to witness this event and to photograph or video it. All the snakes have mark on their heads which resembles a cross.

When the fast and the celebrations of the 15th finish, all the snakes disappear mysteriously .The event is re-enacted the following year during the same period.These snakes are called “Our Lady's snakes."

It is believed that this miraculous scene occurs because then Virgin Mary saved a womens monastery from pirates and the snakes started appearing since then.

When the village was attacked by pirates in 1705, the nuns in a convent there prayed to the Virgin Mary to be transformed into snakes in order to avoid being captured. It is said that their prayers were answered, and a miracle took place. The pirates were appalled, when they entered the monastery, to see the whole place covered with snakes. Since then, the snakes have returned to the village at this time of the year. It is also believed to be a bad sign of things to come if the snakes do not appear every year during the period of August.

During all the years of World War 2 and the year of 1953 when the island had a series of severe earthquakes, the snakes never came.

There are many occasions in the Bible when God uses the snake to show us his will.

When he told Moses to go to the Pharaoh and the Egyptians to ask him to free Israel he used a serpent to show Pharaoh his strength and power. Moses was reluctant to go and asked the Lord what he should do if the Egyptians did not believe him.
In Exodus 4:1-5 The Lord said to him, "What have you there in your hand?" Moses said " A staff." And God said, "Throw it on the ground." So Moses cast it to the ground, and it became a snake ; and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to him, "Put your hand out , and seize it by the tail." So he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand.'

In Exodus 7:10 Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and did as the Lord commanded; Aaron threw down his rod before the Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a snake.The Pharaoh's magicians did the same things with their rods and turned them into snakes but Aaron's "staff swallowed up theirs." Exodus 7:11

The Lord Jesus also mentions the serpent in John 3:13-17 ..."this Son of Man must be lifted up as the serpent was lifted up by Moses in the wilderness , so that everyone who has faith in him may in him possess eternal life."

Another miraculous sign occurs on the same island each year . Every May the women of the island pick lilys and place them on an icon of the Virgin Mary. Once a flower is cut it cannot bud again. This is not the case here.On the 15th of August the lilys are in full bloom again.

They dont begin their blossoming on the previous days.They begin and reach full blossom on the 15th August. On this day you can see on the icon fully flowered lilies with dry stems, these flowers having been cut months before.