Pelagia of Tinos

Venerable Pelagia of Tinos is the nun to whom the Mother of God appeared in a dream for the finding of the icon of the Annunciation (Evangelistria) on Tinos, an event that made the island a place of pilgrimage for the whole Orthodox world.

She was born in 1752 in the village of Kampos on Tinos, with the name Lucia, daughter of the priest Nikephoros Negrepontis. Her father died while she was a child, and her mother sent her to a better-⁠off aunt, from where she often visited another relative, a nun at Kechrovouni Monastery. At fifteen she entered that monastery as a novice and was tonsured a nun with the name Pelagia. She gave herself to the service of God and the care of the sick, living in purity, humility and prayer.

In July 1822 the Mother of God appeared to her in dreams three times and asked her to say that She wished to reveal Her church buried in the field of Doxaras, in the town of Tinos. Pelagia delayed for fear of being laughed at, but after the third appearance she spoke to the abbess and then to the bishop. Digging began in September 1822 and uncovered the foundations of old churches, but not the icon. People came to accuse her of fancy, but she asked the Mother of God for help, and She showed her the exact place. On 30 January 1823 (by the calendar of the time) the pickaxe of Demetrios Vlassis struck the wonderworking icon.

Pelagia reposed on 28 April 1834 and was buried at the monastery. In 1973 a large church was built in her name, where her head is kept and venerated. She was numbered among the saints by a synodal act of the Ecumenical Patriarchate on 11 September 1970, and her commemoration was set for 23 July (new style), the day of the third appearance of the Mother of God.