If you come to the Shrine of Saint John of Russia, you will see a simple and poor gift. A walking stick! It hangs as a booty in the shrine in front of the Saint. The cane is that of Grandmother Maria Siaca from Frenaro, Famagusta, Cyprus, who for eighteen years was hunched over and her face was a little out of touch with the earth. On August 11, 1978, her family brought her and a hundred other Cypriots to Hosios Ioannis. 

They lifted her in their arms to venerate the Holy Relic. The pained grandmother looked at the blessed full-length relic and wept, asking for a little divine help for her aching old age. The Saint saw the greatness of her soul, saw her pain, but also saw her faith. 

In front of everyone’s eyes, like an invisible hand, he grabbed her shoulders with tremendous strength and slowly began to unfold her body! Her spine creaked and she took her first position! Grandma upright! Her fellow villagers are crying. The church bells are ringing. There is a request for thanksgiving from all Cypriots. They cannot hold back their tears.

 Anyone who has happened to be present at the time of a miracle can understand these lines. At the end, the voice of the grandmother can be heard: ‘Ida, shall I give you my boy? Holy man, I’m poor, I’ll give you my cane, all I need until I die!”

And the Nicosia newspapers: “Maria Siaca, after her pilgrimage in Greece to St. John the Russian, can see her fellow countrymen in the face, because she has been crawling and looking at the earth for almost two decades. Thanks to the miracle of the Saint, she has recovered and is completely well.”