Fodor's Expert Review Taxiarchis Michail

The black icon of Archangel Michael is in the 17th-century monastery dedicated to the island's patron saint, Taxiarchis Michail. The gruesome legend has it that the icon was carved by a monk who used mud and the blood of his comrades, slain in an Ottoman attack, to darken it. Believers used to make a wish and press a coin to the archangel's forehead; if it stuck, the wish would be granted. Owing to wear and tear on the icon, the practice is now forbidden.