While businessmen at the shores of the Gulf of Corinth installed floating dams against the plague of millions of jelly fish, in Derveni they had a better idea: to call divine help. It worked!
Local authorities and businessmen along the Gulf of Corinth installed floating dams beginning of summer to prevent a new plague.
Last year, the jelly fish plaque scared off thousands of visitors and tourists and caused immense financial damages to local economy.
The floating dams created “safe swimming pools” around popular beaches.
Locals smiled for the return of visitors and businessmen calculated the cost was worth it.
But not in Derveni, the small coastal town in North Peloponnese.
There, the businessmen found a better, water-proof and divine way to prevent the jelly fish from overwhelming the wonderful sea.
They asked priests to bless the jelly fish. The miracle happened! The plaque disappeared within two days.
The first attempt was reportedly conducted by Metropolitan Bishop of Megalopolis and Gortynos.
“He had come for lunch,” local businessman and restaurant owner Ilias Rodopoulos recalls that noon in June. The high-ranking priest and the local businessman were watching the jelly fish, when “I told him , please, Your Excellency, bless this plaque, this temptation so that people can swim again in the sea and enjoy this blessing.”
The Bishop raised his hand, blessed the jelly fish and continued his lunch, the businessman told Epsilon TV.
Apparently the blessing was not enough and the locals sought help also from the monks at the Mt Athos.
“We contacted them in the afternoon on the same day. They told us to place a big marble cross in the sea,” the businessman said.
And so they did.
“With surprise and deep emotion I tell you that the jelly fish disappeared. Two days after the blessings, no jelly fish was in the water,” the man added.
As there is no scientific explanation about the disappearance of the jelly fish, locals believe in divine help and a miracle.
In the rest of the Gulf of Corinth incl. Loutraki the sea jellies came under control with common human aid, the floating dams.
Plaque is what you get on your teeth….. The word you are looking for is plague….