Tinos, Greece - Religious devotion on the holiest of days on the Orthodox Christian calendar _ is an uphill struggle.
Thousands of pilgrims crawled on their hands-and-knees more than half a mile up a hill to a church on this Aegean Sea island devoted to the Virgin Mary, where a revered icon is credited with miraculous powers.
The annual pilgrimage ended Monday, on the Feast of the Assumption _ a holy day focused on the Virgin Mary. It is the ultimate test of faith for worshippers with special intentions: Expectant mothers hoping for a boy or girl; relatives praying for the recovery of their loved ones. Around 30,000 pilgrims and other visitors file past the icon every Aug. 15.
"I did it to pray to do well in my exams," said Jim Christopoulos, 17, who said his scraped knees were "very painful."
This year, special prayers were said for victims of the Cypriot airliner disaster which killed 121 people when a Helios Airways jet crashed into a hill 25 miles north of Athens last Sunday.