Every year, from August 7 to August 15, a unique species of harmless snakes appear at the Church of the Assumption in Markopoulo, Kefalonia. These snakes, which have a small black cross on their heads and tongues, crawl around the church and on the miraculous icon of the Panagia, but never on her face. This phenomenon is unique to this location and is not observed anywhere else in the world.