Our Lady of the Rocks

Local legend here in Perast, Montenegro, has it that two brothers were returning from a dangerous sea voyage in 1452 when they spotted an icon of the Virgin Mary and Child in the waters near Saint George, a natural island in the Bay of Kotor. One of the brothers had injured his leg on the journey, but in the morning it had healed. Taking this as an omen, they vowed to honour the Virgin Mary by building her a church on the spot where they’d seen the icon. They began dropping stones there, and a tradition was born. Over decades, the fishermen of Perast would drop a stone in the water at that spot before heading to sea.
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