TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. — As Tarpon Springs and the Tampa Bay Greek Orthodox community get ready to celebrate Epiphany, a woman credits the power of prayer and service to helping her recover from a life-threatening illness.

What You Need To Know

  • Denise Ginnis survived a 2011 brain surgery to remove a tumor and credits her Greek Orthodox faith and a special prayer at St. Michael's Shrine

  • She started beading crosses and has made a beaded cross to give out to the cross retriever at Epiphany since 2014

  • Ginnis sends prayers and blessings to all Epiphany cross divers every event

Denise Ginnis does a lot of praying.

She often has turned to the St. Michael Shrine on Hope Street in Tarpon Springs.

Ginnis said she believes one special prayer in 2011 aided in her recovery from a potentially deadly brain tumor.

“This is where God said to me go home and make me a cross and you are going to live,” Ginnis said.

She did, she survived the surgery, and she has been making beaded crosses ever since.

“When I got home, I said OK, I know what I need to do,” she said. “God has blessed me and now I’m going to bless.”

She does the blessings by crafting beaded crosses, then giving them to whoever needs a special blessing.

“I’d send these crosses to people like I have no idea who they are,” she said.

Ginnis has now finished cross number 187.

This one goes to the cross retriever of Epiphany 2025.

“The first one I did for Epiphany I was like I hope they know what it means to me, and I hope they always carry that peace and that love for the rest of their lives.”

What it means to her is a sort of therapy. 

The brain surgery caused her to lose many of her fine motor skills on her left side.

However, she is still now able to make the crosses.

One of the first she ever finished is on display at the St. Michael Shrine.

Other crosses have gone to cross retrievers, but her blessings go to all cross divers.

“I hope that they’re blessed, and I hope that they know they’re blessed,” she said. “Because they’re out there, we just have to know to get them and how to live by them.”