The most important day of the year in Antikythera is August 17, the festival of the island's patron saint, St. Myron. According to the story told by many generations of Antikytherians, two hunters from Crete found the icon of the Saint on the island, at a time when the island was totally uninhabited, between 1423 and 1782.  The hunters came to Antikythera to hunt the wild goats then (as now) abundant on the island.  Seeing a goat emerging from a thicket of bushes with its head wet, they guessed that here was a source of fresh water.  Through the bushes, they discovered a small cave with potable water.  There too, in the cave, they found the icon of Saint Myron.  Before returning to Crete, they left it sheltered in an iconostasis improvised from stones. 

After a few months, the hunters returned to Antikythera intending to build a small shrine in the honor of the Saint.  Approaching the place where they had left the icon, they found that the iconostasis was no longer in the place where they had built it.  It had moved to a different site, something they interpreted as a sign that the Saint had chosen this site, so the shrine dedicated to Saint Myron was built there.  The first church was very small; it was later enlarged.  Cells were added beside the church and for a period, according to the few testimonies that have survived, several monks were housed at the church.

The traditional celebration of Saint Myron Day has changed little over the years.  It starts at the beginning of August, when locals hunt the wild goats of the island.  For the Saint’s Day on August 16 and 17, the goats are boiled at the monastery beside the Church of Saint Myron.  There they are offered with rice to pilgrims who visit the island for the festival.  The women of the island knead bread for the festival and bake it in a traditional wood oven at the monastery.  For two days, locals and numerous visitors and pilgrims (often more than 1000 of them) celebrate the patron saint and protector of the island with a traditional festival or “glenti” of live Cretan music and dance.

On August 16, the eve of the feast day, a great ceremonial Vespers at the Church of Saint Myron is followed by the traditional Cretan festival or “glenti” in the forecourt of the church.  On the feast day itself, August 17, after Holy Liturgy at the Church, a procession takes the icon up to the cave where it was originally found and there the priest concludes the service with a blessing.  The water at the spring in the cave is still abundant and the settlement of Galaniana draws its water from it.  After the end of the Holy Liturgy, the feasting is followed by a “glenti” that continues until late into the night.