About 100 kilometres southwest of the Austrian capital of Vienna is the small community of Sankt Corona am Wechsel, a lovely village up in the mountains where fewer than 400 people currently live.

While long popular with skiers, hikers, and mountain bikers, St. Corona has recently been attracting a different kind of crowd: those seeking comfort in the Christian martyr the town is named after, now invoked as the patron saint of diseases and epidemics.

St. Corona's church priest, Herbert Morgenbesser, offers a prayer to visiting worshipers: "Holy Corona, please help us with our prayers for this disease to go away soon and for normal life to resume again."

One of those seeking St. Corona's protection is Georg-Klaus Edlmair, who traveled with his family from Tyrol, a five and a half-hour drive away.

"The holy Corona is standing near the holy of holies and she is helping us with our prayers, especially with pandemics, pests and dangers."

"Interestingly, people are rediscovering their faith during the corona crisis," says the community's mayor Michael Gruber, "and it's said that Saint Corona is the patron saint of epidemics, so obviously some people are attracted to that."

Since Austria began easing travel restrictions in mid-April, domestic tourists, clearly not put off by the village's name, have been commonly seen taking their pictures next to the Saint Corona sign at the village's entrance.

Mei Li, a dental assistant from China working in the Austrian city of Graz, first heard about the small town of St Corona as the pandemic was taking over her home country. "I've known about St. Corona for a long time. We came here for the bike park. And of course, I know this place has nothing to do with COVID-19."

And that's what the team behind St. Corona's marketing wants to promote, says family events manager Ines Buchgeher. "We do not have anything to do with it [COVID-19]. Our Corona is the mascot of this adventure area here in St. Corona am Wechsel. In winter it's on skis because it's a family region here and the small kids love Corona, because she is walking around, shaking hands and giving high fives to the kids."

Whether due to saintly intervention or just luck, the village of Saint Corona, home to some 400 residents, is one of the few places in Austria that has not registered a single case of the virus, says Mayor Michael Gruber. 

"Luckily the only thing we share with the coronavirus is the name. There is - thank goodness - not a single COVID-19 case in this town. But we are still very proud of our name."

Austria has escaped the high number of infections seen in neighboring countries with slightly less than 16 thousand testing positive.

Early intervention and lockdown measures along with a population of only nine million are thought to be contributing factors.