The miracle of the Icon
The
miraculous Icon is traditionally known as one of the seventy images painted by
the Evangelist St. Luke. The icon was brought by residents of Mount Athos to
the first monastery in the Canal.
Following
the tragic end of the monks who died due to the extreme cold and the roaring
winds, it was left alone and came to the place it is today. It repeatedly was
found in some local bushes, and was constantely found illumined by a divine
light. Three attempts were made to move the Icon to no avail, so a church was
built at that location in 1116, and in the year 1362 the silver covering was
added to the Icon.
How the Holy Myrrh was revealed
I have
profound emotions and my soul is brought to heaven when I ponder the divine
Myrrh, which flows from this miraculous Icon. How many were left speechless
trying to tell and explain it. The Myrrh is unlike anything on earth. The Myrrh
is not similar to the Myrrh which flows from various Saints. It is
unprecedented Myrrh that our sweetest Jesus graced us with as a very precious
gift to His Ever-Virgin Mother.
And hear
how it was revealed. In 1964 before the Holy Myrrh ran down the Icon of the
Theotokos, for twenty days an indescribable aroma was present around the
monastery. The Icon smelled beautifully, but initially it was not understood to
be a miracle and people asked one another «Are they putting perfumes on the
icons?» But no one knew anything. A Father Stilianos asked «What kind of
perfume are you using?» and the nuns replied «We aren’t putting anything on,
Father».
A
Dimitrios Kalitsis, who had come from Agio Petro said «the aroma is coming from
the Panagia». The aroma was still so strong that at night on the terace I said,
«My Panagia, what is this that you open a river and drown us.»
The
Friday of the Final Chairetismoi [Salutations Service to the Theotokos in Great
Lent] on the 17th of April, 1964, pilgrims had come for the Vigil. The first
drops appeared. Sister Theonymphi saw them first, and then the Pilgrims ran to
see them.
On the
Fifth Sunday of Great Lent, Sister Theodouli came after Vespers quite troubled
and said «Sister Mariam, go to the church of the Panagia. Something like a
mirage appeared and see that it is.»
I had not
gone to the Vespers service. I ran to the church, I took a candle and gazed at
the Icon and saw the Panagia open and closing her mouth and something like a
fountain running out. When she opened her mouth, as much as a running tap would
flow up, and it would stop when her mouth was closed. And when she would reopen
her mouth the fountain would run again, but upwards. And the water that filled
the frame was clear. The stand [proskinitari, stand that holds up an icon for
veneration] was full, and that which flowed outside was as the color of milk.
We were
shaken and afraid, and no one slept that night. On Monday morning Panagiotis
Kolovos came from Agio Petro. He went to venerate the Panagia, and came to tell
us that there were drops outside of the frame. The Sisters went and saw a few
drops from outside of the glass and the color was the color of the sky, blue,
and the aroma was very strong.
That
afternoon, the Gerontissa [Abbess] Parthenia returned and we related to her
what we saw and she remained speechless; she didn’t know what to tell us. Was
this a miracle? Because we have never heard of the miracles of the Panagia like
the one we’d seen.
The next
day we saw again a few drops from the center towards the outside. The frame did
not hinder it, and it ran out of the frame and down the stand. The color was
all-pure like a diamond, and had an aroma. On the next day, Wednesday, they
subsequently ran at intervals several times a day. The color was a golden
yellow like lemons or yellow oil, and it ran so many times that we filled half
a bottle, we sealed it, and the next day the vial was empty.
To us who
witnessed this first, the miracle was traumatizing, and we cried. I did not
know what kind of sign this was and what was its meaning. Would it signify a
catastrophe? What could we say?
The sixth
week of the Great Fast, the week of the Palms, was for us days of lament and
weeping.
One day
we rang the bells throughout the day but nobody came. They heard the bells as
they told us later but did not come. We were alone. We notified the Diocese,
and Priests of Metropolis came, took the Icon from the stand, wiped it, and
inspected it to confirm themselves with their eyes the miracle of the Panagia.
The
Police came, the people came from their villages, some by motorcycles, other
with animals, others walking to venerate the Panagia.
The
police put everyone outside, and locked themselves into the church by
themselves. We could not see what they were doing. The Policeman said that when
he wiped the Myrrh, more would flow from the face of the Panagia, and he said
«I believe, Panagia». The icons smelled beautiful, the stasidia [seats along
the periphery of the church], the the whole church, the whole monastery. Even
the cars of those that took pieces of cotton dipped in the Holy Myrrh smelled.
The aroma
was so strong that it reached the lower road, so strong it was. The Myrrh would
run down the stand several times a day and reached the floor, and we gathered
it with cotton and gave it to everyone. There were so many people, and we would
read Chairetismous [the Salutations to the Theotokos] continuously. Even when
Holy Week came, and it is said «we don’t Salute the Panagia in Holy Week», but
so great was the crowd that we read it throughout Holy Week. The Myrrh would
run from the Icon at intervals several times a day. On Holy Pascha, it stopped
running. During Renewal Week [the week after Pascha] it did not run, but it
resumed during the week of Thomas in the same way.
The color
would change between four forms, as I said earlier, like a milky color, the
color blue, a diamond color, and a yellow color that remained stable and did
not change. Once I saw myself at the Midnight service that the Myrrh coming
from the Panagia was blood red, and passed outside of the frame and stayed
there. In the morning I woke up before the other Sisters and went to see the
Icon and it was dry. After this it appeared as dried blood, but the aroma was
always the same. When the icon would flow and hit the floor, it was like my
sword poking my side, and I would go run to venerate the Panagia. I would
gather the Myrrh from the floor. Sometimes the aroma of the Myrrh would
permeate as waves, something that I perceived as something beyond nature. The
aroma was not like a natural scent which would smell and then stop. The Aroma
of the Myrrh of the Panagia is not like them, but is not held back going in or
out, just as the Lord was not hindered by the seals or the stone at the Tomb
[at His Divine Resurrection]. Thus nothing hindered the aroma and the Myrrh to
flow inside or outside the frame, and it would come not in a physical manner,
but in waves, and would not leave the slightest doubt in the unbelieving.
No one
was left untouched, and prayers and supplications and tears to the Panagia were
made by all the Pilgrims, by everyone.
The Bishop
of Navplion was Chrysostomos after the death of Bishop [Despotis, literally
Master, the traditional Orthodox greeting to the Bishop] Germanos Roumpani. He
had just come, so instead the Bishop of Sparta, Kyprianos, came. He came here
to our monastery, inspected the Icon, asked himself about the miracle and said
«Blessed be the name of the Theotokos. May the miracle of the Theotokos
spread».
Policemen and Chemists attempt to identify
the source of the Holy Myrrh
In 1969,
the chief commander in Tripoli gendarmerie commander of the Astros, came and
inspected the icon, and as he told the residents of Agios Petros, he found no
hint at all of fraud, and that previously he was not God-fearing, but when he
saw the miracle with his own eyes, he said: «A Great God exists ».
And a
Chemist from Tripoli took some Myrrh of the Panagia to perform a chemical
analysis on it, and he beheld miraculous power, but he did not seen anything
natural [or physical], and he cried out «A Great God exists».
The Myrrh
of the Panagia was for a few years as the way I said above. Though it appeared
all-clean in the frame it gathered as large drops and came outside of the
frame, it dripped, and we saw when it came out and ran down. We gathered it
with cotton and gave it as a blessing to the world. A few years later, there
was a great earthquake, and since that time it runs continuously in the frame,
it is continuously drenched, it does not slow down, we wipe it up and in a few
hours, again it is filled.
The
miracle of the Panagia was not known very far away. The local region and a
little beyond only knew about it. After 6 years, Dimitrios Panagopoulos came in
1970, in the month of July from Athens, a pious man and a preacher of the
divine word. Many people know him from his sermons and from his modest life.
This preacher of the Divine Word spread the miracle of the Theotokos around the
world in his monthly brochure called «Agia Marina». From then began to come
pilgrims from the Capital, from all over Greece, and from the outside, and
those who couldn’t come would send us a letter seeking the Holy Myrrh of the
Panagia. The Holy Myrrh works miracles, many sick people have been healed.
The Gerontissa Parthenia
Since
1960 when she was made Abbess, she has built six churches. St. Neilos the
Myrrhflowing, where the first cell of the Saint was. St. George at the
cemetery. St. Charalampos in the metochion [dependency] of the Monastery at
Korakovouni. St. Nektarios. And recently she finished the large Church, which
celebrates the Dormition of the Theotokos, the Holy Transfiguration of Christ,
and the Entrance of the Theotokos to the Temple. And the lower church also has
three dedications.
The feast of our Panagia
On the
Feast of the Panagia, like every year, we do a vigil service in the small
church. This year, 1994, on August 15th the vigil took place in the Large
Church, a beautiful, all-radiant and decorated church. The wonderworking Icon
of Panagia was moved to the veneration stand in the great church and it was
venerated by all the people, the Christians. At 6 o'clock in the afternoon was
the small Vespers, and at 9:30 at night the bells run harmoniously. There was
chanting, ringing of bells at short intervals, and soon began Great Vespers,
and after Vespers was Holy Unction. After the Holy Unction began Matins, the
liti, the Six-psalms, the Polyeleos of Panagia, the kathismata, canons, and
finishing the minologio we chanted the Engomia [lamentations] of the Panagia,
katavasies, and the 9th ode, the Praises, and after the Doxology, we chanted
“Holy God…” very slowly, and had the procession with the Epitaphio of the
Panagia outside of the great church, all holding lit candles.
And when
the bells of the great church and the simandron of the small one rang festally,
the large procession around the church began. The small epitaphio was preceded
by the Precious Cross and the gold banner of the Dormition of the Theotokos.
The small candles and Sisters with Priests all chanted “Holy God…” in a festal
manner while the bell-ringer rang during the procession of the Epitafio. Truly
moving are these moments in the infinite silence of the night. At 5 in the
morning the Divine Liturgy finished which was followed by a sermon for the
feast of our Panagia. The Sisters and the Faithful will commune, and will go
rest after the Divine Liturgy. At 7 o'clock we have a second Divine Liturgy
because many Christians come from afar and can't make the Vigil that we follow,
so there is another priest and they receive Holy Communion at the second Divine
Liturgy.
That same
evening we have Vespers early, and after Vespers, we take the Icon of the
Dormition which we have below the Myrrhflowing Panagia, the censer, the
candles, the talanto, the simandron, and the bells ringing, we exit from the
church and procede up the stair to the salon and we the Sisters and those who
happen to be there at this moment chant “In giving birth…” [the Apolytikion for
the Dormition of the Theotokos] and the bells chant “In giving birth you
retained your Virginity”, and other hymns. We will stop at the salon and wish
many years of virtue for those who celebrate the feast of our Panagia, the
Gerontissa Parthenia and other Sisters who celebrate, and we chant more hymns.”
Source: http://full-of-grace-and-truth.blogspot.com.by/2009/01/miraculous-myrrh-flowing-icon-of.html
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