August 3, 2013
Brooklyn, NY: Hundreds of the Faithful came to pray before the Myrrh-Streaming Hawaiian Icon

On Tuesday, July 30, the myrrh-streaming Hawaiian Icon of the Mother of God visited Holy New Martyrs & Confessors of Russia Church in Brooklyn, NY. Hundreds of the faithful gathered in church long before the icon’s arrival. At that moment, the Most Pure Theotokos was heading toward the church in her wonderworking icon, accompanied by its guardian, Brother Nectarios. She processed across the Hudson, along the streets of the big city, where hundreds of thousands live, work, love, and toil, all of whom are in need of her help, her admonition, her comfort.

A moleben and akathist to the Most Holy Theotokos was led by Eastern American Diocesan secretary Archpriest Serge Lukianov, co-served by New York City dean Archpriest Alexander Belya, parish rector Archpriest Victor Tseshkovsky, and Abbot Cornelius (Apukhtin). Others from among New York’s clergy also prayed in church. Hundreds of the faithful, people of many nationalities, bent their knee before the Most Holy Mother of God with tears in their eyes.

Prior to bowing and venerating the wonderworking image, Fr. Serge – with the blessing of the icon’s guardian – opened the icon to remove the wad of cotton that had been soaked with myrrh, and handed it out in little pieces to the faithful. When a large crowd of people gathers, such a sight is uncommon, and not everyone has an opportunity to see the icon streaming myrrh before the eyes of the people, to sense the strong, otherworldly aroma spread throughout the church; in other words – to witness a miracle!

The people were awestruck; the church grew quiet. Holy myrrh abundantly flowed down the priest’s arms, and the people wept. Hundreds of eyes focused in that moment on the miracle, and only cameras were able to preserve the memory of these eyes and faces.

Once the icon was carefully enclosed once more, a crown of flowers worthily adorning it, only then did the people begin to venerate the holy image. Fr. Victor anointed the faithful with holy myrrh from the icon, while Fr. Serge distributed pieces of cotton saturated with myrrh and small copies of the icon, mementos of the original. Many perhaps did not even realize that the Hawaiian Icon is itself a copy of another myrrh-streaming icon, the Iveron-Montreal Icon, acquired by a Chilean – Brother Joseph Muñoz-Cortes – on the Holy Mountain of Athos. Such stories in the modern Orthodox world are not rare – a regular icon, printed in a shop, begins to stream myrrh and reveal great miracles. Originally, the Hawaiian Icon was a common photocopy of the Iveron-Montreal Icon of the Mother of God, much smaller in size than the original. The rector of Honolulu’s Russian church, Priest Anatole Lyovin, brought it from the cathedral in Montreal as a present to Reader Nectarios for his namesday.

Ten years after the murder of Brother Joseph Muñoz-Cortes and the disappearance of the myrrh-streaming Montreal Icon, Nectarios sensed in his house a delicate scent of roses, emanating from his icon corner. The scent grew stronger, but in his humility, for a long time he could not even consider that his humble home would be graced by the presence of the Most Pure Virgin.

…Few people spoke in the church – most prayed. Some wept. Some talked with Brother Nectarios, hoping to find not only answers to the questions that troubled their souls but, of course, support and comfort, as well.

The clergy called on the faithful not to ask for things in their prayers, but to repent and thank our Most Holy Lady Theotokos. One could easily feel how the time spent waiting to venerate the icon became for the Orthodox Christian a time of prayer, repentance, reflection, and a decisive choice to be cleansed of his sin and, with hope in God’s aid, to carry his cross.

God’s people kept coming to the myrrh-streaming icon almost until midnight. The myrrh-soaked cotton had all be given out, and then Fr. Serge opened the icon for a second time, so that no one might leave the church without receiving a material blessing from the holy image. The people grew quiet, having for a second time in one night borne witness to a miracle.

There were those in church who could still remember the myrrh-streaming Montreal Icon, and those who had prayed before the Hawaiian Icon several times before. Brother Nectarios explained that the icon’s bejeweled silver casing was a gift, given by a Greek family living in Honolulu. On the back are engraved the names of three hundred donors, who in one way or another contributed to the icon’s adornment. The current casing is the icon’s fifth. As soon as a casing becomes so saturated with myrrh that it can no longer be used, it is broken apart and its pieces given out to the faithful.

The one thing on the icon that remains constant is the face of the Mother of God. It is meek and humble. We see her on the icon directing us toward the Son of God, to Him Who manifested humility and was "obedient even unto death," but rose again, and throughout the ages reveals Himself to be our salvation. In Him are all the answers, for humility and meekness are a great power – a power that can not only penetrate the human heart and open the greatest doors, but also attract God’s mercy, so that we might pray that the Savior and His Most Pure Mother grant remission of our sins, and the illumination of all those who have yet to recognize this simple truth, yet who desperately need it.

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Tatiana Veselkina
Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese