The
Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother of God: A Letter from Reader
Nectarios Yangson
On
October 12 and 13, clergy of the Eastern American Diocese of ROCOR
and the Patriarchal Parishes in the USA will serve a joint All-Night
Vigil and Divine Liturgy in honor of the fifth anniversary of the
finding of the Myrrh-Streaming Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother of
God, which was discovered in October 2007 by Reader Nectarios
Yangson, a parishioner of the ROCOR parish in Hawaii and guardian of
the icon. Below is a letter from Reader Nectarios detailing how he
came to possess the icon, his discovery of the icon streaming myrrh,
and the events that followed. We invite everyone to acquaint
themselves with the history of this miraculous image of the Mother
of God.
Dear beloved in Christ,
In humility and with extreme trepidation, I
will attempt to relate to you what actually occurred before rumors
spread, evolve, and eventually become untruths. Many have asked me
to explain the events that have taken place in recent weeks
regarding the two myrrh-streaming icons at the Holy Theotokos of
Iveron Russian Orthodox Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. It has been hard
to put into words the recent events that have taken over my life. I
can't imagine how others would have reacted if they were in my
shoes, God only knows. I pray God will guide me, and my family, to
do and say things that are not contrary to His Will. I will attempt
to tell the story of how these humble icons came into my life and
how they changed it. Everything I write here is true.
The icons in question are two: One is a
mounted-print made, I believe, at the Sofrino Church factory near
Moscow. It is an exact copy of the Montreal Myrrh-streaming Iveron
Icon of the Holy Theotokos; this was the icon cared for by Blessed
Martyr Brother José Muñoz. It is a small icon, roughly 7 x 9 inches
and approximately one inch thick. My parish priest, Fr. Anatole
Lyovin, gifted it to me for my Name's Day [in 1997]. He said he
purchased it at a church bookstore in Toronto when the parish in
which he had grown up celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of its
founding. The icons from Sofrino have a distinctive style with a
beautiful silk-screen riza (or
oklad
in Russian, pokamisoin Greek) built
into the icon. This is done so that those who cannot afford
beautiful and very expensive icons can have something equally
beautiful from Sofrino for less.
The second icon is a hand-painted icon in
the shape of a Cross, with the image of Our Lord's crucifixion in
the traditional Byzantine style of iconography. A Greek monk from
the Holy Mountain Athos painted it. It is roughly 8x11 inches and
approximately 1½ inches thick. I purchased a set of two near
identical Cross icons and gave one to my father as a gift; I kept
the other.
Before I relate to you the full story of
the icons, let me say how it all began…
Over three months ago, sometime around May,
June or July of 2007, my wife and I noticed a hint of the scent of
roses in the area surrounding our icon corner in our home chapel.
Something made us look at our Cross icon of Christ (located behind
our family reliquary), we noticed a small bead of liquid around the
side wound on the image of the Christ, where the "soldier pierced
His side with a lance". The liquid smelled very sweet, like myrrh.
My experience with myrrh is quite limited, my only contact being a
cotton ball soaked with myrrh from the Montreal Myrrh-streaming
Iveron Icon and several cotton balls of myrrh from the
Myrrh-streaming St. Nicholas Icon. We told no one of this and
proceeded to "keep an eye" on the icon for any new developments or
any possible continuation of the "streaming". The bead of myrrh
eventually dried out and we eventually forgot about it.
Now on to the most recent developments in
my story…
During the last week of September I began
to notice an unbelievably strong smell of myrrh, at home, in my car,
even at work. I couldn't explain it. Was it all in my head? I asked
my wife and she said she didn't smell anything. I spoke with several
other people who visited our home, and they too said they didn't
smell anything. (One of these people was our Serbian Orthodox
kuma – she, too, couldn't
smell anything.) I was convinced it was all in my imagination. This
was on September 27th, the feast of the Exaltation of the Cross.
Then in the first week of October, my wife
and I were extremely ill and missed Vespers that night. We don't
miss too many of the church's divine services, so we did take notice
of the date, October 6th (feast day of the Conception of St. John
the Baptist). Around 10:30 that night, I was working in my office,
which also doubles as our home chapel where our icon corner is
located. My cat walked into the office and began to sniff around as
if he smelled something. I did not smell anything. He proceeded to
walk toward the area were our family reliquaries are kept. I thought
this was strange since he would never go near the reliquaries;
amazingly something always stopped him, and he's a nosy cat. Yet
this time he stood on his hind legs and sniffed around, I assume in
order to figure out what the smell was. I still didn't smell
anything. I proceeded to pick him up and then I noticed the scent.
It was so strong, even overwhelming. Never have I smelled anything
like that in my life. I couldn't explain why I hadn't smelled it
before. It was like a thousand roses had fallen into the room. I
crossed myself and guarded myself with the Jesus Prayer. I put the
cat down and proceeded to look at the icons. I admit I was afraid to
look at the icons near the reliquaries. I finally came to the icon
of the Cross and noticed that the bead of myrrh by the side-wound of
Christ was still dry, for a split second I regained some composure,
even as the smell of roses was getting stronger. I then looked down
and my hand was wet -- it was myrrh. How did it get there? The icon
was dry? Or was it? I then noticed that the left knee of the image
of Our Lord was forming a bead of myrrh right before my eyes. I then
called out to my wife. She came running, and when I asked her if she
had spilled anything on the icons, she said no. She hadn't gone near
them. I showed her the icon. She was in shock. I told her the smell
is too strong. Help me look at the other icons. So she did. In my
office I have two bookshelves, at the top of them are icons. We have
many icons, maybe too many. I stood on my toes to reach for the
icons at the top of my bookshelves. My wife did the same. Finally I
grabbed the icon of Iveron given to me by Fr. Anatole. It was
completely wet. And then the smell got even stronger. Even my wife
could smell it. For those of you who don't know my wife, her sense
of smell is very limited; she is only capable of smelling citrus
scents. We were afraid. We asked one another if we cleaned or
anointed the icons recently, and both of us said "No." "What is
going on?" I asked. I put the icons back where they were; we took a
few pictures with our digital camera. Then I said an Akathist to the
Mother of God in honor of her Iveron Icon and went to bed, or at
least tried to.
The next day,
Sunday October 7th, after much debate, we left the icons at home and
went to church. After the Liturgy we spoke to our kuma, who
instructed us to speak with the priest immediately. We told Fr.
Anatole what had happened. He listened patiently and said, 'Bring
the icons to church!' We then arranged with the priest, to bring the
icons to church the next Wednesday, October 10th. Up until that
Wednesday, the icons continued to stream. I collected the myrrh on
cotton and before them I said prayers for my sister who was ill and
for several other people.
[Fr Anatole's Note: The next day, his sister called her father to
say that her doctor cannot explain it, but that her pancreas, which
had completely stopped functioning had returned to its normal state
and that her diabetes was under control.]
We couldn't wait until Wednesday.
On Wednesday October 10th, we brought the
icons to church and placed them on two analogia (lecterns) in the
center of the church. Fr. Anatole inspected them and wiped them down
with cotton and proceeded to start the service of the Akathist Hymn
of the Iveron Icon. After the service, the icons were wiped down
again; they had streamed a little during the service. Fr. Anatole
confirmed to us that it is ‘definitely streaming myrrh’ and that it
is ‘a very pure myrrh.’ The smell of roses filled the air. I asked
him, What we were to do? He asked us to leave the icons in church
for the time being. No one knew about the icons; they were safe at
church.
The next
Saturday, October 13th, just happened to be "clean the church day".
We were preparing our church for the upcoming feasts; our parish
feast day (November 24), Christmas, the Serbian bishop's
visit,
etc. So my wife, another person, and I were put in charge of
cleaning. While we were cleaning the church we couldn't take our
eyes off the two myrrh-streaming icons, which slowly streamed while
we were cleaning. The smell of roses was quite pungent. The icons
seemed to exude a strong smell of roses. The Icon of the Mother of
God seems to smell more like 'roses' than the other icon. The Cross
has a spicier smell to it. I can't explain it. While we were
cleaning the church, our
kumovi, came to see the icons. Not many folks could wait for
Vespers that evening. Our
kuma later remarked to me that she's the 'doubting Thomas' and
really couldn't believe it until she saw it for herself.
Understandable. She didn't realize that the icons were actually
streaming as we were cleaning. (They don’t stream continuously.) She
venerated the Cross and kissed the feet of Our Lord. She got a nice
helping of myrrh in her mouth. Like the doubting Apostle Thomas who
put his fingers in Christ's Hands and Side, she put her mouth right
in the myrrh, where myrrh wasn't supposed to be! I couldn't help but
laugh.
The next day, Sunday October 14th, was the
Feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, and Fr. Anatole
revealed the icons to the people. The icons streamed quite heavily;
there was enough myrrh for everyone. They have continued streaming
ever since. Many have come to see the icons, Russians, Greeks,
Serbs, Roman Catholics, Protestants. All who approach the icons feel
the Grace of God! There have been days when the icons have been
completely dry, while on other days they are covered in myrrh. Yet
whether they stream or not, they continuously give off an extremely
strong scent of roses. It is truly a great miracle! I sometimes
wonder if it is a warning.
Now that I look back, it seems that
'revelation' has been the central theme of late. We revealed the
fragrance to our kumovi
on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross. We found the icons
giving myrrh and revealed them to our priest on the Feast of the
Conception of St. John the Baptist. He was the one man who revealed
Christ to the world. Our priest revealed the myrrh-streaming icons
to the church on the Feast day of the Protection of the Mother of
God. These cannot be coincidences!
Our parish is dedicated to the original
Myrrh-streaming Iveron Icon, an icon that had never traveled to
Hawaii. Br. José wanted to come here, but never made it. I must
confess to you, sometimes I feel that our fellow Orthodox brethren
on the mainland have forgotten our little parish, our little
community. Living out here in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, we
struggle to survive as an Orthodox parish. Struggle to pay the
bills, struggle to make the rent. I sometimes wonder, when will we
have a church of our own? Has the Lord forgotten us? Are we to
struggle forever? Have we done something wrong? Have we angered You,
O Lord? Whether or not our fellow clergy, our fellow Orthodox
faithful have forgotten us, one thing is clear… The Most Holy Mother
of God has not forgotten us. She has not abandoned us. She will not
abandon us! Through these icons, I now have hope that there IS a
light at the end of the tunnel. Whether or not we are blessed to
have a church of our own, it really doesn't matter; God has shown us
that He has not forgotten us! And that's all that is needed. God is
telling us that He is real! Dare we ignore this revelation? Dare we
turn our backs on this great miracle? Dare we forget Christ? May God
forgive us if we do!
