THE ORIGINAL MIRACULOUS ICON of the Iveron Virgin Mary is on
Mt. Athos, the famous center of Orthodox monasticism (known also as Agion Oros -
Greek for the "Holy Mountain").
By tradition, it was painted by the apostle and evangelist
Luke. In the 9th century, this Icon was in the possession of a widow who lived
in Nicea. This town in Asia Minor no longer exists, but in its time it was the
venue for two Ecumenical Councils; the first, which composed the first eight
articles of Nicean Creed, and the seventh, which reinstituted the veneration of
icons after a lengthy struggle with the iconoclast heresy, which had erroneously
equated the veneration of icons to idol worship.
It was during the reign of the iconoclast Byzantine emperor
Theophilus that soldiers came to the house of the widow where, in a small
chapel, the Iveron Icon of the Virgin Mary occupied a place of honor. One of the
soldiers struck the Icon with his sword, and immediately blood began to flow
from the gashed cheek of the Virgin. Shaken by this miracle, the soldier
instantly repented, renounced the iconoclast heresy, and entered a monastery. On
his advice, the widow concealed the Icon in order to avert its further
desecration. After praying for guidance before the Icon, the widow put the Holy
Image into the sea.
To
her immense surprise and joy the Icon did not sink but, remaining upright,
drifted away in a westerly direction. Fleeing persecution, the widow's son left
Nicea and went to Mt. Athos where he led a saintly life as a monk to the end of
his days. There he recounted the story of how his mother had set the Holy Icon
upon the waves, and this story was handed down from one generation of monks to
another. Many years later this Icon appeared on the Holy Mountain ("in a
pillar of fire" as Athonite tradition recounts) from the sea, close by the
Iveron monastery.
At that time the holy monk Gabriel was one of the brotherhood
in this monastery. The Virgin Mary appeared to him in a vision and directed him
to convey to the abbot and brothers of the monastery that She wished them to
have Her Icon as their help and salvation. She told Gabriel to approach the Icon
on the waters without fear and take it with his hands. Obedient to the words of
the Virgin Mary, says Athonite tradition, Gabriel "walked upon the waters
as though upon dry land," took up the Icon and brought it back to the
shore. The icon was then brought into the monastery and placed in the altar. On
the next day the Icon disappeared from the sanctuary, and was found on the wall
beside the monastery gate. It was returned to the altar, but the next day it was
again found by the gate.
This recurred several times, until the the Holy Virgin
revealed to the monk Gabriel that it was not Her wish for the Icon to be
protected by the monks, but that She wished to protect them. After this, a
church was built near the monastery gate where the Icon resides to this day. In
connection with the name of the monastery the Icon came to be known as the
"Iveron" Virgin Mary, and because of its location, the
"Portaitissa," or "Gatekeeper." In addition to many
miraculous hearings, the Holy Virgin demonstrated Her protection of the Iveron
Monastery during various assaults by Saracen pirates. News of this
wonder-working Icon reached Russia through pilgrims who had visited Mt. Athos.
In the 17th century Archimandrite Nikon of Moscow (later to
become Patriarch) asked the abbot of the Iveron monastery to send a copy of the
Icon to Russia, and this request was fulfilled. The copy of this Icon also began
to work miracles and a special chapel was built for it next to the Kremlin walls
in Moscow, where it was especially revered by the Russian people until the
Revolution of 1917. The chapel was destroyed by the Bolsheviks and the fate of
the Icon is not known.
In 1982, a Chilean convert to Orthodoxy, Jose Munoz, in the
company of two friends, embarked from Canada to the ancient bastion of Orthodox
monasticism, Mt. Athos, on a pilgrimage. An art teacher by profession, he is
also an iconographer, and therefore wished to visit some of the sketes (small
monastic communities dependent upon one of the 20 major monasteries of Athos)
and monasteries which specialize in icon painting. One of the friends who had
accompanied Jose decided to become a monk and remained on Mt. Athos in one of
the smaller sketes; Jose and his other companion directed themselves towards the
Danilov skete, where icons are painted in the ancient Byzantine style using the
egg tempera technique. After eight hours of climbing uphill on rough terrain,
they were very tired and decided to stop at a skete which they could see on the
the Mountainside below.
This skete, dedicated to the Nativity of Christ, is very poor
and its 14 monks keep a strict monastic rule. The abbot, Fr. Klimentos, greeted
them warmly and offered traditional Athonite hospitality. Then he took them to
see the skete's icon-painting studio. As soon as he entered the studio, Jose
felt an immediate and indescribable attraction to a copy of the Iveron Icon of
the Virgin Mary which hung on one of the walls. As he later explained, his heart
felt as though it had 'leaped or turned over." He asked whether he could
buy this Icon, but was told repeatedly that it was one of the first icons which
had been painted at this skete (by one Fr. Chrysostomos in 1981) and was not for
sale at any price.
That night at a divine service in the church of the skete,
during the singing of the angelic hymn to the Theotokos "It is Meet"
(one of the chief prayers of the Orthodox Church to the Virgin Mary), Jose fell
to his knees and begged the Virgin Mary to make it possible for him to take the
Icon back with him into the world, where "we have need of You."
Immediately he felt an assurance that somehow his prayer would be answered. The
next morning, as Jose and his friend were about to depart, the abbot appeared
holding the Icon and said to Jose that it pleased the Virgin Mary for Her Icon
to go with him to North America. Jose and his companion went down the mountain
and took the the boat towards Daphne, a port on the western shore of the
peninsula. On the way, Jose heard a strong inner voice which bade him: "Go
to the Iveron monastery and touch your Icon to the original wonder-working
Iveron Icon."
This they did. Upon arrival at the Iveron monastery they
waited three hours before a monk came to open the church which houses the
original "Portaitissa." Jose asked that the protective icon case be
opened so that his Icon could be placed upon the original Portaitissa in order
to be directly blessed by the Virgin Mary. The monk was suprised, but agreed to
Jose's request when it was explained to him that Jose and his companion wished
to take the blessing of the Virgin Mary to the West where Her intercession is
much needed.
Returning to his home in Montreal, Canada, Jose placed the
Iveron Virgin Mary in his icon corner, where he also kept relics of the saints
from the Kiev Caves monastery and of the Grand Duchess Elizabeth (one of the New
Martyrs of Russia). Jose began to read a daily Akathist (hymns of praise) before
his newly-acquired Icon. At about 4 a.m. on Nov. 24, 1982 (three weeks after his
return from Mt. Athos), Jose woke up to the smell of a very strong fragrance, as
though someone had spilled a bottle of exquisite perfume. He thought at first
that the fragrance emanated from the relics but later, when he stood before the
Icon to say his morning prayers, he saw that the hands of the Virgin Mary were
streaked with oil. Jose assumed that a friend who was sharing the house had
spilled some oil onto the Icon while adjusting the flame of the vigil lamp
hanging before it, but the friend denied touching the lamp.
When Jose wiped the Icon, he discovered that it was the
source of the wonderful fragrance which had by now filled the whole house. Upon
the advice of a local Orthodox clergyman, the Icon was taken to church and
placed on the altar. During the entire liturgy, myrrh flowed from the hands of
the Christ Child. Since that time, with the exception of several days during
Holy Week, when the Icon is absolutely dry, the myrrh has continued to flow
almost uninterruptedly. (Holy Myrrh is a sweet, fragrant oil which was used in
the Old Testament for the anointing of kings. In contemporary Orthodox church
practice, a newly born Christian is anointed with Holy Myrrh during which the
words "The seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit" are said by the
priest.) In the years since, Jose has traveled to many cities and parishes where
the Icon has been venerated to the great joy and consolation of the faithful.
Wherever the Icon goes, there are always many questions. Some
people initially have doubts. A scientist in Miami was astounded to see that the
back of the Icon remained perfectly dry. He later surreptitiously chipped off a
small piece of the board on which the Icon is painted for scientific analysis:
it was found to be ordinary pine wood, nothing more. At some times the myrrh
flows in greater abundance than at others. During the consecration of a bishop
in Montreal there was such an outpouring of the myrrh that it streamed down from
the analogion (lectern on which icons are kept in Orthodox churches) onto the
floor. On another occasion, in Florida, the myrrh was seen to rise forth from
the hands of the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child as though it were being
pressed from within. Nobody has any power to regulate the flow of the myrrh, for
apparently it moves to the will of God and His Most Pure Mother.
The Icon is kept in a frame about two inches deep and
measures about 12 X 18 inches. At first the myrrh flowed only from the hands of
the Virgin Mary, from the star on Her left shoulder, and, occasionally, from the
hands of Our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet in March 1985, during a Lenten service, even
the frame and glass of the Icon began to exude myrrh in such quantities that the
cloth of the analogion on which it lay was totally saturated. There is always a
layer of cotton wool at the base of the Icon to absorb the myrrh: pieces of this
cotton are distributed to the faithful. Although there have already been several
cases of physical healing (not only among Orthodox, but Catholics and
Protestants, too), the purpose of the Virgin Mary seems to be directed more at
the healing of souls. Many who have stood before the Icon have testified to
this, experiencing not only compunction and repentance, but consolation at the
same time. As mentioned earlier, the flow of myrrh ceases during Holy Week. It
ceases on Holy Monday. After the liturgy on the morning of Great Saturday, a
light dew of myrrh forms on the Icon, its case and protecting glass. During
Matins (the midnight service at which the glorious Resurrection of Our Lord is
proclaimed), when the procession of clergy and faithful, holding icons and
banners, leaves the church, the Icon begins to exude myrrh in such quantities,
that it covers the hands of the person who is carrying it.
This is not the first time that the Orthodox Church has
witnessed such a miracle. In the 19th century the Surety-of-Sinners Icon in
Moscow exuded myrrh with which the sick were anointed and received healing.
Earlier, there was a myrrhstreaming icon of the Virgin Mary in the Tolga
monastery in Yaroslavl, and there have been others. What is the meaning of this
extraordinary manifestation of God's grace in our time? It has been observed
that in the history of the Church such miracles have occurred in times of great
tribulation; we saw this in the Apostolic times, and, more recently, in Russia,
where the Church has suffered cruel persecution for 70 years. The miracles
strengthen the faithful and prepare them to endure trials.
The appearance of the myrrh-streaming Icon in our time may
well signify a period of further great trials for the Russian Orthodox Church
and, at the same time, offer consolation that the Virgin Mary will be a
Protectress of the faithful: Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be
required. Least Among the Brethren Jose Munoz formed the desire to become a monk
while still a boy in Chile. He became converted to Holy Orthodoxy as a youth and
began to lead a monastic life as best he could within the confines of the world,
although he did not enter a monastery. Later he moved to Canada and continued to
observe this way of life. When the miracle of the myrrh-streaming occurred, Jose
vowed that he would never seek worldly gain from the Icon. Therefore any
collections taken up during church services at which the Icon is present are
sent to the poorest monasteries and sketes on Mt. Athos and/or to help those
persecuted for their faith in the Soviet Union and their families. Jose never
accepts any money for himself while traveling with the Icon, although he is
forced to take much time off from his teaching and icon painting, which are his
only sources of gainful employment.
When asked why he thinks he was chosen for such a miracle,
Jose replies that, knowing his many weaknesses, he is at a loss to explain this;
he feels that perhaps it was because God often reveals himself through the very
least of His servants, and that as a convert, he feels himself to be the
"least among the brethren." He regards himself not as the owner, but
merely the custodian of the Icon, which properly belongs to the entire body of
the faithful. From his childhood his mother, who is a devout Roman Catholic,
taught him to love the Most Pure Virgin, therefore he always prayed to Her,
though never asked Her for any signs or miracles. Glory be to Our Lord Jesus
Christ for manifesting through Jose, the "least of His servants," the
wonder-working Iveron Icon of the Virgin Mary!