A new weeping icon

THE MIRACULOUS ICONS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

A NEW WEEPING ICON

THE KAZAN MOTHER OF GOD IN ATHENS


The Weeping Kazan Icon of Athens

KONTAKION, TONE 8 TO THE KAZAN MOTHER OF GOD

LET US GATHER, O people, at this quiet and blessed refuge,+ a quick help, a ready and fervent salvation, the Virgin's protection.+ Let us hurry to prayer and hasten to repentance:+ for the Most Holy Mother of God pours upon us inexhaustible mercies,+ steps forward to our aid and delivers from great misfortunes and evils+ Her good-willed and God-fearing slaves.


GOD'S CLOSENESS TO MEN is shown in the continuous revelation of His mercies to as well as His chastisements of – the sinful human race. The record of this revelation shows certain mercies or chastisements so striking as to be an example to all His people – as were certain great Orthodox victories, or the fall of Constantinople or of Imperial Russia. Thus too the sixties of the 20th century may well come to be noted as the epoch of the Weeping Icons of the Mother of God, a great sign to Orthodox Christians of these latter days.

An carlier article in The Orthodox Word (1965, no. 6) describes the beginning of this phenomenon in 1960, when three icons – all paper reproductions – owned by Greek tamilies on Long Island, New York, began to weep. Thousands of Orthodox believers have seen these tears.

This great sign has recently been repeated in Athens. As if to show that the Mother of God is no respecter of persons, but visits rich as well as poor, and grants mercies through splendid as well as modest means the new Weeping Icon belongs to a wealthy family and is itself a valuable and rare object encased in silver and adorned with jewels. The following account was sent to The Orthodox Word by Archim. Timothy, priest of the Russian Orthodox Church in Athens, which the owner attends.

THE OWNER of the Icon is a woman, Russian by birth, married to an Englishman of the Anglican confession, and they live in Athens. Both are devout. The husband, owner of a racecourse, was ill for three years [of cancer]. He was treated by the luminaries of medical science in Athens, London, and Switzerland. The sick man was fading with each year, and in the past year the family had already been warned by the physicians of the helplessness of science.

In the autumn of 1967 the Reeses flew to London--for the last time, as it seemed. The sick man was so weak that he could hardly be dragged into the plane. After his arrival in London there were again doctors, consultations, but from these his condition did not improve. For the last time he went to his physician. On the way back to his hotel, while passing by an auction house, he saw in the window an Icon of the Mother of God which attracted his attention; he conceived a strong desire to buy it. He offered any price against that for which it had already been auctioned. An agreement was made and Mr. Reese returned to his wife with the marvelous Icon, which produced upon her also a strong impression.

Before very long the sick man began to feel better with every day; his strength increased and he began to feel that everything was not finished, even though the doctors had given him only weeks to live. Soon medicines and visits to doctors were no longer necessary, and the dark disease of cancer was conquered.

The Reeses were not yet aware of what had happened. Only after their farewell visits to the physicians did they realize Who was their real healer and physician. The doctors were astounded at the sight of their patient restored to health. They affirmed that they could not have been mistaken in their diagnoses; that this had happened was a miracle!

After they had returned to Athens, at the beginning of November, 1967, Mme. Reese began to notice that in the corner where she kept many icons, including the one acquired in London, some kind of light would appear from time to time. One night she saw in a dream a woman in white, with a dove; another time it seemed to her that the woman had come again and advised her to attach her engagement ring to the Icon of the Kazan Mother of God, which she did.

On the 16th of December, in the evening, as she was going to bed, Mme. Reese, while praying, noticed that something had appeared on the Icon on the right side. Not believing her eyes, she asked her husband to come and look. Astounded, both saw a large tear on the right cheek.

After several days, when the tear of the Mother of God began to leave a trace which descended farther, they informed me and I, accompanied by C. I. Dometiev-Pavlov, served a moleben before the wonderworking Icon, being plainly convinced that the Mother of God was weeping. Later many reverend fathers came to pray and prostrate themselves before this holy Image. Many times the wonderworking Image was brought for veneration to the church of the former Embassy, where I am priest; each time, despite bad weather, a multitude of Russians and Greeks has come to pray, being in need of help from the Heavens above. With what faith and prayerful feeling have they fallen down before this Image, being in sorrow or need, or thanking our Lady for Her entreaty for us sinners – thanking Her Who intercedes before Her Son for a world gone astray, for mercy!

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Archimandrite Nektary of Holy Trinity Monastery at Jordanville, New York, saw the Icon on his visit last year to Athens, and gave this description of it (Orthodox Russia, 1968, no. 7): "Today I saw this truly marvelous Icon of the Kazan Mother of God for myself. It is a rare Icon. It is not of paper, but a real icon painted on wood and adorned with a silver Faberge rizs with several stones, of about medium size, in a frame under glass. The tear of the Mother of God, quite expressively flowing out from the right eye, from the side next to the nose, has run down to the end of the nose and stopped. There are a few drops on the cheek to the right of the nose, and a little on the brow."

THE PHENOMENON of weeping icons is by no means new. Descriptions have appeared in The Orthodox Word of eleven such icons in Russian Church history, going back to the 11th century (see 1965, no. 6; 1966, no. 2; 1967, no. 5-6). Following are four more from the Pskov region of northern Russia, as translated from The Benefactions of the Mother of God to Christians through Her Holy Icons, St. Petersburg, 1905, publ. Tuzov.

12. The Hodigitria Icon in Pskov (p. 481). In the city of Pskov, in the church of St. Sergius at Zaluzhya, is found the Icon of the Hodigitria or Smolensk Mother of God, which shed tears in 1650. This Icon is the main Icon of the Mother of God on the iconostasis, adorned with a precious riza with the inscription: "In the year 7158 (1650), on the 5th of the month of February and the 2nd and 18th of May, from this wonderworking Icon, from the right eye, tears flowed." From the detailed description of miracles which is exhibited on the left pillar of the church, it is clear that the Icon belonged to the cleric Afanassy, who lived in the Monastery of St. Sergius in Pskov, near this same church, under Hegoumen Anthony; that the first miracle a flowing of tears "thicker than water" – occurred in his cell; and that then the Icon was transferred to the church, where twice, in May, the same miracle was repeated in the presence of the Bishop of Pskov, Makary, and the whole people.

13. The Umileniye Icon in the Opochka Cathedral (p. 790). In the Cathedral of the Transfiguration in Opochka, Pskov Diocese, there is a wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God of Umileniye, which several times shed tears over the misfortunes of the Russian land.

14. The Mirozha Mother of God (p. 630). In Pskov, at the mouth of the river Mirozha, is the Monastery of the Saviour, founded in 1156. In it is a wonderworking Icon of the Mirozha Mother of God of the Sign. The Most Holy Mother of God is represented on It standing in full stature. This Icon was glorified in the year 1567, on the 24th of September, a miraculous shedding of tears and other miracles at the time of the plague which occurred in Pskov under Tsar Ivan IV. From that time, in honor of the Mirozha Icon, a special Church service was compiled, which was published in 1666. A feast day is celebrated every year, using this service, on September 24.

15. The Mother of God of the Sign, of Kameno (p. 612). The parish of Kameno, where a wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God of the Sign is located, is 30 miles from the town of Opochka in the province of Pskov. Concerning the marvelous sign which came from the Mother of God, the following written narrative has been preserved. "There was a great and most glorious miracle of the Mother of God, which was performed by the Most Pure and Her venerated and honorable Icon in the year 6934 (1426), in the month of September on the 16th day, in the region of the city of Pskov, beyond Old Kolozh, in a village near the lake called Kameno, a distance of 30 miles from the town of Opochka. In the house of a certain Christian was an Icon of our Most Holy Lady the Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary. And suddenly there was a terrible and fearful sign from this Icon; from the image of the Most Pure Mother of God, from the right eye, blood flowed and dropped on the place where the Holy Icon was. And when It, being moved from that place, was carried to the city of Pskov, that all might pray before It and be delivered from the death-giving plague, on the way blood flowed onto a cloth from that wonderworking Icon. At that time there was a plague also in Great Novgorod and all its region and in all Russian villages. At that same place, at the lake called Kameno, on the bank, where such a great and most glorious miracle occurred, a wooden church was built in the name of our Lady the Ever-Virgin Mary and Her honorable and glorious Sign. And to the present time the right-believing flock that comes with faith to the house of the Mother of God is received in undiminishing numbers. After the church was built on the lake called Kameno, a feast was established of the Mother of God of the Sign for all years to come, in the month of September on the 16th day; thus to the present day the feast is celebrated without fail in Her church with allnight prayer."

The miraculous sign in the parish of Kameno occurred at the time of the invasion of the Russian land by Prince Vitovt of Lithuania, with great shedding of Christian blood. Great crowds of people would flock on this significant day to the parish of Kameno, and from the time of the miraculous sign many miracles were worked.

The information concerning these icons serves to corroborate the conclusions made concerning the Weeping Icons in an earlier issue of The Orthodox Word. By Her tears the Mother of God shows Her prayer and mercy for men; Her intercession for the sinful human race becomes, as it were, visible in Her tears. Again, by such a great and extraordinary miracle the Mother of God is glorified by God, and this glory is echoed by men who hasten to the Weeping Icons in fervent gratitude and prayer. Finally, the miracle is most often a sign of present or impending danger to believers, whether from plague, invasion, or other misfortune. Sometimes, when man's response to the miracle has been fervent and profound, the misfortune has been averted; but sometimes, too, disaster has indeed come upon whole towns or regions.

Today there seems to be no immediate or impending catastrophe affecting Orthodox believers in America, in Greece, or in New Zealand (where the Tikhvin Mother of God continues to weep1). Yet if one looks more closely at the signs of these times, does one not sense in this decade of the 1960's as it were a door opening upon some monstrous future? Communism has just celebrated the golden jubilee of its bloody reign in Russia, now having enslaved the greater part of the East; increasing lawlessness and disorders everywhere corrode the last vestiges of order and decency in the free world; and the false prophets of an ecumenical new age promise peace and security and a spectacular "union"... upon the ashes of the Church of Christ and the blood of her last witnesses. The world is all but ripe for the appearance of the lawless one, Antichrist.

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1. See The Orthodox Word, 1965, no. 6, p. 225; 1967, no. 2, p. 70. Further information about this Icon will be included in a future issue.


No small catastrophe, indeed, threatens the world and Orthodox believers but rather the greatest catastrophe of human history, the pinnacle of satanic achievement which, to the eyes of those outside the small flock of Christ's true Church, will seem to be the peak of worldly glory.

If we are indeed on the eve of these fateful times, the tears of the Mother of God are comprehensible and call us to repentance, prayer, and determination to follow the narrow path of Christ's Church to the end; and doubtless other such signs of warning and encouragement await us. For however the enemies of God may seem to triumph, God does not leave His faithful flock, and in the end, by the power and grace of God, theirs is the victory.

Most Holy Mother of God, save us!