SYRIA: Miracle of Holy Theotokos in the Christian town of Saidnaya

   

A miracle by the Holy Theotokos was reported at one of the monasteries of Saidnaya. This town is one of the most famous Christian inhabited and pilgrimage places in the war torn Syria.

The Turks want the icon of Panagia Sumela in Trabzon

 

Turkish newspaper Sabah reports that Turkey has made a request for the transport of historical, miraculous icon of Panagia Sumela from Vermio to Trabzon. 

Biblical films' Hollywood comeback - Mary Mother of Christ

Mary Mother of Christ, whose title character will be played by Odeya Rush

 

It is a part of Mary, Joseph and Jesus’s life that has not been shown on the big screen before,” reads a synopsis.

Holy Trinity hosts miraculous St. Anna icon

POTTSTOWN--The miraculous myrrh-streaming icon of St. Anna, the mother of Mary, the Virgin, will be brought to Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, 1236 Juniper St., at 4 p.m. today.

Virgin Mary Icon In Honolulu Produces Myrrh - Cures Man Of Blindness (VIDEO)

   

Parishioners at a small, "cozy" Russian Orthodox Church in Hawaii say they have a lot to be thankful for.
"We certainly don't deserve it," Father Antole Lyovin says of the church's good fortune.

Damascus , SYRIA: Suicide Bomber Targets Food Line at Orthodox Christian Church - 4 Dead

 

Four people were murdered and several people were injured in a suicide blast near the Virgin Mary Greek Orthodox Church in Damascus this week. 

 

Full story>>>

Saint Proclus of Constantinople: If Christ Had Not Been Born of Woman

 

But when the time had fully come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" So through God you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son then an heir. - Galatians 4:4-7

A God who was not only God, and a man who was not simply man, was born of woman. 

By being born he formed the gate of salvation from what had at one time been the way in for sin. Where in fact the serpent by exploiting human disobedience had infused his poison, there the Word entered through obedience and built a living temple. From the womb of a woman had come forth the original son of sin, Cain; and from the womb of a woman, without seed, there came into the light the Christ, the redeemer of the human race. 

Let us not be ashamed that he was born of a woman. That birth was for us the beginning of salvation. 

If Christ had not been born of woman, he would not have died either, and would not 'by death have destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.' (Heb. 2:14)

[from Homily on the Mother of God (PG6S, 679ff.)] 

St. Cyril of Alexandria: Theotokos - Mother of God

Let not any be troubled, hearing the holy Virgin called Mother of God, nor let them fill their souls with Jewish unbelief, yea rather with Gentile impiety. For the Jews attacked Christ saying, For a good work we stone Thee not but for blasphemy because Thou,being a Man, makest Thyself God: and the children of the Greeks, hearing the doctrines of the Church that God hath been born of a woman, laugh.

But they shall eat the fruit of their own impiety, and shall hear of us, The fool will utter folly and his heart imagine vain things. But the plan of our Mystery, albeit to the Jews it be an offence, to the Gentiles folly, yet to us who know it, verily admirable is it and saving and far removed from being to be disbelieved by any. 

For if there were any whatever who should dare to say that this flesh made of earth had become mother of the bare Godhead, and that she bare out of her own self the Nature which is over the whole creation, the thing would be madness and nothing else: for not of earth has the Divine Nature been made, nor will that which is subject to decay become the root of immortality nor that which is subject to death bear the Life of all things, nor yet the Unembodied be the fruit of the palpable body, that which is subject to birth [bear] that which is superior to birth, that which hath its beginning in time, that which is without beginning.

But since we affirm that the Word became as we and took a body like to our bodies and united this of a truth unto Himself, in a way namely beyond understanding and speech, and that He was thus too made Man and born after the flesh, what is there incredible therein or worthy of disbelief? albeit the human soul (as we have already full often said) being of other nature than the body, is yet born with it, just as we say that it too has been united therewith. Yet will no one (I deem) suppose that the soul has the nature of the body as the beginning of its own existence, but God inplaces it ineffably in the body and it is born along with it; yet do we define as one the animal that is made up out of both, i. e., man. 

Therefore the Word was God but was made Man too, and since He has been born after the flesh by reason of the human nature, she who bare Him is necessarily Mother of God. For if she have not borne God, let not Him Who is born of her be called God; but if the God-inspired Scriptures call Him God, as God Incarnate and made Flesh, and it be not possible in any other way to be Incarnate, save through birth of a woman, how is she not Mother of God, who bare Him?

 (Scholia on the Incarnation 28)

The three-hand Icon of our Lady - Icon

Mary Mother of Jesus (1999) - Watch FREE full movie (amazing movie and story based on  what Mary told and saw )

Mary, Mother of Jesus is a 1999  film that retells the story of Jesus through the eyes of Mary, his mother.

 Christian Bale as Jesus.

Martyr Igor of Kiev and Icon of the Mother of God

 

The Martyr Igor was briefly the Grand-Prince of Kiev during the 12th century – a time of conflict within the principality. Breaking their oaths, the nobles of Kiev rose up against Prince Igor, imprisoned him in a windowless log-house, and installed their own preferred candidate. Later, he was allowed to go into exile, to the Theodorov monastery.

Away from the political scheming, St Igor embraced the monastic life and spent his time in prayer. However, the new rulers of Kiev, determined to wipe out Igor’s family line, could not allow the prince-monk to remain alive, and incited a mob to violence. Whilst praying during the Liturgy, St Igor was dragged out of the monastery by the mob and brutally murdered, and hung him in the market place.

Before Igor was dragged from the monastery, he was praying before an icon of the Mother of God. Therefore, as Igor was recognized over time as a holy passion-bearer and intercessor before God, so too was the icon he prayed before revered in connection with him. Named Igorevskaya (Игоревская) after the prince-monk, the icon was – and still is – honoured on Jun 5 (or Jun 18 according to the civil calendar) by the Church, the same date as the translation of St Igor’s relics to the Holy Transfiguration Cathedral in Chernigov. 

The original icon itself was moved to the Cathedral of St John in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, where it remained until the beginning of the 20th century. It’s current whereabouts are unknown, though many copies have been made of the holy image which do survive. Therefore, even though the original icon – which was probably of Greek origin – is lost to the world, the image itself is still celebrated on this day, along with all its faithful copies.

Igorevskaya Mother of God

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Pope Gregory the Great:Michael means “Who is like God”; Gabriel is “The Strength of God”; and Raphael is “God’s Remedy”

You should be aware that the word “angel” denotes a function rather than a nature.

Those holy spirits of heaven have indeed always been spirits. They can only be called angels when they deliver some message.

Moreover, those who deliver messages of lesser importance are called angels; and those who proclaim messages of supreme importance are called archangels.

And so it was that not merely an angel but the archangel Gabriel was sent to the Virgin Mary.

It was only fitting that the highest angel should come to announce the greatest of all messages.

Some angels are given proper names to denote the service they are empowered to perform.

In that holy city, where perfect knowledge flows from the vision of almighty God, those who have no names may easily be known.

But personal names are assigned to some, not because they could not be known without them, but rather to denote their ministry when they came among us.

Thus, Michael means “Who is like God”; Gabriel is “The Strength of God”; and Raphael is “God’s Remedy”.

Whenever some act of wondrous power must be performed, Michael is sent, so that his action and his name may make it clear that no one can do what God does by his superior power. 

So also our ancient foe desired in his pride to be like God, saying: I will ascend into heaven; I will exalt my throne above the stars of heaven; I will be like the Most High.

He will be allowed to remain in power until the end of the world when he will be destroyed in the final punishment.

Then, he will fight with the archangel Michael, as we are told by John: A battle was fought with Michael the archangel.

So too Gabriel, who is called God’s strength, was sent to Mary. He came to announce the One who appeared as a humble man to quell the cosmic powers.

Thus God’s strength announced the coming of the Lord of the heavenly powers, mighty in battle.

Raphael means, as I have said, God’s remedy, for when he touched Tobit’s eyes in order to cure him, he banished the darkness of his blindness.

Thus, since he is to heal, he is rightly called God’s remedy.

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VANDALISM ATTEMPT MADE AGAINST THE CZESTOCHOWA ICON

A fifty-eight-year-old man threw vials of black paint at the Czestochowa icon in the Jasna Góra Monastery in southern Poland on Sunday, reports ITAR-TACC. The icon is held in great veneration by both Catholic and Orthodox Christians as miracle-working.

Monastery guards apprehended the vandal and turned him over to the police. His motives are unknown. The man has been questioned and is expected to undergo psychiatric evaluation, reports Agence France-Presse. He could be charged with offending religious sentiment, an offense punishable by up to two years in prison.

The monastery has assured the faithful that the icon was not damaged. A protective glass covering prevented the paint from soiling the revered image.

According to tradition, the Czestochowa icon of the Mother of God, known by many Western Christians as the “Black Madonna”, was painted by the Evangelist Luke and brought to Constantinople from Jerusalem by St. Helen. 

In the fourth century in 1656, King Jan II Kazimierz pronounced the icon the “Protectress of Poland”. Thousands of people make pilgrimages to the icon each year.

ELDER PAISIOS: Τhe Veneration of Sts. Joachim and Anna

- Elder, tell us about St. Joachim and St. Anna, the Ancestors of God. At one point you started to tell us something.

He said:

From a young age I had great reverence towards the Holy Ancestors of God. Indeed, I had told someone that, when they make me a monk, I would want them to give me the name Joachim. 

How much I have benefited from them! Sts. Joachim and Anna are the most dispassionate couple which ever existed. They did not have any carnal mindset.

This is how God made man and this is how he wanted men to be born - dispassionately. But after the fall passion entered the relationship between man and woman. 
As soon as a dispassionate couple was found, which is how God created man and as he wished men to be born, the Panagia was born, this pure creation, and then Christ became incarnate. My thoughts tell me that Christ would have descended earlier to earth, if there was a pure couple, such as were Sts. Joachim and Anna.

The Roman Catholics fall into delusion and believe, supposedly from piety, that the Panagia was born without the ancestral sin. While the Panagia was not free from the ancestral sin, she was born as God wished men to be born after their creation. 

She was all-pure, (1) because Her conception occurred without pleasure. The Holy Ancestors of God, after fervent prayer to God to grant them a child, conceived not by sexual lust, but by obedience to God. This fact I had experienced on Sinai. (2)

(1) The Theotokos was born according to a natural manner and not virginally. “She was all-pure”, because, as St. John of Damascus writes in his homily “On the Birth of our Most-Holy Lady Theotokos and Ever-Virgin Mary”, she was conceived “chastely” but increased with her struggle the holiness given to her from her parents, warding off all unnecessary and soul-endangering thoughts before experiencing them.

(2) The Elder lived in asceticism on Sinai, at Sts. Episteme and Galaction, from 1962 to 1964. This occurance he did not reveal to us."(Source: Elder Paisios the Athonite, Book IV: Family Life, Holy Hesychasterion of “St. John the Evangelist the Theologian”, Souroti, Thessaloniki, 2007)

Choose you favorite icon: Holy Theotokos - Rodon To Amaranton: video and icon

"Montreal Iveron – Myrrhstreaming” Icon of the Mother of God

Montreal Iveron icon was painted on Athos in 1981 by a Greek monk, who copied the original icon of the Mother of God Keeper of the Portal. In 1982, this icon was brought from Mount Athos to Montreal (Canada) by Joseph Muños-Cortez, of Spanish decent, who converted to Orthodoxy.

“On 24 November, at 3:00 AM, I woke up because of a strong fragrance. Initially, I thought that it emanates from the relics, or from a spilt bottle of perfume, but, having approached the icon, I was amazed: it was all covered by fragrant myrrh! I was motionless in place on account of such miracle!” – brother Jose related later on.

Soon the myrrhstreaming icon was taken to the church. Since then, the icon of the Mother of God streamed myrrh continuously, with the exception of Holy Weeks. It is notable, that the myrrh flowed mainly from the hands of the Mother of God and Christ, and also from the star, on the right shoulder of the Most Pure One. At the same time, the back side of the icon was always dry.

The wonderworking icon visited North and South America, Australia, New Zealand, Bulgaria, and Western Europe. Everywhere, throughout its travels it spread love and harmony, as for example in one parish, where all those gathered once again found a way toward prayer and church unity. Its presence intensified the fervor of prayer to such and extent, that Liturgies, served with it in church could be compared to those of Pascha, that are so fervent in the Orthodox Church.

Many counts of people coming back to church, confession, and communion are known. Thus, one woman, having learned of the death of her son, prepared to take her own life, but, touched to the depths of her soul at the sight of the wonderworking icon, she repented of her awful intention and immediately confessed.

The icon streamed myrrh for 15 years. On the night of 31 October, 1997, the keeper of the icon, Joseph Muños-Cortez, was brutally murdered in Athens, Greece, while the Wonderworking Iveron Icon disappeared without a trace

The icon appeared soon after the glorification of the New Martyrs of Russia, the Holy Royal Martyrs, it appeared in the place where the martyrs were first glorified, in the fold of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad, in the Russian Diaspora… It also appeared to us on the eve of the changes in the entire realm of Historical Russia.

Evermemorable brother Jose quoted the words of a certain pious maiden in this regard: “Myrrhbearing women came to anoint the Body of Christ before His Resurrection. Like unto them, the Mother of God today anoints the Russian People, foreshadowing the resurrection of Russia.”

In the last years of his life, brother Jose always thought that the Icon, of which he was the keeper, would have to visit Russia soon. At the same time, he repeated several times that the Icon cannot come to Russia secretly, “over the fence”, “through the back door.” It should enter the Fatherland by the main gates, with a solemn celebration, so that the entire orthodox Russia could make a prostration to the ground before the Most Pure One. The meeting of the Keeper of the Portal, Who would have returned to Her Own Home, could have marked the beginning of the church unity.

However, the Lord judged things to be different.

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Our Lady of the Wind ( icon )

Our Lady of the Wind

Patron of the Church of Our Lady of the Wind, Enfeh al-Koura

The nuns of Our Lady of Kaftoun painted this icon in December 2001, at the request of the parish of Enfeh, Lebabon and after having shown preliminary designs to fathers and theologians who gave their blessing. It is an offering from Michel Faiz Touma, for his parents the reposed Faiz and Nejmeh. It measures 90cm by 60cm and it was consecrated by Fr. Zakhour Nimeh, the parish priest of blessed memory. The feast of Our Lady of the Wind is the Feast of the Annunciation, where it takes the place of the icon of the Annunciation, and below it most of the image is the sea and fish (the Feast of the Annunciation is connected to permission to eat fish despite the fast).

An explanation of the icon “O Virgin, calm the tumult of our passions and quiet the storm of our sins…” (from the Paraklisis to the Theotokos).

This is the message of the icon of the Theotokos, Our Lady of the Wind and what is written underneath it. She is lifting up the prayers of the faithful who are drowning in the sea of sorrows and the tempest of temptations to the Lord Jesus who is always present and watching from heaven, which is represented by the sky-blue circles amidst the golden background. He blesses with both His hands in response to the intercession of His mother the sailors who struggle amidst the waves that toss about the fishing boat (and the boat is a symbol of the Church). He leads them to the shore, the place “below the wind” north of Ras Qal’at Enfeh where the church of Our Lady stands. 

They seek refuge under her serene protection, far from the storms and whirlwinds coming from the sea (a symbol of death and the world of darkness where the dragon plays (the psalm of vespers). The whirlpool which appears along our coasts in the winter is still called “the dragon” by local fishermen and this is reflected in the icon by depicting the storm in this form), from the southwest across from the cliff, but the Theotokos Our Lady of the Wind is standing next to her church, lifting up her left hand in supplication to her divine Son to preserve her children, while with her right hand she repels from them the storm coming from afar.

The icon goes from nature to the site of the church of Our Lady where the bay “below the wind”, which during most of the days of the year is protected from the southwesterly winds which cause storms and batter the cliff. The icon goes from the calm bay which forms a natural harbor for fishermen to the spiritual reality where Our Lady takes those who seek her intercession under her protection.

In the details, the waves appear as a spiral of the colors of the sea and the sky, and this is in imitation of the style of the extant mural icons in the church of Our Lady of the Wind, which probably go back to the twelfth century. They reflect the ambiance of the local sea and among them are fish, so often mentioned in the tradition of the Church.

Likewise palm trees, which decorate the coastline since Phoenician times, are mystically connected to the Virgin (in the Song of Songs and the Akathist) surround the church.

She is the Virgin Lady, the Theotokos who is honored by the faithful in the village and the surrounding region. And here are the ancient churches forming a ring around her church: from the right St. Simeon, St. Michael, and St. Katrina and from the left St. George and the Monastery of St. John the Baptist. 

Likewise she is surrounded by her monasteries: Deir al-Nouriyyeh drawn at the top of the cliff in the background along with the site of the ancient monastery in the middle of the mountain where Abd al-Masih al-Enfawi practiced asceticism and from which the light of the Virgin shined forth, according to the tradition of the monastery’s name. 

At the end of the peak is the church of St. Simeon the Stylite. As for the monasteries and shrines to Our Lady in the region for which there was not room to draw in the icon, they are present in a hidden way, and to complete the list they are: 

Our Lady of the Seas in Batroun, the Horshiyyeh Cave in Hamat, the shrine of al-Rihaniyyeh in Hari, al-Za’tariyyeh in Shaka, al-Zurou’ in Kfarhazim, Sayyidat Fi’, Our Lady of the Spring (al-Na’oura), Sayyidat al-Bazizat (the Nursing), Sayyidat al-Qutrubiyyeh in Enfeh, Sayyidat al-Khazaib in al-Harisha, the Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand, and Deir Sayyidat Natour, where the perspective of one looking at the icon stands.

She is the Virgin who herself saves through her intercessions all those sailing through the storms and waves on the sea of life.

She is the Lady of all places—land, sea, and air and is constantly present and protecting all who honor her. Through her intercessions, O Lord, have mercy on us and save us, amen.


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From Mount Athos to Thessaloniki - From Grece with love: Miraculous Icon of the Theotokos "Axion Esti" ( video )

The Holy Icon "Axion Esti" arrives in Thessaloniki from the Holy Mountain Athos. 

Panagia Axion Estin (Greek: Άξιον εστίν, Slavonic: Достóйно éсть, Dostóino yesť), or 'It is Truly Meet', the name given to the icon of the Virgin Mary before which, according to tradition, the hymn of Axion Estin was revealed.

Axion Estin - Monastery of Karyes, the Protaton (Athos)

It stands in the high place of the altar (sanctuary) of the katholikon (main church) of Karyes on Mount Athos.

According to tradition, an elder and his disciple lived in in a cell on Mount Athos. One Saturday night the elder left to attend the All-Night Vigil in the Protaton of Karyes. He told his disciple to chant the service alone. That evening an unknown monk who called himself Gabriel, came to the cell, and they began the Vigil together. 

During the ninth ode of the canon (the Magnificat), the disciple began to sing "My soul magnifies the Lord..." with the Irmos of St. Cosmas the Hymnographer (October 14), "More honorable than the Cherubim..." The stranger sang the next verse, "For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden..." Then he chanted something the disciple had never heard before, "It is truly meet to bless Thee, O Theotokos, ever-blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God." Then he continued with, "More honorable than the Cherubim..."

When the disciple asked the visiting monk to write the words of the new hymn down, he took a roof tile and wrote on it with his finger, as though the tile were made of wax. The disciple knew then that this was no ordinary monk, but the Archangel Gabriel. At that moment the angel disappeared, but the icon of the Mother of God continued to radiate light for some time afterward. 

The Eleousa ("merciful") icon of the Virgin Mary, before which the hymn "It Is Truly Meet" was first chanted, was transferred to the katholikon (main church) at Karyes, known as the Protaton. The tile, with the hymn written on it, was taken to Constantinople when St. Nicholas II Chrysoberges was Patriarch (984-996). 

Since that time the icon has been considered the protector of the Holy Mountain and its holiest object.

The icon is commemorated by the Church on June 11 and July 13. The appearance of the Archangel Gabriel to a monk on Mt. Athos, and the revelation of the hymn "It Is Truly Meet..." is commemorated by the Church on June 11. 

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Our Lady of Filerno and the Malta Knights

Our Lady of Filerno, known as "Filernosa" 

The Knights of Malta are major financiers of MOC and have already tried to seize the relics once. Montenegro's president Milo Djukanovic and the Knights of Malta had a plan to take the relics out of the country in early 2006, but were thwarted by a media campaign organized by the pro-Serb opposition. The relics were the reason Djukanovic had a clandestine meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican in late 2005. Bypassing the normal diplomatic protocols, the then Serbian-Montenegrian Union Embassy and the Montenegrin consulate, the audience was arranged by Anton Zbutega of Kotor, a Maltese Knight.

The priceless icon "Our Lady of Filerno", known as "Filernosa" is said to have been painted by Apostle Luke almost two thousand years ago.

History records that it was brought to Malta by the Hospitallers in the 16th century, and that it stayed there till 1789, when it arrived at the Russian court. There the old metal frame was replaced with gold, and the frame was bedecked with precious jewels. Some 270 diamonds were arranged in a double row around the halo, with rubies and brilliants in between.

After the October Revolution, the icon was moved to Denmark, then spent a short time at an Orthodox church in Berlin, and finally came to the Karadjordjevic court in Belgrade. It was moved to Montenegro at the start of World War Two, and has been at the National Museum of Montenegro since 1978

Like "Filermosa" the right hand of St. John has had an interesting historical odyssey, from Jerusalem to Constantinople, Malta, St. Petersburg, and then via Denmark and Berlin to Belgrade.

At the outset of World War Two, King Petar II left Belgrade with the government, carrying the two relics and pieces of the True Cross They were turned over to Patriarch Gavrilo at Ostrog monastery, in the night between April 14-15 1941. Archimandrite Leontije of Ostrog guarded the relics well, and they remained unnoticed until 1952, when Communist authorities found them under the false floor in the Archimandrite's room while searching for the remaining royal gold. The relics were brought to the secret police vault in Podgorica, and kept there till 1978. That year, the Hand of St. John and the pieces of the True Cross were turned over to the Cetinje monastery, while the icon was transferred to the National Museum in Cetinje.
 

Παντάνασσα - Panagia Pantanassa (Most-Holy Queen of All) - miraculous icon

 Great  blessing of our Panagia! She helps us all that we need today!

Παντάνασσα

Τα Μεγαλυνάρια Elder Joseph of Vatopedi wrote to us as a all suppliant rule to the Most Holy Theotokos!