HOLY PASCHA 2020 - The Miracle of the Wonderworking and Myrrhstreaming
The Myrrh-Streaming Icons of Hawaii
"By now all our parishioners living in Honolulu have heard about the blessing that has been bestowed on us sinners, unworthy though we may be, by the grace of the Almighty and the love and concern for us by the All Holy Theotokos. I have asked our (Subdeacon) Nectarios, in whose home the two icons began streaming myrrh, to describe in his own words what has happened."
Archpriest Anatole Lyovin
The Letter from Subdeacon Nectarios...
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:
1) 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, Pokamiso in 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.
2) 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 8 x 11 inches and approximately 1 1/2 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...keep reading
From Hawaï Pascha around Iveron
