MIRACULOUS MYRRH-STREAMING ICON OF ST. ANNA

TO VISIT HOLY TRINITY ORTHODOX CHURCH

            POTTSTOWN--The Miraculous Myrrh-Streaming Icon of St. Anna, mother of Mary the Virgin, will visit at Holy Trinity Orthodox Church, 1236 Juniper Street, on Sunday, April 6.

            The miraculous icon will be present during the regular Divine Liturgy that begins at 9:30 a.m. and afterward during a parish retreat held at the church. A monk from the Monastery of Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk in South Canaan, PA, is bringing the icon to the parish. He will lead the retreat at the church.  Those present will have the opportunity to venerate the icon and be anointed with its myrrh after Divine Liturgy.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

            Those who have seen this icon in person will attest to the myrrh streaming down the face of St. Anna and to the sweet fragrance emanating from the icon, although it is not now weeping myrrh. Through the years, many people witnessed the myrrh and continue to report healing of disease, including cancer. Myrrh has been gathered from the icon and then used to anoint people. The Orthodox Church knows that to have myrrh streaming on the face of a saint portrayed on an icon is a remarkable, miraculous occurrence. Not every icon streams myrrh.

Archpriest John Edward, rector at Holy Trinity, welcomes all who are interested in seeing the icon, venerating it, and experiencing its remarkable healing effects. Fr. John emphasized                                                                        that Orthodox Christians do not worship the icon and its wood, nor worship St. Anna or other saints. The Orthodox worship only God. The saints, though, offer us their prayers in heaven, and many pray to St. Anna for her help and intercessions to God.

            The Myrrh-Streaming Icon was originally under the care of Archimandrite Athanasy, an Orthodox priest now deceased, who had experienced miraculous healing after a severe injury to his arm as a young boy. With his mother’s prayers to St. Anna, he was healed. As an adult, Fr. Athanasy commissioned an icon of St. Anna at the Mount of Olives Convent in Jerusalem where he had once served. The icon was eventually brought to Philadelphia where Fr. Athanasy served at the Russian Orthodox Church of Our Lady of Joy of All Who Sorrow and where a parishioner first noticed weeping on the icon on Mothers’ Day 2004. Fr. Athanasy became caretaker of the icon until his death.

            The Icon of St. Anna is housed at The Monastery of Saint Tikhon in South Canaan, Pennsylvania. Abbot Sergius, its caretaker, often travels around the United States and abroad to bring the icon to the faithful in parishes. St. Tikhon’s Monastery is the oldest Orthodox monastery in the United States.