Icons of St. Matrona of Moscow stream myrrh in Belgorod

Moscow, April 3, 2017

Photo: Pravoslavie.ru

Lines have been forming around the Church of St. Matrona of Moscow in Belgorod, 400 miles south of Moscow, full of people waiting to venerate a newly-revealed myrrh-streaming icon of St. Matrona. The icon “wept” on the feast of the uncovering of the relics of Blessed Matrona (February 23/March 8), with a second icon of St. Matrona weeping on the feast of St. Luke of Simferopol (March 5/18), reports bel.ru.

According to parish rector Archpriest Michael Serdyuk, Metropolitan John of Belgorod served on the feast of St. Matrona in the Church of the Royal Passion-Bearers, bringing the patronal icon of St. Matrona, with a particle of her relics, with him, for the faithful to venerate. Before the evening services that day, Fr. Michael, who had ordered the icon from a Kransaya Yaruga iconographer in 2008, went to the church and noticed some resin-like drops on the icon.

“Every two years we remove the icon and repaint the frame, because it fades. A few days later we bought some paint, removed the icon, examined it, and indeed we can say that an unusual phenomenon has taken place, because we observed streams of some substance from top to bottom, on top of the paint. As the rector, I wrote a report to the dean, Fr. Oleg Kobets, and he in turn reported it to Vladyka,” Fr. Michael reports.

Photo: Pravoslavie.ru

Metropolitan John addressed the faithful of the Church of St. Matrona on March 30, declaring that the phenomena had been established as a miracle, as a sign of God’s goodwill, and the mercy and favor of St. Matrona for the church.

Photo: Pravoslavie.ru

The miracle occurred again on the feast of St. Luke of Simferopol in the hospital church in honor of the Crimean hierarch in the surgical wing of the city hospital. On that day, parish rector Fr. Vladimir Tarasov and the gathered faithful noticed streams on another icon of St. Matrona, with a distinct and unusual flower fragrance coming from the icon for the first few minutes. The streams of myrrh remained after the smell dissipated. Most of the streams simply flow from top to bottom, but one first moves left and then goes downward.

It is noteworthy that the icon is a simple paper print, pasted on cardboard. The icons are kept permanently in their respective churches, available for all to venerate.