What does it mean if an icon streams myrrh? Main versions. Miraculous weeping icon - description and interesting facts. Why do icons in churches cry?

Klin-9: smell and awe

In the military town of Klin-9 in 2001, an elderly woman’s house had icons filled with myrrh. And not just one or two, but absolutely everything! Television, the press: only a lazy person could pass by such a “picture” back then, no matter whether he was a believer or an unbeliever. NS correspondent Natalya BESSONOVA, a young neophyte at that time, went on a pilgrimage to the myrrh-streaming icons.

I visited Valentina Zhuchkova in 2003. The myrrh streaming of icons in her apartment had only just begun, but it was already widely known outside the Moscow region. My confessor advised me to go - to strengthen my faith. He offered to take the icon with him from home. As I was told before the trip, some people’s brought icons begin to stream myrrh in their hands when they first enter the apartment, but this is a rare case. For everyone else, Valentina herself anoints them with cotton wool.

So, I got ready to go. I was joined by a skeptical friend and a hieromonk, a resident of a monastery near Moscow. Father had already visited Valentina, left his icon with her and now wanted to take it back. On the way in the car, we discussed the reasons for our trip. What motivates us? Curiosity? Yes. The desire to have a personal “home miracle” - a myrrh-streaming icon? Yes. It's good? No. So what are we going for? “The miracle, as it began suddenly, can end like this - and then we will regret that we didn’t see everything with our own eyes, although we could - that’s why we’re going,” we justified ourselves to each other.

We felt a sweet floral smell when we were just approaching the five-story block building, in the second entrance of which there was an unusual apartment. There was such an aroma in the entrance that the air seemed thick. The smell and awe before meeting the miracle made my head spin. Valentina greeted us warmly, took me and my friend into the living room and turned on to watch the film “The Miracle of Klin,” where she tells how it all began, and she went with the priest to look for his icon.

After we watched the “introductory” film, Valentina led us into the next room, a former bedroom, filled to the ceiling with icons. There were a lot of them: paper, metal, wood; old and new. All the icons streamed myrrh. Different images smelled different. For example, the icons of the blessed Matrona smelled of lilies, no matter where they stood or what they were made of. Under all the icons there were neat rags, towels and cotton wool so that the myrrh would not drip onto the floor (Valentina distributed this cotton wool to everyone who came).


Father began to serve a prayer service, after which Valentina led us to a plastic ditch where the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God “floated” in the world. She poured all the myrrh from the cuvette into medicine bottles and gave them to us, and wiped the icon, put it back and suggested that we take a closer look at its surface. Fountain bubbles appeared on the printed image and the cuvette began to fill with the fragrant composition again. If someone had told me that a cuvette larger in volume than an icon could be filled to the brim, I would not have believed it. But I saw it with my own eyes and even took a photograph.

Valentina told how old icons were being renewed, how the room smelled of damp earth before the September 11 terrorist attack, how a physicist came and said that it was condensation in the air and laughed at her, but when he held Iverskaya and the myrrh flowed down his hands, he believed and was baptized, how the possessed scream, how the sick are healed, and many, many more stories, terrible because of the closeness of the spiritual world. Poor woman. I listened to all this and thought that, God forbid, this would happen to me - I would go crazy in a matter of hours, if not from pride, then from the complete impossibility of existing next to a constant miracle, but she persists, somehow even humbles himself.

Although she looks somewhat blissful. But since the situation in which she lives is not ordinary, then perhaps some enthusiastic mysticism can be forgiven for her... She says that it is a great mystery to her why it all started in this apartment, and that she does not know for what purpose the Lord arranged all this . But if He so pleases, she is ready to receive endless crowds of people in her apartment, which now looks like a subway car at rush hour, handing out bottles of peace to everyone, telling everyone again and again how it all began, and how the physicist came to believe.

After about an hour of all this talking and thinking, touching and smelling, the brain switches off in emergency mode. The part of it that is responsible for recognizing reality and analyzing what is happening is blocked. You begin to take everything “for granted.” Yes, indeed, fresh blood appeared on the paper icon cut out from the calendar and it smells “naturally” of blood; yes, but a drop of peace flowed from my icon, brought from home...

We returned back in silence. My “skeptical friend” reached Moscow with her mouth open in surprise - the icon that she brought with her to Klin began to myrrhize in her hands. After this trip, the girl began to regularly go to church, confess and receive communion. The myrrh on the icons brought home froze in droplets and soon dried up, but the dizzying smell lingered for a very long time.

If we judge by the fruits, as the Holy Scripture advises, then what we saw strengthened us in faith and this fruit is positive. But I have no desire to go there again, because it’s scary. The supernatural nature of what is happening in Klin is obvious. But who does this actually come from? From God or not? It’s not clear, and therefore scary. It is not possible to understand this with your own mind. It's scary to make a mistake, because this mistake will be too large.

Myrrh-streaming in Klin: why do icons cry?

Seven years later, the endless stream of pilgrims and onlookers to Klin-9 has dried up. The Klin “myrrh-streaming” was almost forgotten not only by journalists, but also by church people. Why? Our correspondent Dmitry REBROV tried to find out.

Guardian of icons

More than an hour and a half from Moscow by train, from the station by bus to the suburbs - the apartment of Valentina Zhuchkova, the “keeper” of the Klin miracle, is located in a military garrison on the very outskirts of the city. Here, to the left of the entrance gates, in a five-story panel building, icons have been streaming myrrh for seven years. At the entrance to the entrance there is a newly built chapel, deserted. “Are you at the reception? Come in,” Valentina opens the door herself. She looks to be no more than fifty, of short stature, and her head is covered with a scarf. - “Here, it’s here!” - She points to the door of the room. “They come from all over the CIS, from Canada, from Belgium, Washington, New Jersey,” Valentina explains readily, but upon learning that we came not just “on a pilgrimage,” but to write a report, she becomes taciturn. “I don’t need publications; journalists constantly add thousands of distortions to my words. I don't need advertising. After seven years, I’m tired of seeing five hundred people a day. And the neighbors are offended, they are not happy with all this...” But since today there are no other visitors besides me, Valentina Mikhailovna tells how seven years ago the icons “cryed” at her house.


“Over many years, I have become convinced that myrrh does not appear from icons, but descends like a cloud. This happens unnoticed,” explains Valentina Zhuchkova. Almost all icons have large drops of “mirror” everywhere: on their faces, on their clothes. Some icons lying in wooden icon cases have drops only on the outside, on the glass door, but most are without frames, and there the drops are evenly distributed over the entire surface. It smells like something like caramel, however, not as strong as the media described it seven years ago. The main shrine - the Iveron icon in an open icon case - is almost completely immersed in oil. “This icon still streams myrrh the most,” says Valentina. “Look. Do you see how the drops appear?” she says, taking out the icon. (icon format no more than 15-20 cm diagonally). “Miro” slowly flows down from the icon, and on its shiny and wet surface several swellings, like drops, become noticeable as the oil slides down. A little later, the surface begins to become covered with small bubbles, as if from air. "You see? And then some look at the icon and say: how it streams myrrh, show me, I get it for them, we both look, I see, but he doesn’t! - Valentina is worried. “That is, they simply don’t believe their eyes, they see and don’t believe!” I believed my eyes.

“Isn’t this all a fraud? No, it is not,” explains to us after some time in Klin itself, Archpriest Alexey Tyukov, cleric of the Sorrow Church, member of the special commission of the deanery to study the phenomenon of myrrh flow. In addition to this commission, whose competence included theological and pastoral examination, an expert group working with the “Klin myrrh-streaming” to describe the miraculous events taking place in the Russian Orthodox Church, under the Synodal Theological Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate, chaired by Pavel Florensky: “The synodal group was engaged in the scientific examination , and they, like us, can confirm that the leakage of oily liquid does occur. We have no reason to say that this is a fake.”

However, the clergy who care for the parishes of the Klin deanery carefully select their words when talking about the “miracle”: “We call this phenomenon not the flow of myrrh, but the outflow of an oily liquid,” notes Father Alexey, “after all, the fact of “myrrh flow” in itself does not make it possible to speak that this is a manifestation from God." And such caution is not accidental. According to the Apocalypse, there is no such miracle that the Antichrist cannot fake. There are many things that confuse the hierarchy in the “Klin story.”

“Many miracles, conversions, healings happen here,” Valentina continues to say. - As an example, my own family, its life has been radically turned upside down. What I couldn’t even dream of happened: my daughter, who could not give birth to a child for a long time, now has four children. All my children were non-believers, but now they have come to faith, got married, and live in a church marriage.”


No one lives in the apartment with the icons now: the children moved to Klin, and Valentina herself moved to Tver, where she tries not to talk about her miracle: “I go to the church there as an ordinary parishioner,” she admits. Once or twice a week, Valentina comes to the garrison, where she receives pilgrims: laymen, monks, and clergy. To the questions: “Why did the miracle happen specifically here?”, he modestly answers: “I don’t know, it’s probably connected with the place itself, because I’m an ordinary sinful person, and I don’t consider myself worthy of this miracle due to some merit. I’m simply the keeper of these icons.”

There is a miracle, but there is no obedience
“If you go to the dean, he will tell you this, I don’t even want to argue with all this!” sighs “Mother Valentina,” as pilgrims sometimes call her in a monastic manner, when asked about the attitude of local clergy to the miracle.

Seven years ago, a conflict arose between Valentina Mikhailovna and the pastors of the Klin deanery. It all started with the fact that after several questions from the priesthood, the “keeper of the miracle” drove away the commission that had come to her from the deanery. “We then came to look - we wanted to see everything with our own eyes, to talk,” says Father Alexy Tyukov, “but suddenly we saw on the shelves, “myrrh streaming”, in addition to icons, and very dubious images, such as a portrait of Ivan the Terrible, some photographs of confessors Valentines. After our question about the non-canonical nature of the images of Ivan the Terrible, Valentina Mikhailovna interrupted the conversation and asked us to leave the room. We tried to get at least some information about the healings that she said were happening here, but we couldn’t find out anything concrete. Valentina Mikhailovna herself explains the lack of such information by saying that she simply “didn’t need it”, at first she “wrote it down somehow”, and then got tired, “you can’t rewrite everything!”

Valentina left the pastoral meeting to which she was invited by the local clergy: “She then attacked us with a storm of criticism: why don’t we recognize “her” miracle, and why didn’t we publish about it in the church newspaper, when we publish about other miracles? , says the dean of the Klin district, Archpriest Boris Balashov. “The fact is that in the village of Nudol, Klinsky district, in the Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord, an icon was also myrrhized. We published a short note about this in the church supplement to the local newspaper. We did not write about Valentine’s icons because we treated them with caution and chose a wait-and-see attitude. We invited Valentina to talk to the meeting, but from the threshold she began to be indignant, reproach us, and accuse us of “disbelief.”

The rector of the church in honor of the Venerable Martyr Seraphim of Klin, located in the garrison, priest Igor Kovalev, whose parishioner before the “myrrh-streaming” was Valentina, says that at first she brought icons to show him, but in the temple their “myrrh-streaming” stopped every time. “At first I gave them to the church, but why take them if they don’t stream myrrh there?” Zhuchkova now reasonably notes.

Priest Igor Kovalev is inclined to regard the nature of the “myrrh-streaming” in Valentina’s apartment as “absolutely non-church.” “Of all the people who visited Valentina in our microdistrict, without ever visiting the church before, only one person came to the church after watching the “myrrh flow,” he says.” Considering that the church of Father Igor is the only one in the military town, and almost the majority of the residents of the garrison visited Zhuchkova’s apartment, the “missionary catch” of the miracle is really small. “We never forbade anyone from going there, although we never blessed it, but now not a single parishioner in our church visits Valentina’s apartment, even though at first there were huge queues to see her,” Father Igor continues. “Today we have begun to travel much less, and many of those who come stop at our church on the way, and, after talking with the parishioners or with me, discussing this, they often decide not to go to the apartment at all. And vice versa, those who are already returning from the apartment, as a rule, do not come to our temple.”

According to the observations of the local priesthood, an ecstatic audience very quickly gathered around Valentina and the “myrrh-streaming” icons. “In the end, all this was expressed in the fact that Valentina Mikhailovna stopped participating in parish life, stopped confessing and receiving communion in the churches of our deanery, preferring to organize independent prayer services at home, in front of the icons. This, of course, is not yet a schism, but already a kind of unhealthy independence,” says Archpriest Boris Balashov, dean of the district. “Some clergy from other dioceses began to come to her on a ‘pilgrimage’, read akathists there, some ‘elders’, to whom she began to take women she knew for ‘treatment’.”


“A miracle for the sake of a miracle is pointless. God does not act just like that, He always has a very specific goal in terms of saving a person. And, falling under Valentina’s authority, people who are carried away by her charisma get the wrong idea about God and spiritual life,” says Father Alexy Tyukov. “For example, Valentina told one of our parishioners that “there is no need to come to the priest, communion will not help you.” We, of course, cannot demand from every grandmother the heights of ascetic sobriety, and, indeed, we ourselves cannot say with confidence anything about the nature of the “Klin miracle,” but if there is a miracle, but there is no obedience, but on the contrary - scandals, divisions, This alarms us as shepherds and determines our attitude towards this “miracle” as in highest degree careful. The fruit of the spirit is peace, not division. Therefore, we do not bless our parishioners to visit this apartment. Do not blaspheme and do not accept if you cannot determine with absolute certainty what kind of spirit this miracle is - this is the ancient patristic principle in relation to “miraculous” phenomena. This is what we are guided by.”

Valentina confirms that she does not go to the temple where they do not believe in “her” miracle. Her current confessor lives far away, in the Pochaev Lavra, and, as she says, it was he who advised her not to give any interviews. But while we are saying goodbye, already at the door, she, without any questions on my part, remembers about “different approaches in the Church to the same things,” and more specifically, about the sore point: “I don’t have any passports with chips.” “I’m not going to take any cards,” she declares. “I gave up my pension and all the benefits.” It's easier for me. Why am I going to use a number? I want it under my own name! Now they say about Diomede that he’s a schismatic, he’s like this and that... But he was here, and he was more than once! And at least one bishop was like him, he would have expressed his opinion like that, he’s just a martyr!”

“Why do you think icons cry?” - she asks at the last moment, and she answers her own question: “Maybe that’s why they’re crying, because everything around them is “chipt”, these cards are everywhere... God just sees how we live, that’s why they cry!” Perhaps without noticing it, Valentina Zhuchkova said “we.” But who she meant by this “we”: herself, the shepherds of the deanery, someone else, or all of them together, remained a mystery.

Myrrh streaming of icons. Why do icons cry?

Every moment something unusual happens in the world. Someone wins the lottery, someone's loved one reciprocates, or a hopelessly ill person unexpectedly recovers. But all these are fleeting miracles, and in search of eternal ones, people often turn to God. There have been debates about the existence of God for as long as religion has existed. What can we say about myrrh-streaming? Is this really another miracle of the Lord given to people to return and strengthen them in faith or is it simply someone’s masterful joke?

“Classic”, so to speak, myrrh is wooden oil with red wine and incense, which is used in Christian rituals. They say that the rite of world-making was established by 12 more apostles who followed Christ. Its main components - oil and wine - are cooked by the patriarch personally, over low heat in cauldrons every few years during a special service, and when the mixture thickens, incense is added. The resulting substance is poured into consecrated vessels, sealed and sent to the dioceses. Myrrh is kept in altars on altars and is used by the church when performing the sacraments of anointing after baptism, during coronation, and also during the consecration of the altars of churches.

If you follow the logic, then the flow of myrrh is the outflow from the icons of the very substance described above. But... it was named only by analogy with church myrrh - for its oiliness (and even then not always) and the very strong aroma of roses or lilacs. There is absolutely nothing else in common between the two worlds.

The first case of myrrh-streaming described in Rus' occurred at the end of the 13th century in Veliky Ustyug. In those days, the holy fool Procopius lived in the city, who had the gift of “clairvoyance” - clairvoyance. 1290 - he began to appeal to the townspeople: “Repent and reform, or perish from a fiery hail,” but people only chuckled. But, as the holy fool predicted, a few days later, on Sunday afternoon, a black “stone-fire” cloud appeared over the city.

Ustyug plunged into darkness, broken only by peals of thunder. The townspeople rushed to churches with prayer and repentance. Most of the people gathered in the cathedral, where Procopius prayed earnestly in front of the icon of the Annunciation. And then so much peace began to flow from the icon that they could fill the church vessels with it. Then, almost immediately, the clouds moved away from the city, a thunderstorm broke out 20 miles away and destroyed an entire forest. And the inhabitants of the city anointed themselves with the world that flowed from the icon, and many “received healing from all sorts of diseases.”

More famous in our time is, perhaps, the Iveron Montreal Icon Mother of God, which streamed myrrh for 15 years, starting in 1982. Orthodox Christians consider the myrrh streaming of this icon to be one of the greatest miracles of the last century. Her story is considered miraculous. The keeper of the icon, Joseph Muñoz Cortes, who taught art history at the University of Montreal, that year went to Greece, to Mount Athos, the earthly abode Holy Mother of God.

There, in St. Daniel's monastery on Mount Athos, he saw the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God - a copy of the famous Iveron Goalkeeper. Joseph asked the monks to sell him this copy, feeling that the icon should be with him in the West, but he was refused. However, the next day, when Cortes was about to leave, the abbot caught up with him and blessed him with the icon of the Mother of God, saying that the Queen of Heaven herself was blessing him with this icon.

1982, November 24 - Joseph woke up from the fact that an unusual fragrance was heard in his room - fragrant streams of the world flowed over the icon of the Mother of God. Cortes took the icon to the temple, and from that time it streamed myrrh for exactly 15 years, remaining dry for only one week - in Holy Week of Lent, before Easter. And all these years Joseph flew with the miraculous myrrh-streaming icon all over the world: from Australia and Argentina to Bulgaria.

Healings with the world, the weight of which over the years was several times greater than the weight of the icon itself, were recorded in huge numbers, including from incurable diseases. But in 1997, the keeper was killed in Greece, and traces of the icon, about which legends circulate to this day, were lost, and they could not find it... True, there are rumors that it stopped streaming myrrh after the death of its keeper.

There are also more mysterious cases of myrrh streaming. Thus, every year for 24 hours, dried blood at the bottom of a bowl kept in the Naples Cathedral suddenly turns into a red liquid, which Catholics consider the blood of St. Januarius, Bishop of Benevito, beheaded by the Romans in 305. The transformation from solid to liquid was contemplated and confirmed by many doctors and scientists, as well as adherents of Catholicism. And there is no explanation for this phenomenon.

1953, August 29 - a pregnant woman named Antonietta Januso, who lived in Syracuse (Sicily), discovered that a plaster figurine of the Virgin and Child... was crying. Local church authorities wanted to verify its truth for themselves, and when samples of the liquid flowing from the Madonna’s eyes were analyzed, it turned out that they could not be distinguished from real human tears. The church immediately recognized the miracle and erected a shrine, where pilgrims still venerate the statue today.

The miraculous icon “The Laying of the Crown of Thorns on the Head of the Savior,” located in the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem, is also known throughout the world. The plot of the icon tells about last days Christ, when the Roman soldiers, mocking Jesus, placed a crown of thorns on his head. Since the beginning of the Christian era, this icon has bled only three times.

For the first time, the icon in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was in 1572. In those days, in place of the current image, there was an ancient fresco on the same religious subject. And then, on the eve of Easter, the pilgrims were horrified: the fresco “came to life”, and streams of liquid, similar to blood, began to flow through it. And a few days later, on August 24, 1572, during the infamous one, almost a third of the population was destroyed.

Witnesses of the second bleeding of the “Laying on...” on the eve of Easter in 1939 were several monks at the Jerusalem monastery, who reported the miracle to the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and he conveyed the message about the sign to the Pope. It is known that in September of this year the Second World War... 2001, April - not only the head of the Russian spiritual mission in Jerusalem, Hieromonk Theophan and Patriarch of Jerusalem Irenaeus, but also thousands of pilgrims from all over the world witnessed the flow of myrrh.

On the night of Good Friday On Holy Saturday, when Irenaeus blessed the believers, liquid appeared on Christ’s cloak, flowing in a scarlet stream onto his feet. The myrrh flow did not stop all day and stopped just before Easter... On September 11, as a result of the terrorist attack, the New York Twin Towers collapsed, claiming hundreds of lives...

The list of cases of myrrh-streaming can be endless, and each of them is marked by its own unique history. But, continuing the theme of the icon “Laying the Crown of Thorns on the Head of the Savior,” I would like to note two more formidable signs that are known, perhaps, to every inhabitant of the CIS.

Thus, the beginning of the bloody war in Chechnya was marked by the fact that in the village of Zelenchukskaya the icons “Quick to Hear” and “Iverskaya” began to cry in the church. On the eve of the start of the 2004 school year, the icon also began to cry - on September 1, a hostage situation took place in an Ossetian school. In fact, there is an inexplicable connection between the streams of myrrh and tragic events, and the words of the old people are immediately remembered: if the icon begins to cry tears or blood, there will be great trouble...

Icons all over the world are streaming myrrh and “crying,” but Russia is still recognized as the “record holder” in this “area” of miracles. But there is also a kind of worldwide statistics: if until the end of the 19th century, “crying” icons were quite rare and were considered divine signs, then at the end of the last - this century the number of myrrh-streaming icons became simply incredible!

We are talking about thousands and thousands of myrrh-streaming faces - in churches, monasteries and even the apartments of ordinary believers. At the same time, a widespread myrrh-streaming began not only of old images (after all, this was previously considered the privilege of only ancient, prayed-up icons), but also of young ones, painted in the 20th century. And neither the church, nor, especially, science can fully explain this sharp increase, as well as the fact of myrrh flow itself.

The attitude towards the myrrh flow of religious and secular authorities in Russia is curious. Before the revolution of 1917, there was a strict procedure for verifying such miracles. The myrrh-streaming icon was first examined by a commission of the local diocese, after which experts appointed by the patriarch arrived. If they also believed that they were seeing a miracle, the icon was placed under glass and guarded. If even then the icon continued to stream myrrh, then the miracle was officially announced. But the very first to begin the “investigation” were always not the churchmen, but... the employees of the nearest police station, because there was always enough speculation about the faith of the parishioners.

There is a known case where monks, for their selfish, momentary political purposes, announced the “crying” of icons from reforms. “Bloody tears” turned out to be just cherry juice skillfully supplied through a system of tubes, and Peter then issued the order: “Holy lords! I order that the Mother of God not cry from now on. And if the Mother of God weeps with lamp oil at least once more, then the priests’ backsides will weep with blood”...

Now all over the world there are also special commissions to establish a miracle, which include both theologians and chemists and physicists. In particular, in Russia in 1999, under the catechesis department of the Moscow Patriarchate, a Commission was created to describe information about miraculous signs occurring in the Russian Orthodox Church, which examines the flow of myrrh, the tearing of icons, the renewal of icons and the repetition of the image of icons on the glass of the icon case. The preliminary conclusions of the commission (precisely preliminary, since cases of church miracles were rapidly increasing) for the first 5 years of its work are as follows: something inexplicable is happening in the history of Russia, and perhaps in the entire two-thousand-year history of the Christian church...

Two particularly large waves of myrrh-streaming have also been identified. The first occurs in the early 1920s in the Petrograd and Pskov provinces, Ukraine, southern Russia, Far East, Primorye - dozens of cases of updating icons were observed there. The dark faces in the images brightened, became bright, shining. This happened both in churches and in the homes of ordinary believers. And the second wave is our time...

In general, myrrh streaming is one of the few earthly (or is it heavenly?) miracles for which science cannot find any plausible explanation. There are only dry facts and analysis results. They look like this. First of all, it should be noted that this is a general name, and there is, in fact, the streaming of myrrh itself and its already mentioned “subspecies”, depending on what kind of moisture is released from the icon. And the type, color and consistency of the resulting liquid are different: from a thick, viscous resin to transparent dew, which is why they speak of “electrification” or “dew-wetting”. It smells like rose, lilac or incense, and the smell is thick, persistent, capable of filling an entire area.

There is also a difference between myrrh-streaming and lacrimation, and cases when icons cry with blood are classified as a separate niche. The shape and size of the droplets are also very different. At times they cover the entire image, at other times they seem to flow from certain points. There are cases when myrrh flowed from bottom to top, contrary to the law of gravity. Miro can disappear for a while and then appear again; it is this that leads to the renewal of images, when the paints suddenly acquire their original rich colors...

Paper photocopies, lithographs, frescoes, photos of icons and even metal icons also stream myrrh. There has been a noticeable connection between the flow of myrrh and certain events, but not only with catastrophes. Thus, we can note the case when members of the Romanov family were recognized as martyrs, at the same time they consecrated many images, while from the lithographic image of the icon of the Vladimir Mother of God came a strong smell of the favorite perfume of Empress Alexandra Feodorovna, later renamed “Red Moscow”.

Many cases of healing with the help of myrrh have been recorded, in particular, the mysterious liquid collected from a one and a half meter wooden crucifix in a small temple in the city of Mount Pritchard (Australia), for some reason, best helps against cancer and asthma... And its spectrographic analysis only showed that in its own way its composition is similar to olive oil...

The composition of myrrh is generally a topic for a separate discussion. Thus, Vladimir Pavlov, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences, leading researcher at the Steklov Mathematical Institute. V.A. Steklova says: “The myrrh-streaming icon, on which the sacred myrrh is formed “out of nothing,” violates the scientific understanding of the universe. After all, what happens? “Out of nothing” matter is formed - myrrh, tears, drops of blood on icons. This is an amazing discovery for a scientist! From the position modern science this can only happen by converting energy into matter - the opposite process to how matter is converted into energy in a nuclear power plant. It’s easier to doubt and consider yourself deceived...

There is, of course, the particle-wave theory that a single matter can manifest itself both as a wave and as matter, a particle. Perhaps myrrh-streaming is one of these types of manifestations. You just have to remember: not all knowledge in the world is obtained scientifically. There is knowledge about which we cannot say at all where it comes from. We simply know that it is so. But there are also aspects to the manifestations of miracles that can be studied within the framework of science. For example, the chemical composition of the world. In Klin, the icons feature organic oil, the composition of which is similar to sunflower oil. But, of course, knowing it chemical composition does not bring us any closer to solving the phenomenon itself.”

And the Moscow Patriarchate, which also analyzed myrrh, reported that “most often it is a protein substance of unknown origin.” Laboratory experiments show that some types of myrrh are similar in composition to known oils, others are real human tears or blood plasma.

Some of the latest research was carried out in the biological laboratories of Kyiv University. Scientists analyzed the myrrh exuded by the relics of the saints resting in the Kiev Pechersk Lavra, and it turned out to be a substance with a high protein content, however... All biologists find it difficult to classify it and say only one thing: such a substance can only be emitted by a living organism... And in addition to all the secrets of myrrh-streaming, another one is added - are the icons really alive?!

The Church is considering icon as a special form of revelation of Divine reality.

All canonical icons in churches or homes are sacred due to their spiritual content and meaning. However, some are elected By God's providence for special signs. The indescribable light, fragrance, and myrrh emanating from them are material signs of the appearance of the heavenly world, the Kingdom of God.

Laboratory tests show that myrrh is an organic liquid that sometimes resembles olive oil, but how it appears on shrines remains unexplained. As a result of a study of moisture taken from one of the weeping icons, it was established that “these are real tears.” Myrrh is not removed from the substance of the icon, but appears on it “out of nothing.” It happens that moisture appears and swells on the glass of the icon case covering the image, or appears on the icon itself underneath it. The antiquity or novelty of the icon, its material does not matter; images can stream myrrh on wood, paper, glass, etc.

The type, color, and consistency of the resulting liquid are varied: from thick, viscous resin to dew, which is why they sometimes talk about “oil flow” or “dew flow.” It may have a fragrant aroma. The shape and size of the droplets are also extremely variable. Sometimes they cover the entire image, sometimes they seem to flow from certain points. In the broad sense of the word, myrrh streaming refers to any miraculous appearance of moisture on icons and sacred objects. Often, through anointing with the exhausted world, healing of ailments occurs.

The history of the Orthodox Church includes about a thousand images, famous for their miracles throughout the history of Christianity. Most of them are images of the Mother of God, the Heavenly Intercessor of the human race. The main basis for venerating a particular image as miraculous was the certified gift of specific help to people, be it healing the sick, intercession from enemies, fires, or the elements. Sometimes this help was preceded or accompanied by a certain supernatural event: the Mother of God Herself came in a dream or in a vision and informed where and how Her image should be found; icons walked through the air, descended or rose by themselves; a radiance was observed from them when they were acquired (Eletskaya-Chernigovskaya, Czestokhovskaya-Tyvrovskaya, Tsarevokokshaiskaya, Zhirovitskaya,"Merciful" Akhtyrskaya, Galichskaya, Dubovitskaya), a fragrance emanated (“Uncleaning”), a voice sounded (“Quick to Hear”, Yugskaya, Smolenskaya-Solovetskaya), the icon was updated by itself (Kasperovskaya) or the image on it came to life ("Unexpected Joy" Serafimo-Ponetaevskaya).

Some images miraculously emitted blood, tears, and myrrh. Bleeding (“Slaughtered”, Doliska, Częstochowa, Iverskaya, Kiprskaya, Pakhromskaya,“Unexpected Joy”), as a rule, came from a wound inflicted on the image - to admonish people who had offended the shrine. Tears flowing from the eyes of the Blessed Virgin Mary (“Weeping”, Tikhvinskaya- Afonskaya, Ilyinskaya-Chernigovskaya, Pryazhevskaya, Ryaditenskaya, Kazanskaya-Vysochinovskaya, Kazanskaya-Kargopolskaya, " Tenderness"-Novgorodskaya, Kaplunovskaya, Mirozhskaya, “Znamenie”-Novgorodskaya, Korsunskaya-Izborskaya), were perceived both as a sign of the sorrow of the Mother of God for human sins, and as a sign of the mercy of the Lady, crying for her children. From April 16 to April 24, 1662, the Ilinsko-Chernigov Icon of the Mother of God wept. This happened four years after the image was painted. Subsequently, this icon became famous for many wondrous miracles described by St. Dimitry Rostovsky in the book “Irrigated Fleece”. In 1854, Bishop Melchizedek of Romania became one of the eyewitnesses of the flow of tears from the icon, which later received the name “Weeping” (in the Romanian Sokolsky Monastery). The Bishop said that similar events occurred in ancient times and that this “always foreshadowed difficult trials for the Church of Christ and for the Fatherland.”

Church tradition knows several icons from which holy myrrh exuded. Even in ancient times, in the 6th century, on Pisidian The icon flowed with oil from the hand of the Mother of God. Subsequently, this miracle was confirmed in its truth VII Ecumenical Council. In the 13th century after fervent prayer, the blessed one. Procopius and people about salvation from the stone city of Veliky Ustyug according to the icon Annunciation("Ustyug"), myrrh began to flow - a sign of the mercy of the Mother of God that had taken place over the city. On September 16, 1392, the myrrh arose from the right hand of the Mother of God on Tomsk icon. In 1592 image "Praises to the Blessed Virgin Mary" was kidnapped from Mount Athos by robbers. But when the icon was covered with fragrant myrrh, they repented and returned the shrine. On the fifth week Lent 1635 in Oran Bogoroditsky Monastery Nizhny Novgorod diocese during the evening doxology with akathist on Vladimirskaya- Oranskaya The icon flowed with ointment from the head of the Infant Jesus and the whole temple was filled with a fragrance. In 1848 in Moscow, in the house of Colonel D.N. Boncheskul, there was a newly written copy of the miraculous icon "Helper of sinners." IN Easter the icon began to sparkle, and drops similar to rain were seen on it. They were oily to the touch and fragrant. Through the anointing with miraculous moisture, the sick received healing. The image was donated to the temple, where it became famous for other miracles.

Up to the 20th century. myrrh-streaming or lacrimation of an icon (in the book E. Poselyanina“Tales of the miraculous icons of the Mother of God and of Her mercies to the human race” describes, respectively, 6 cases of myrrh-streaming and 12 lacrimation - for the almost 2000-year history of the Church) was a rare, exceptional phenomenon. Mass signs were observed in Russia only in the 20th century. The first such period occurred in the early 1920s, when, along with numerous icon updates Myrrh-streaming also occurred (for example, on July 25, 1921, in the Harbin Cathedral, drops of myrrh flowed from the eyes of the Savior Not Made by Hands and remained visible for several months).

1991 - the beginning of the time of widespread signs from icons. Although some cases have been observed before (for example, the flow of myrrh from the icons of the Kazan Mother of God, etc. Ambrose V Optina Pustyn November 16, 1988), precisely since 1991, reports of miracles from icons begin to arrive one after another from the most different places Russia. Hundreds of cases were recorded in the following decade. Icons are miraculously found, renewed, and stream myrrh—in churches, monasteries, and in the homes of ordinary people.

Fateful for the history of Russia, 1991 marked the beginning of the dismemberment of the state that had been assembled for centuries. The huge country found itself plunged into the abyss of trials. On Bright Week 1991, the icon of the Mother of God exuded fragrant myrrh "Sovereign" from Nikolo-Perervinskaya monastery in Moscow. In the summer of 1991, in one of the ancient churches of Vologda, tears flowed from the eyes of the Lord on the image of the Savior Not Made by Hands. On August 18, an ancient icon of the Mother of God began to cry in Georgia. On November 22, 1991, in the Smolensk Assumption Cathedral, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God shed a tear (Smolensk is the closest Russian city to Belarus, on whose territory two weeks later the Belovezhskaya Conspiracy was concluded).

Several icons showed grief at once different ends Russia and beyond. “Tears of the Mother of God! A phenomenon that brings awe and reverence, writes Archpriest Mikhail Pomazansky about the crying icons. “It testifies to how close the Mother of God is to the world.” But let these tears not exist! If there is no greater grief for children in a family than to see their mother crying, then for Christians what a strong and terrible shock it must be to know that the Mother of God is shedding tears for them and because of them!.. Do they testify that Heaven Do they see sorrow, that they hear those crying and that the Mother of God through Her icon speaks comfortingly: “I am with you”? Does the Mother of God grieve over the troubles in the Orthodox Churches? We don't know. But let us not turn away from ourselves the thought of the great significance of these signs for all of us and for each of us, we will not allow the thought that “this does not apply to us.” We must accept the tears of the Mother of God as a reproach for us, as a warning, and as a call to repentance!”

As in previous centuries, signs from icons are most often given during the days of Great Lent - a time of special repentance and laments about sins. Nowadays, blessed dew or myrrh often appears not on one, but on several temple icons, on crucifixes. It can disappear and appear again. Eyewitnesses seem to be called upon to imprint in their hearts the action of the good will of the Lord, as if sanctifying the “house of prayer” with the sprinkling of peace. And - according to the Oros of the Ecumenical Council - to “raise honor to the original”, in sorrowful and difficult times to once again be convinced that the Fatherland and the Church have not lost their heavenly army.

In the 1920s, renovations of icons took place across the country in waves, affecting only certain areas. In the 1990s, all of Russia became a place of signs: city and rural churches, monasteries, houses of pious people. Never before has the Russian Orthodox Church seen icons crying and streaming myrrh everywhere. This is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of the country - there is no doubt historical fact, which has great spiritual significance. This is the clear voice of God addressed to the entire Russian people.

However, compared with past centuries, among clergy and laity there is a decrease in love and attention to the shrine of the Lord. The canonical rules are not always followed: drawing up a document signed by the rector of the church and witnesses to the miracle and then submitting it to the bishop, who appoints a commission to certify the authenticity of what happened. Sometimes clergy remain indifferent to such phenomena, sometimes they are afraid of unhealthy excitement. But practice has shown that such fears are unfounded. Even after reports in the press, on radio and television about a certified miracle, no one rushes to the temple to see it. Only a small part of lay believers experience genuine reverence in the face of the mysterious sign of God.

For several years, icons have been streaming with myrrh in the centers of Orthodox holiness - Optina Hermitage, Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage of the Riga Trinity-Sergius Monastery. They are recorded in photographs and film. Icons stream myrrh and cry in newly built monasteries - monasteries in the name of the icon “Quick to Hear” in the city of Pechory (Komi Republic) - in 1994, in the Intercession-Tervenichesky Monastery of the St. Petersburg Diocese - in 1994 - 95 and in the monastery monastery - in 1997 and etc.

In July 1994, myrrh-streaming of icons was observed in the church in the village. Puchkovo Moscow diocese, including a paper reproduction of the icon of St. New Martyrs and Confessors of Russia. Several icons stream myrrh at once in a number of Moscow churches (St. Nicholas in Pyzhi, St. Nicholas in Kuznetsy, etc.), in the St. Petersburg Church of St. right Simeon and Anna, in the churches of Kazan, Kaluga, Naberezhnye Chelny and many others.

Myrrh streams are surprisingly diverse in nature. During the first week of Great Lent 1996 in the church of the village. Nizhnyaya Baygora, Voronezh region. the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God streamed myrrh: February 24, on the eve of Forgiveness Sunday the myrrh flowed from the image in a stream, so that a towel was placed under the icon, and the temple was filled with an indescribable fragrance. IN Clean Monday myrrh flowed from under the crown and from the forehead of the Mother of God; on Tuesday - drops all over the icon; on Wednesday - the icon dried up, and tears flowed from the eyes of the Lady. The rector was most amazed at the lack of faith and indifference of the people: no one came to the temple even just to look at the manifestation of God’s mercy.

Signs from icons in the North Caucasus marked the beginning of the Chechen War: on May 27, 1994, the icon of St. Nicholas in Stavropol, and on June 9, a holiday Ascension of the Lord, in the presence of hundreds of pilgrims in the church of the village of Zelenchukskaya, tears streamed from the eyes of the Mother of God on two icons - Iveron and “Quick to Hear”.

Many miracles are associated with the patron saints of Russia - the Royal Martyrs. In September 1994, myrrh streamed in Tsarskoe Selo Feodorovskaya icon - patroness of the House Romanovs. In the Intercession Church of Marienburg (near Gatchina), built in memory of the miraculous salvation Royal family during a train crash near Borki station, the icon “ Recovery of the dead." This happened on February 17, 1994, on the eve of the celebration of this icon. First, a thin stream of light flowed from the eye of the Mother of God, then tears flowed one after another, then three stripes of the world appeared from the left shoulder. Later the entire surface of the icon became myrrhized. The miracle lasted about two months. The icon itself was also painted in memory of the deliverance from the death of the Imperial family.

On January 31, 1997, in the house of a Moscow parishioner, a small paper icon of the Martyr Tsar was bathed in transparent, fragrant myrrh. Nikolai Alexandrovich and St. equal to book Vladimir. In 1998, the myrrh-streaming of the icon of Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich began in the Moscow Church of the Ascension of the Lord on the Pea Field. The image was transferred here from the apartment of one of the parishioners, where the miracle was first recorded on November 7, 1998. An abundant outflow of the world occurred almost every day, and the wondrous fragrance did not stop for a single day, especially intensifying during the funeral services for the Royal Martyrs. Contrary to the laws of physics, the myrrh flowed across the icon lying on the analogue not down, but from four sides of the icon case towards the image of the Tsar. The icon is one of the lithographic copies of the image painted in California. The porphyry-bearing Anointed of God is depicted on it in golden-red tones, extraterrestrial radiance, with symbols of royal power - an orb and a scepter in his hands. “This holy icon was written to glorify the Tsar-Martyr in Russia,” reads the inscription on the image. The streaming of myrrh from the icon was perceived by believers as another sign of the Tsar’s holiness, another evidence of the need for his speedy canonization in his earthly Fatherland.

Signs of the streaming of myrrh and the weeping of icons are given to the entire Orthodox world in different parts of the world.

The most famous myrrh-streaming icon of the 20th century. became the Iveron-Montreal image of the Mother of God. Painted by an Athonite icon painter, a copy of the ancient Iveron icon was given to Joseph Muñoz, an Orthodox Spaniard, who placed it in his apartment in Montreal. Beginning in 1982, this icon constantly exuded holy myrrh, and in August 1991, tears were seen on it for the first time. Cotton wool with wonderfully fragrant myrrh was sent to Russia in large numbers. Healing mercy was poured out on people who resorted to the Intercessor in sorrow and illness. In the families of pious Christians who pray, paper reproductions and photographs of the Montreal Icon exude myrrh. A number of circumstances indicated that the image was mystically connected with the fate of Russia and the feat of the New Martyrs. After Joseph Muñoz, the custodian of the miraculous icon, was killed under mysterious circumstances in Greece in October 1997, the icon disappeared.

The cry of the Mother of God in New York is known: a Greek Orthodox family living in New York bought a small paper icon of the Mother of God "Passionate." In the spring of 1960, tears flowed from the eyes of the Mother of God, causing grooves to form on the paper. The icon of the Mother of God wept Hodegetria" in the church of St. Nicholas in Chicago.

In a small church in the Australian town of Mount Pritchard on the patronal feast day Dormition of the Mother of God, On August 28, 1994, a one and a half meter crucifix began to exude myrrh. Drops appeared on the face, arms, chest and legs of the Savior. They were light, oily and emitted a fragrance reminiscent of roses or incense. During prayer services, the flow of myrrh intensified so that drops fell from the icon to the floor. The miracle, which lasted more than a year, bore spiritual fruit. Many eyewitnesses, previously indifferent to faith and God, repented and became true Orthodox believers.

In November 1996 in Bethlehem, in the Church of the Nativity of Christ, the image of the Savior began to cry. It is located on top of a marble column located on the side of the main altar, before descending into the cave where the Infant God was born. The Basilica of the Nativity was erected in the 4th century. St. equal to queen Elena, and over the past sixteen centuries, service in it has never been interrupted. The miracle was officially witnessed by priests of the Greek Church, one of whom said: “Jesus is crying because the world is going the wrong way.”

February 3, 1997, on the day of celebration of the icon of the Mother of God "Consolation and Consolation" In the Kykkos monastery in Cyprus, a copy of this miraculous icon began to cry. Tears simultaneously streamed from the eyes of the Blessed Virgin and the right eye of the Infant God. The Archbishop called on the people to repent, so that the entire island would not suffer the fate of its eastern part, where thousands of Orthodox Christians were exterminated by infidels.

The abundance of miracles and signs from icons occurring in the 20th century is a sign of God for all of Russia. This is a harbinger of grandiose events in the history of all mankind, a sign of the eschatological era. But miracles are not performed by God in order to capture anyone's imagination. In Christians, signs give rise to feelings of fear of God and joy in the Lord, and encourage intense prayer and repentance.

You can tell stories about revelations of myrrh-streaming for a long time, and I would like to recall the words of Metropolitan Nikolai (Kutepov): “We have a parish in the Bogorodsky district (Nizhny Novgorod region). Suddenly they made a noise: 68 icons were myrrh-streaming! I grabbed my head. Guys, "You have to have some kind of conscience! They quickly created a commission. They wiped all the icons. They closed the temple and sealed it. In a week, at least one drop appeared." For those who are still convinced that myrrh-streaming is a truly miraculous phenomenon, I advise you to contact CSICOP - the American Committee for the Scientific Research of Paranormal Phenomena, where they promise fabulous money for every proven miracle. They have already contacted them about myrrh-streaming, but a falsification surfaced.

Since ancient times, the flow of myrrh has seemed to people as something mysterious and unknown, sometimes even mystical. This is due to the fact that it has not yet been possible to fully unravel the mystery of this phenomenon. Many scientists have conducted experiments to identify the nature of the origin of this phenomenon, but to this day it remains a mystery and a miracle. There are also many falsifications, which is why some even deeply religious people have long lost faith in the veracity of the “crying” icons.

Myrrh-streaming is a phenomenon that is unique in nature. In the Christian world, it is considered nothing less than a miracle, and the oily liquid emerging from them is miraculous.

Mirra - This is an oil with a pleasant aroma, which is made from oil seeds and essential plants.. It is this liquid that appears on the surface of the image, which is where the name itself comes from. It sometimes has a different consistency: thick, like spruce resin, or more liquid, reminiscent of dew. Therefore, this process is sometimes called “unwetting” or “wetting.”

However, the bleeding of icons should not be taken literally. In fact, it has a different nature. It is known that blood does not ooze from icons, as is commonly believed. As a rule, this is the same oily liquid that appears on the surface of the image during myrrh flow. The only difference is that it is mixed with dark paint on the canvas, resulting in brownish stains that resemble blood.

It is believed that such a phenomenon is a harbinger of any bloody events: wars, terrorist attacks, diseases, and so on. Tears of blood can serve as a reminder that people have alienated themselves from God and are committing terrible misdeeds and sinful acts. Holy faces shed blood as a reminder for humanity to come to its senses and become more humane.

This usually happens on the eve of any significant events in history: wars, disasters, cataclysms. It's like a sign sent from heaven to make people think about their actions. Cases have been repeatedly recorded when icons cried the day before any incident. So, in 2004, an icon with the image of Tikhon of Zadonsk became myrrhic, and the next day a TU-154 plane with passengers on board crashed.

A few days before the terrorist attack in Beslan, namely on August 29, 2004, the holy face began to stream myrrh, warning about terrible event, which subsequently horrified the world.

Another example is the bleeding icon of a convent in the Leningrad region on the day the conflict began in Ukraine. And there are many such examples.

However, such a phenomenon may not always carry a negative omen. Church ministers claim that such a sign may mean God's grace sent down to people. It is believed that such an image is miraculous, capable of healing from any disease, protecting from danger, and averting troubles and misfortunes from the person who touches it. Thousands of parishioners from all over the area flock to the monastery, where icons stream myrrh.

However, the miracle of myrrh-streaming can occur both in a monastery and in the home of believers. There are known cases when not one, but all the icons located in a house or church began to stream myrrh. This is true miraculous phenomenon, however, people have always been wary and ambivalent about such an event.

On the one hand, such a sign always carries a bit of uncertainty: no one knows what this phenomenon portends - good or evil, and what one should prepare for. On the other hand, even deeply religious people sometimes doubt the authenticity of such a phenomenon. This is because history knows many cases when clergymen tried to deceive the people and the authorities in this way in order to achieve certain goals.

Thus, under Peter I, the clergy of one of the churches stated that in their cathedral a phenomenon of myrrh-streaming of icons occurred. The revelation was not long in coming. Despite the fact that the king was a believer, he still doubted the authenticity of what was happening. The priests unanimously declared that in this way God mourns the old order, which was abolished by the Great Tsar. Peter I dared to assume that, using this event, the priests wanted to persuade him to cancel the innovations and return to the old order.

He was quite skeptical about such a “divine” manifestation and ordered the myrrh-streaming image to be taken away from the cathedral. After arriving at his palace, the king destroyed the icon and discovered capsules with liquid located inside it in the eye area. In turn, small holes were made in the eyes through which the liquid came out.

In this regard, the king issued a formidable decree, which read: “If icons cry in any other church, then the priest’s asses will cry with blood.”. Since then, the images no longer “cryed.”

It is noteworthy that when dew appears on the icon, a special commission, which includes scientists and clergy, immediately comes to the scene of the event to attest to the authenticity of this fact. For the purity of the experiment, it is placed in a special capsule.

Unfortunately, at all times there have been scammers who tried to falsify such a miracle. Many succeeded: gullible people went in droves to the church where a similar phenomenon took place and brought alms. Some imitated the phenomenon for selfish purposes, others - to glorify themselves and their church. However, there are certain patterns that can help determine how genuine such a phenomenon is:

1. Myrrh streaming is not tied to a specific place.
2. The crying of the Holy faces can be seen by everyone, and not by one or a few people, as this is a true miracle.
3. The image does not stop streaming myrrh because it was transferred to another place.

If the phenomenon that occurs contradicts any of these signs, then most likely it is a hoax.

Trying to find out why icons stream myrrh, people have identified some features of this process. Based on such features, signs were compiled, thanks to which this manifestation can be timed to coincide with a particular event:

• A crying icon is a sign of great changes to come. Light tears are positive changes, dark or “bloody” tears are bad changes.
• An icon crying with “dew” is a good omen, promising changes for the better.
• The abundantly myrrh-streaming face of the saint is a harbinger of good news and events.
• The icon cast myrrh in the church - good news for the parishioners, the church and the city as a whole.
• The image streams myrrh at home - a miracle will happen in the family, perhaps a miraculous healing.
• The icon of the Almighty is crying - to favorable events, changes, harmony in business and happiness in life.
• The icon of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker is a good sign, positive changes in life.
• The face of the Mother of God - the birth of a child, healthy children, healing from illnesses.
• Seven-shot icon - peace and tranquility in the family, protection from the evil eye.

It is also a known fact that the flow of myrrh can be either isolated, when one or several icons cry, or massive and even spread over several states.

It is known that in Rus' it is not allowed to conduct experiments on icons of Saints, especially those located directly in the church. However, some facts were still established experimentally. What must happen to the faces of the saints for them to “cry”? One cannot doubt the fact that there really are images that stream myrrh. Nevertheless, many scientists doubt the authenticity of the myrrh-streaming of icons. They have been trying to find a scientific explanation for this process for many decades. Some believe that this is nothing more than a natural process of moisture formation under specific conditions.

The following events may also be involved in the appearance of such a phenomenon:

• Oil precipitation due to contact of parishioners with the Holy Face. After anointing with oil, the person kisses the icon, leaving oil drops on it.
• Condensation of oil vapors: often oil drips onto the images from the lamps that hang in front of them.
• Capillary effect: moisture coming to it from the outside can seep through the icon. The sources of this moisture can be very diverse, depending on the specific case. There have been situations where such an effect was not created intentionally.

Today, people from different parts of the world are interested in the fact why icons stream myrrh, scientific explanation which cannot be interpreted unambiguously. Many skeptics refer to the fact that such a phenomenon, from the point of view of science and common sense, is impossible. However, the fact remains: all over the world from time to time there are myrrh-streaming icons, on which observations and experiments are carried out in order to determine the essence of such a phenomenon.

If suddenly an icon began to cry in the house, then you need to take this event seriously. Firstly, it should not be wiped, much less washed. Secondly, it is best not to disturb the image and invite a priest to the house who could testify to this fact. It should be remembered that this phenomenon can last for a very long time. One should treat with reverence and respect the icon that brought the miraculous sign.

Whatever message the weeping face of the Saint carries with it, people should pay close attention to such a sign from above. Perhaps it is worth thinking about the mission of man on Earth, about what we bring to this world, and what it will be like after us. Of course, this miraculous phenomenon is a call to keep God’s commandments, which many people have forgotten, and a reminder that life is given to a person once. You need to live it with dignity, leaving a bright memory of yourself for future generations.