Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Congratulations with the feasts of the Resurrection of the Lord and the translation of the copy of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God to Moscow in 1648, as well as with the memory of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council!

The commemoration on the same day of the memory of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, who defended and articulated the Orthodox teaching on icons and the veneration of icons, and the feast of the Iveron Icon, is a fitting coincidence. According to church tradition, the original Iveron Icon was saved in a miraculous fashion. This took place during the persecution of the Orthodox by the Iconoclasts. The icon was taken by a pious woman to the sea, upon which the icon travelled on its own until it reached the shores of Athos. There the monks of the Iveron brotherhood took it into their own monastery and, in such a way, saved the image from the iconoclasts, who were determined to destroy it. In a miraculous way the icon did not remain in the church where it was placed, but kept moving to the gates of the monastery, as if to demonstrate that it was not the monks who were protecting it, but the icon, that is, the Most Holy Mother of God herself, was preserving them from all harm. It is for this reason that this icon is often called ‘the Gate Keeper.’ In the 17th century an exact copy of this icon was brought to Moscow from Athos. This copy was kept at the Resurrection Gates of Moscow in the Iveron Chapel. This chapel was always openю and Moscovite believers especially reverenced it and the icon enshrined therein. After the revolution, the chapel was demolished and the icon either destroyed or transferred to the Resurrection Church in Sokolniki. In the nineties the chapel was rebuilt and a new copy of the icon brought there from Athos.

For our Canadian Diocese, as well as our parish, the Iveron Icon is special. In 1982 a copy of the icon, brought from Mt. Athos to Montreal, began to stream myrrh. This miraculous icon visited our parish on multiple occasions, and was present at the blessing of the foundation of our current church, as well as at its consecration. In 1997 this Montreal copy of the Iveron Icon disappeared, but in 2007, the Most-Holy Mother of God once again demonstrated her miraculous might when a paper copy of the Montreal Iveron icon began to stream myrrh in Hawaii. This copy of the Iveron icon has also visited our parish.

In our church, a copy of the Iveron icon hangs on the left wall of the narthex (that is, at the back of the church) and in such a way is also a ‘gate keeper’ for our parish. Truly the Most-Holy Mother of God does not leave us without her help and has on multiple occasions helped our parish in difficult moments. Probably many of you have also felt the help of the Mother of God when temptations befell you in your personal lives. Therefore, let us not forget the Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council, who defended the teaching of icon veneration, the woman who saved the Iveron Icon from the Iconoclasts, as well as all of those Russian people of past generations, both in Russia and abroad, who had an especial love towards the Iveron Icon; let us endeavour to emulate them.

priest Alexis