What does it mean when the icon streams myrrh. The myrrh-streaming of icons: a scientific explanation of the miracle

Sometimes miracles happen in life. One of these manifestations is the myrrh-streaming of icons. What is peace? And what does it mean if it streams? Let's try to find answers to these frequently asked questions.

Holy peace: known facts

Before the 20th century, there are very few facts of this in the literature. unusual phenomenon. There is only a little scarce information that the relics of Nicholas the Wonderworker, John the Theologian, John Skylitsa and Dmitry Thessalonica streamed myrrh. And only with the onset of the 90s of the last century, the icons began to "cry" in many places: monasteries, temples, small churches and in ordinary apartments.

“Crying” or “streaming myrrh” means that an unusual oily moisture appears on the icons or particles of relics, sometimes it is released in small drops, and sometimes it flows down in streams. At the same time, an incredible aroma emanates from it. Each icon has its own smell: sweetish apple or delicate dandelion.

The most massive myrrh-streaming began in 1991, when, first, an icon wept in Moscow in the Nikolo-Perervinsky Monastery Holy Mother of God. Then, at once, in several monasteries and churches in Russia, a variety of images streamed myrrh. A special commission was created from the abbots and specialists to study this phenomenon.

The version of the clergy

The Church explains the fact of myrrh-streaming as follows: the Lord warns us about some global changes that need to happen. This is, in fact, a holy sign of some event. It is believed that icons cry before a war or natural disaster.

In order for people to believe in these signs, the material evidence is myrrh. This liquid has healing properties, she is able to cure a serious illness and get rid of problems.

If the icon in the house became myrrh-streaming ordinary person, he should turn to God, pray more and attend the temple. It also indicates that God is very favorable to the owner of the icon, and everyone can come and touch this miracle. You can ask for some holy myrrh and bring it to your home.

Lab version

In addition to those who believe in the miraculous appearance of the world, there are those who are skeptical about this. Laboratory studies were even carried out, which did not establish the true cause of the appearance of moisture on the images.

Only one thing is clear: the composition of myrrh fully corresponds to the composition of human tears. Scientists assumed that the myrrh-streaming appears from the material and the term of the icon. But how can one explain that tears appear both on small paper icons and on large glass icons, on ancient ones that have lain in basements for more than a dozen years, and on new ones that have only recently come out of icon-painting workshops.

The consistency of myrrh is also unusual and varied. Sometimes it is very thick and viscous, and sometimes light and transparent, like a teardrop. Sometimes, if the icon was blasphemed, blood appeared on it. This is evidence that the shrine must be protected from the influence of external forces.

When they want to give icons the status of a shrine, some people commit forgery and put any oily liquid on the image. In other cases, there is a spontaneous, unintentional application of oil to shrines:

• accidental ingress of lamp oil and candle wax;
• after the ceremony with the use of holy oil, parishioners venerate the icons and leave oily traces on them;
• accidental ingress of liquid with adjacent icons.

But these cases are rare and are easily distinguished from real myrrh-streaming by the aroma and the constant release of drops of liquid.

Peace or tears?

It is also necessary to distinguish between myrrh flow and lacrimation. Miro is good sign, the mercy of God, and tears are a warning of impending trouble. Therefore, it is so important to take a closer look and understand what the icon exudes, myrrh or tears. This warns us of trouble and strengthens us in faith.

If suddenly you hear about such a miracle, you should definitely visit this holy place and think: “What does it mean if an icon streams myrrh?” And suddenly this is a warning of an impending disaster, or, perhaps, the mercy of the Lord. In any case, for this holy apparition you should turn your eyes and believe in a miracle.

Somehow I happened to see in the news a shameful report about how in one Russian church or monastery a miraculous thing suddenly happened - an icon began to stream myrrh. I was amazed: after all, this is a real miracle - a deception, the shameful absurdity of which was clear to people already three hundred years ago, is still working!

But even Peter the Great warned the priests: if where the icon becomes myrrh-streaming, in that parish the priest's ass will cry with blood! And the icons in Russia immediately ceased to stream myrrh. The priests took care of their asses. Christian miracles, as you can see, are very easy to cancel. Catholics, having a sad and discrediting experience of large-scale medieval falsifications of religion, back in the 16th century, by decision of the highest ranks of the church, “cancelled” 90% of all miracles known at that time (we will talk about rare exceptions below). And among Protestants, who generally deny the existence of miracles, no miracles happen. Only those who have an undeveloped consciousness can find a miracle everywhere - even in a church...

Peter the Great himself with pleasure exposed the priest's tricks. Once the tsar was informed that the people in St. Petersburg were worried: in the Trinity Church, the icon of the Mother of God wept. The people - they are like a child, they believe everything, so crowds of simpletons immediately rushed to the church. The organizers of the show rubbed their hands. Immediately there were interpreters who claimed that the Mother of God was crying because she was dissatisfied with the newly rebuilt city and the Antichrist king. And it was already dangerous! Therefore, Peter, who could, it would seem, be concerned about more important issues, for example, preparing for another war, dropping everything, personally rushed to the church. Unlike the dumb bastard, he knew that miracles do not happen. And there are provocations.

Entering the temple with his retinue, Peter looked at the icon for some time, then chuckled, ordered to remove it from the wall and deliver it to him in the palace. There, in front of witnesses, Peter tore off the salary and, having ruined the icon, showed those present two small holes in the board opposite the eyes of the Virgin. They had bits of butter in them. And in the eyes of the Virgin, cunning priests pierced holes. When candles were placed near the icon and a lamp was hung, the oil melted and slowly began to seep through the holes in the paint layer.

There is another way, similar. The board on which the icon is written is impregnated with oil. Then, when the board dries out a little, it is covered with a dense layer of paint, in which two tiny holes are pierced with a needle in the region of the pupils. From the heat, the tree begins to "sweat" with oil, which finds a way out through these holes. Believers are overjoyed!

It also happens that the icon is oiled by an insufficiently screwed wick of an oil lamp, which sprays the oil. In this case, oil can be found not only on the icon itself, but also on surrounding objects.

And why, by the way, oil? ... If God needs to show a miracle, then the saints on the icons should cry with some miraculous liquid! Or at least real tears. And they flow with improvised materials, for example, myrrh. Miro is vegetable oil infused with aromatic herbs. Similar balsamic oil is sold in large retail chains as a seasoning for dishes. A similar product is used in the church for magical rituals fat anointing…

The vulgar trick with myrrh-streaming is already so indecent that even many church hierarchs are ashamed of it. In 2001, Nezavisimaya Gazeta published an interview with Nikolai Kutepov, Metropolitan of Nizhny Novgorod, in which he told the following story: “We have a parish in the Bogorodsky district. Suddenly they raised a noise-din: 68 icons began to stream myrrh! I grabbed my head. Guys, you need to have some conscience! A commission was quickly formed. All icons have been removed. The temple was sealed and closed. It stood for a week. If only one drop appeared!

So here it is - educated priests expose their thieving provincial colleagues, television talks about the “miracle”, and the parishioners with crazy eyes rush to such a temple, carrying their hard-earned money there ...

For long history Christian fanatics believed everything they were shown. In the holy diapers in which Jesus was wrapped after the birth (they were exhibited at the beginning of the 20th century in the main cathedral of the German city of Aachen) ... In the authenticity of Jesus' cradle, or rather, cradles (one cradle of Jesus is kept in Italy, and the other in Israel) ... And even in hay (in the Middle Ages, in many monasteries in Europe, parishioners were shown hay in which the baby Jesus lay)!..

French monks for several centuries hunted by showing the tears of Jesus to pilgrims. And not just tears, but that particular tear that Jesus shed when he learned about the death of St. Lazarus! Apparently, at that moment someone was standing next to the test tube at the ready and immediately took an analysis of the secretions from Christ.

The tail of the donkey on which Jesus entered Jerusalem was kept for a long time in Genoa. And the Spanish churches displayed the severed heads of the same rooster that crowed after Peter denied Jesus three times!

I remember that in Rome my sister stubbornly dragged me to some church where a piece of the cross on which Jesus was crucified and a nail with which he was nailed are kept. She did not know that in different churches and monasteries of the world are kept more than a thousand nails of Golgotha! Apparently, the Romans sewed Jesus to the cross with a construction pistol. Or even a machine gun...

And believers believed and believe in all this! Even after the sensational confessions of the Jerusalem hierarch Theophilos that the lighting ceremony blessed fire there is just an idea, barely blowing messages from drowning people clutching at straws flashed on Orthodox sites:

But I still believe that this is a true miracle!

Theophilus could say about the lighter in order to test our faith.

In fact, Theophilus simply deceived us all!

And he didn't say that at all. Yes, he said it was just a ceremonial performance. But he did not say directly that a miracle does not happen! The words "not a miracle" were not said!

He simply didn't use the word "miracle", because he got used to a miracle for many years and perceives it as commonplace.

Even if all the patriarchs admit that this is a scam, I will still believe in a miracle, because people can lie, but the Lord cannot.

Wedge-9: smell and awe

In the military town of Klin-9 in 2001, elderly woman Icons were streaming myrrh at home. And not one or two, but absolutely everything! Television, the press: then only a lazy person could pass by such a “picture”, no matter if he was a believer or a non-believer. NS correspondent Natalya BESSONOVA, at that time a young neophyte, went on a pilgrimage to 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 an icon with him from home. As I was told before the trip, for some people, the brought icons begin to stream myrrh in their hands when they just enter the apartment, but this is a rare case. For everyone else, Valentina herself anoints them with cotton wool with the world.

So, I got ready to go. I was joined by a skeptical friend and a hieromonk, a resident of a monastery near Moscow. Batiushka 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 drives 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? “A 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 the sweet floral smell when we had just approached 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. From the smell and trembling before meeting with a miracle, his head was spinning. Valentina greeted us warmly, led me and my friend into the living room and turned on to watch the film “The Klin Miracle”, where she tells how it all began, and she herself went with the priest to look for his icon.

After we watched the "introductory" film, Valentina led us into the next room, the former bedroom, lined up to the ceiling with icons. There were a lot of them: paper, metal, wood; old and new. Myrrh streamed all the icons. Different images smelled differently. For example, the icons of the blessed Matrona smelled of lilies, regardless of where they stood and what they were made of. Under all the icons lay neat rags, towels and cotton wool, so that the myrrh did not drip onto the floor (Valentina distributed this cotton wool to everyone who came).


The priest began to serve a prayer service, after which Valentina led us to a plastic ditch, where the Iberian icon “floated” in peace Mother of God. She poured all the myrrh from the cuvette into pharmacy bottles and gave them to us, and rubbed the icon, put it back and offered to take a closer look at its surface. Fountain bubbles appeared on the printed image and the cuvette again began to fill with a fragrant composition. If someone told me that the cuvette is larger in volume than the icon, it can be filled to the brim, I would not believe it. But I saw it with my own eyes and even photographed it.

Valentina told how old icons are updated, 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 myrrh flowed down his hands, he believed and was baptized, how the demoniac screams, how the sick are healed, and many, many more stories, terrible closeness 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 is holding on, somehow reconciled.

Although she looks somewhat blissful. But since the situation in which she lives is not ordinary, then some enthusiastic mysticism is probably forgiven for her ... She says that for her great mystery why it all started in this apartment, and that she does not know for what purpose the Lord arranged all this. But since it pleases Him, she is ready to receive endless crowds of people in her apartment, which now looks like a subway car at rush hour, to distribute bubbles of peace to everyone, to tell again and again how it all began, and how the physicist believed.

After about an hour of all these conversations and thoughts, touch and smell, the brain turns off in emergency mode. That part of it that is responsible for recognizing reality and analyzing what is happening is blocked. You start taking everything for granted. Yes, indeed, fresh blood has appeared on the paper icon cut out of the calendar and it smells “naturally” of blood; yes, but a drop of peace also flowed from my icon, brought from home ...

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

Judging by the fruits, as advised Holy Bible, then what we saw strengthened us in faith and this is a positive fruit. But there is no desire to go there again, because it's scary. The supernatural nature of what is happening in Klin is obvious. But who is it coming from? From God or not? Not clear, and therefore scary. It is not possible to understand this with your mind. It is terrible to make a mistake, because this mistake will be too large-scale.

Myrrh-streaming in Klin: why do icons cry?

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

Icon Keeper

From Moscow, more than an hour and a half 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 entrances, in a five-story panel building, icons have been streaming myrrh for seven years now. At the entrance to the entrance is a recently built chapel, deserted. "Are you at the reception? Come in,” Valentina herself opens the door. She looks no more than fifty, short in stature, 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 readily explains, but when she learns 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 ads. I'm tired of taking five hundred people a day in seven years. Yes, and the neighbors are offended, they are not satisfied with all this ... ”. But since today there are no other visitors besides me, Valentina Mikhailovna tells how icons “wept” at her house seven years ago.


“For many years I have become convinced that the myrrh does not appear from icons, but descends like a cloud. It happens imperceptibly,” explains Valentina Zhuchkova. Practically on all icons there are large drops - “miro” everywhere: on faces, on clothes. Some of the icons in wooden cases have drops only on the outside, on the glass door, but most of them lie 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 seven years ago. The main shrine - the Iberian icon in an open icon case - is almost completely immersed in oil. “This icon still streams myrrh the most,” Valentina says. “Look. Do you see how the drops appear?” she says, taking out the icon. (the format of the icon is no more than 15-20 cm diagonally). "Miro" slowly flows down from the icon, and on its shiny and damp 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 them, we both look, I see, but he doesn’t! Valentina worries. “That is, they simply do not believe their eyes, they see and do not believe!” I believed my eyes.

“Is this all a forgery? No, it’s not,” Archpriest Alexei Tyukov, a cleric of the Sorrowing Church, a member of the deanery’s special commission to study the phenomenon of myrrh-streaming, explains to us after some time already in Klin itself. In addition to this commission, whose competence included theological and pastoral expertise, an expert group on describing the miraculous events taking place in the Russian Orthodox Church, under the Synodal Theological Commission of the Moscow Patriarchate, chaired by Pavel Florensky, worked with the “Klin myrrh-streaming”: “Scientific expertise was carried out by the synodal group , and they, like us, can confirm that oily fluid leakage does indeed occur. We have no reason to say that this is a fake."

However, the clergy who minister to the parishes of the Klin deanery carefully choose the words when talking about the “miracle”: “We call this phenomenon not myrrh-streaming, but the outflow of an oily liquid,” Father Alexei notes, “after all, the fact of “myrrh-streaming” in itself does not make it possible to speak that it is from God." And such caution is not accidental. According to the Apocalypse, there is no miracle that the Antichrist cannot fake. Much confuses the hierarchy in the "Klin history".

“Many miracles, conversions, healings take place here,” Valentina continues. - As an example - my own family, because her life turned upside down radically. What I could not even dream of happened: the daughter, who could not give birth to a child for a long time, now has four children. All my children were unbelievers, and now they came to faith, got married, and live church marriage».


Now no one lives in the apartment with icons: the children moved to Klin, and Valentina herself to Tver, where she tries not to talk about her miracle: “I go to the church there as an ordinary parishioner,” she admits. Twice a week, Valentina comes to the garrison, where she receives pilgrims: laymen, monks, and clergy. To the questions: “why did the miracle happen in your place?”, he modestly answers: “I don’t know, probably, this is due to the place itself, because I’m an ordinary sinful man, and I don’t consider myself worthy for some merit of this miracle, I’m just the keeper of these icons.

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

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. “Then we came to see, 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, very dubious images, such as a portrait of Ivan the Terrible, some photographs of confessors Valentine. After our question about the non-canonicity 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 taking place here, but we could not find anything specific. Valentina Mikhailovna herself explains the lack of such information from her by the fact that she simply “does not need it”, at first she “recorded it somehow”, and then she got tired, “you just can’t rewrite it!”

From the pastoral meeting, to which she was invited by the local hierarchy, Valentina left herself: “She then fell upon us with a storm of criticism: why do we not recognize “her” miracle, and why we did not publish about it in the church newspaper, when we print 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, the icon also began to stream myrrh. We published a short note about this in the church supplement to the local newspaper. We did not write about the Valentina icons, because we treated them with caution, chose a wait-and-see attitude. We invited Valentina to talk to the meeting, but from the very beginning she began to resent us, reproach us, accuse us of “unbelief”.

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

Priest Igor Kovalev is inclined to regard the nature of the "myrrh streams" in Valentina's apartment as "absolutely non-church". “Of all the people who visited Valentina in our microdistrict, without visiting the church at all before, after watching the “myrrh-streaming” only one person came to the temple,” he says. Given that the temple of Father Igor is the only one in the military camp, and visited Zhuchkova’s apartment almost most of residents of the garrison, the "missionary catch" of the miracle is really small. “We never forbade anyone to go there, although we didn’t bless, but now not a single parishioner in our church visits Valentina’s apartment, even though at first there were huge queues for her,” Father Igor continues. “Today, there is much less travel, and many of those who come visit 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 exalted audience very quickly gathered around Valentine and the "myrrh-streaming" icons. “In the end, all this was expressed in the fact that Valentina Mikhailovna ceased to participate in parish life, stopped confessing and taking communion in the churches of our deanery, preferring to arrange 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 clergymen 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 purpose in terms of human salvation. And, falling under the authority of Valentina, people who are carried away by her charisma get the wrong idea about God, about spiritual life, says Father Alexy Tyukov. “For example, Valentina told one of our parishioners that “you don’t need to come to the priest, communion will not help you.” Of course, we cannot demand the heights of ascetic sobriety from every grandmother, and, indeed, we ourselves cannot say anything with certainty about the nature of the “Klin miracle”, but if there is a miracle, but there is no obedience, but on the contrary - scandals, divisions, we, as shepherds, are alarmed by this and determine our attitude towards this “miracle” as in the highest degree cautious. 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 spirit this miracle is - this is an ancient patristic principle in relation to "miraculous" phenomena. We are guided by them."

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 Pochaev Lavra and, as she says, it was he who advised her not to give any interviews. But while we say goodbye, already at the door, she, without any questions from my side, recalls 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 says. - I after all refused the pension, and all the benefits. It's easier for me. Why will I go under the number? I want under my name! Now they say about Diomede that they say that this is a schismatic, they say he is such and such ... But he was here, and was more than once! And even if one bishop was like him, he would express his opinion in such a way, this is just a martyr!”

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

Since ancient times, myrrh-streaming has been presented to people as something mysterious and unknown, sometimes even mystical. This is due to the fact that so far it has not 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 “weeping” icons.

Myrrh-streaming is a phenomenon unique in its nature. AT Christian world it is considered nothing more than a miracle, and the oily liquid that emerges from them is miraculous.

Mirra - This is an oil with a pleasant smell, which is made from the grains of oilseeds and essential plants.. It is this liquid that appears on the surface of the image, from where the name itself comes from. It sometimes has a different consistency: thick, like spruce resin, or more liquid, resembling dew. Therefore, sometimes this process is called "smoking" or "growth".

However, the bleeding of icons should not be taken literally. In fact, it has a different nature. It is known that the blood from the icons does not ooze, 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 mixes with dark paint on the canvas, as a result of which brownish smudges resembling blood are formed.

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 distanced themselves from God and commit terrible misdeeds, sinful deeds. Holy faces shed blood as a reminder that humanity should come to its senses and become more humane.

Usually this happens on the eve of any significant events in history: wars, disasters, cataclysms. It is as if a sign sent down from heaven, so that people think about their deeds. There have been repeatedly recorded cases when the icons cried the day before any incident. So, in 2004, an icon with the image of Tikhon of Zadonsk began to stream myrrh, 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 of a terrible event that would subsequently terrify the world.

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

However, such a phenomenon may not always carry a negative omen. The ministers of the church claim that such a sign can mean God's grace sent down to people. It is believed that such an image is miraculous, able to heal from any disease, protect from danger, avert troubles and misfortunes from the person who touches it. Thousands of parishioners from all around flock to the monastery, where the icons stream myrrh.

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

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

So, under Peter I, the clergy of one of the churches said that they had a phenomenon of myrrh-streaming icons in their cathedral. 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 suggest that, using this event, the priests want to persuade him to cancel innovations and return to the old order.

He was rather 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 tsar ruined the icon and found capsules with liquid in it, located inside it in the area of ​​​​the eyes. 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 priestly asses will cry with blood”. Since then, the images no longer "wept".

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

Unfortunately, at all times there were scammers who tried to falsify such a miracle. Many succeeded in this: gullible people went in droves to the church, where a similar phenomenon took place, and carried alms. Some imitated the phenomenon for selfish purposes, others - to glorify themselves and their church. However, there are certain patterns, thanks to which it is possible to determine how authentic 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 several people, since this is a true miracle.
3. The image does not cease to stream myrrh because it was transferred to another place.

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

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

• Crying icon - a sign of the future big changes. Light tears are positive changes, dark or "bloody" ones are bad changes.
• Weeping "dew" icon - good omen promising change for the better.
• The abundantly myrrh-streaming face of the saint is a harbinger of good news and events.
• The icon began to stream 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.
• Icon of Nicholas the Wonderworker - good sign, positive changes in life.
• The face of the Mother of God - the birth of a child, healthy children, healing from ailments.
• The seven-shot icon - peace and tranquility in the family, protection from the evil eye.

It is also known that myrrh-streaming can be either single, when one or more icons are crying, or massive and even spread to several states.

It is known that in Russia it is not allowed to conduct experiments on the icons of the Saints, especially those that are located directly in the church. However, some facts were nevertheless established experimentally. What must happen to the faces of the saints so that they “weep”? It is impossible to doubt the fact that there really are images that stream myrrh. Nevertheless, many scientists doubt the authenticity of the myrrh-streaming 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.

Also, the following events may be involved in the appearance of such a phenomenon:

• The precipitation of oil due to the 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 that comes 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 were situations when 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, over 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, let alone 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 such a phenomenon can last a very long time. It should be treated with respect and respect to the icon that brought a miraculous sign.

Whatever message the weeping face of the Saint brings with it, people should turn close attention to a similar 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 observe God's commandments, which many people have forgotten, and a reminder that life is given to a person once. It is necessary to live it with dignity, leaving a bright memory of yourself for future generations.

Church considers icon as a special form of revelation of Divine reality.

All canonical icons in churches or houses are sacred due to their spiritual content and meaning. However, some are elected Providence of God for special signs. coming from them unspeakable light, fragrance, myrrh - material signs of the manifestation of the heavenly world, the Kingdom of God.

Laboratory analyzes show that myrrh is a liquid of organic origin, sometimes resembling olive oil, but how it appears on shrines remains inexplicable. As a result of the study of moisture taken from one of the weeping icons, it was found that "these are real tears." Myrrh is not exhausted from the substance of the icon, but arises 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 under it. The antiquity or novelty of the icon, its material does not matter; can stream images on wood, paper, glass, etc.

The appearance, color, and consistency of the resulting liquid are varied: from thick, viscous resin to dew, so sometimes they talk about “unruining” or “diffusing”. 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 means any miraculous appearance of moisture on icons and icons. sacred objects. Often, through the anointing with the exuded world, healing of ailments occurs.

The history of the Orthodox Church has about a thousand images that have become famous for miracles throughout the history of Christianity. Most of them are images of the Mother of God, the Heavenly Protector of the human race. The main reason for venerating this or that image as miraculous was the certified gift of concrete help to people, whether it be healing the sick, intercession from enemies, fires, or the elements. Sometimes this help was preceded or accompanied by some supernatural event: the Mother of God herself came in a dream or in a vision and told where and how to find Her image; the icons walked through the air, descended or ascended by themselves; a radiance was seen from them when they were obtained (Yeletska-Chernigovskaya, Czestokhovskaya-Tyvrovskaya, Tsarevokokshayskaya, Zhirovitskaya,"Merciful", Akhtyrskaya, Galichskaya, Dubovitskaya), a fragrance emanated ("Still sharpening"), a voice sounded ("Skoroposlushnitsa", Yugskaya, Smolenskaya-Solovetskaya), the icon was updated by itself (Kasperovskaya) or the image on it came to life ("Unexpected Joy", Serafimo-Ponetaevskaya).

From some images, blood, tears, myrrh miraculously exuded. bleeding ("Slain", Doliska, Czestochowa, Iverskaya, Cypriot, Pakhromskaya,“Unexpected Joy”), as a rule, came from a wound inflicted on the image - to admonish people who offended the shrine. Tears flowing from the eyes of the Most Holy Theotokos ("Weeping", Tikhvinskaya- Athos, Ilyinskaya-Chernigovskaya, Pryazhevskaya, Ryaditenskaya, Kazanskaya-Vysochinovskaya, Kazanskaya-Kargopolskaya, " tenderness»-Novgorodskaya, Kaplunovskaya, Mirozhskaya, "Sign"-Novgorodskaya, Korsunskaya-Izborskaya), were perceived both as a sign of the Mother of God's sorrow 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 Ilyinsky-Chernigov Icon of the Mother of God wept. This happened four years after writing the image. Subsequently, this icon became famous for many wondrous miracles described by St. Dimitri Rostovsky in the book "Irrigated Fleece". In 1854, Bishop Melchizedek of Romansk became one of the eyewitnesses to the flow of tears from the icon, which later received the name “Weeping” (in the Romanian Sokolsky Monastery). Vladyka said that similar events took place in ancient times and that this "always foreshadowed severe trials for the Church of Christ and for the Fatherland."

Church tradition knows several icons from which holy myrrh emanated. Even in antiquity, in the VI century, on Pisidian oil flowed from the hand of the Mother of God to the icon. Subsequently, this miracle was confirmed in its truth VII Ecumenical Council. In the XIII century. after earnest prayer, Procopius and people about salvation from the stone city of Veliky Ustyug according to the icon Annunciation(“Ustyugsky”), myrrh flowed - a sign of the mercy of the Mother of God that had taken place over the city. On September 16, 1392, myrrh arose from the right hand of the Mother of God on Tomsk icon. In 1592 the image "Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos" was kidnapped from Athos by robbers. But when the icon was covered with fragrant myrrh, they repented and returned the shrine. On the fifth week Great Lent 1635 to Oransky Bogoroditsky Monastery Nizhny Novgorod diocese during the evening doxology with an akathist on Vladimirskaya- Orange Myrrh flowed from the head of the Infant Jesus to the icon, and the whole temple was filled with fragrance. In 1848 in Moscow, in the house of Colonel D.N. Boncheskul, there was a copy of the miraculous icon that had just been written. "Help of sinners". AT Easter the icon shone, and on it they saw drops that looked like raindrops. To the touch they were oily and fragrant. Through the anointing with miraculous moisture, the sick were healed. The image was donated to the temple, where it became famous for other miracles.

Up to the XX century. myrrh flow or lachrymation of the icon (in the book E. Poselyanina“Tales of the miraculous icons of the Mother of God and Her mercies to the human race” describe 6 cases of myrrh flow and 12 lachrymation, respectively, for almost 2000 years of the history of the Church) was a rare, exceptional phenomenon. Mass signs are 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 took place (for example, on July 25, 1921, drops of myrrh flowed from the eyes of the Savior Not Made by Hands in the Harbin Cathedral and remained visible for several months).

1991 - the beginning of the time of universal signs from icons. Although individual cases were observed before (for example, myrrh-streaming from the icons of the Kazan Mother of God and St. Ambrose in Optina Pustyn November 16, 1988), it was from 1991 that reports of miracles from icons began to arrive one after another from the most different places Russia. In the following decade, hundreds of cases were recorded. Icons miraculously are found, renewed, myrrh-streaming - in churches, monasteries, 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 gathering for centuries. A huge country was plunged into the abyss of trials. On the bright week 1991 exhaled fragrant myrrh icon of the Mother of God "Sovereign" from Nikolo-Perervinskaya monastery in Moscow. In the summer of 1991, in one of the ancient temples of Vologda, tears flowed from the eyes of the Lord on the icon Holy Savior. On August 18, in Georgia, she cried old icon Mother of God. On November 22, 1991, the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God shed a tear in the Smolensk Assumption Cathedral (Smolensk is the closest Russian city to Belarus, on whose territory the Belovezhsky agreement was concluded two weeks later).

Several icons showed grief at once in different parts of Russia and beyond its borders. "Tears of the Mother of God! A phenomenon that leads to awe and reverence, - writes about weeping icons Archpriest Mikhail Pomazansky - It testifies how close the Mother of God is to the world. But - let these tears not be! If the family does not have children more grief how to see their mother weeping, then what a strong and terrible shock it must be for Christians to know that the Mother of God sheds tears about them and because of them! The Mother of God, through her icon, broadcasts a consoling message: “I am with you”? Does the Mother of God grieve over the disorder in the Orthodox Churches? We don't know. But let us not divert 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." Reproachfully for us, and warning, and a call to repentance, we must accept the tears of the Mother of God!

As in previous centuries, signs from icons are most often given on the days of Great Lent - the time of the repentance and condolences about sins. Nowadays, blessed dew or myrrh often appears not on one, but on several icons of the temple, on crucifixes. It can disappear and reappear. Eyewitnesses seem to be called to imprint in the heart the action of the good will of the Lord, as if sanctifying the "house of prayer" with the sprinkling of the world. And - according to Oros Ecumenical Council- "to erect honor on the archetype", in a mournful and difficult time to once again be convinced that the Fatherland and the Church have not lost their heavenly host.

In the 1920s, icons were updated around the country in waves, affecting only certain areas. In the 1990s, the whole of Russia became a place of signs: urban and rural churches, monasteries, houses of pious people. Never Russian Orthodox Church I did not meet with the icons crying and myrrh streaming everywhere. This is an unprecedented phenomenon in the history of the country - an undoubted historical fact of great spiritual significance. This is the clear voice of God addressed to the entire Russian people.

Nevertheless, in comparison with past centuries, among the clergy and laity, there is a decrease in love and attention to the shrine of the Lord. The canonical rules are far from always followed: drawing up an act with the signature of the rector of the temple and witnesses of the miracle, and then submitting it to the bishop, who appoints a commission to certify the authenticity of what happened. Sometimes the clergy remain indifferent to such phenomena, sometimes they fear an unhealthy hype. But practice has shown the unfoundedness of such fears. Even after reports in the press, on radio and television about the certified miracle, no one rushes to the temple to see it. Only a small part of the believing laity experience genuine reverence in the face of the mysterious sign of God.

For several years, icons have been flowing myrrh in the centers of Orthodox holiness - Optina Hermitage, the Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Hermitage of the Riga Trinity-Sergius Monastery. They are captured in photographs and film. Myrrh-streaming, crying icons in the newly built monasteries - the monastery in the name of the icon "Skoroposlushnitsa" in the city of Pechory (Komi Republic) - in 1994, in the Intercession-Tervenichsky monastery of the St. Petersburg diocese - in 1994 - 95 and in the monastery skete - in 1997 and etc.

In July 1994, the myrrh-streaming of icons was observed in the church with. Puchkovo of the 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 Pyzhy, St. Nicholas in Kuznetsy, etc.), in the St. Petersburg church of Sts. rights. Simeon and Anna, in the churches of Kazan, Kaluga, Naberezhnye Chelny and many others.

Myrrh-streamings are surprisingly diverse in their nature. On the first week of Great Lent 1996 in the church with. Nizhnyaya Baigora, Voronezh region the Iberian Icon of the Mother of God streamed myrrh: February 24, on the eve of Forgiveness Sunday, the myrrh from the image flowed like a stream, so that a towel was placed under the icon, and the temple was filled with an inexpressible fragrance. AT Clean Monday myrrh flowed from under the crown and from the brow 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 of all 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, on a holiday Ascension Lord, in the presence of hundreds of pilgrims in the church of the village of Zelenchukskaya, tears began to flow from the eyes of the Mother of God on two icons - Iverskaya and "Skoroshlushnitsa".

Many miracles are associated with the patron saints of Russia - the Royal Martyrs. In September 1994 in Tsarskoye Selo myrrh streamed Feodorovskaya icon - the patroness of the House Romanovs. In the Intercession Church of Marienburg (near Gatchina), built in memory of miraculous salvation royal family during a train crash near the 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 light stream flowed from the eye of the Mother of God, then tears flowed one after another, then three strips of peace appeared from the left shoulder. Later, the entire surface of the icon became myrrh-streaming. The miracle lasted about two months. The icon itself was also painted in memory of 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 Tsar Martyr began to stream with a transparent, fragrant myrrh. Nikolai Alexandrovich and St. equal to ap. book. Vladimir. In 1998, the icon of Sovereign Nikolai Alexandrovich began to flow myrrh in the Moscow Church of the Ascension of the Lord on the Gorokhove field. The image was transferred here from the apartment of one of the parishioners, where the miracle was first recorded on November 7, 1998. The abundant outflow of the world occurred almost daily, and the wonderful fragrance did not stop for a single day, especially intensified during the memorial services for the Royal Martyrs. Contrary to the laws of physics, the myrrh flowed along the icon lying on the lectern not down, but from four sides of the icon case to the image of the Tsar. The icon is one of the lithographic copies of the image painted in California. The porphyry-bearing Anointed One of God is depicted on it in golden-red tones, an extraterrestrial radiance, with symbols of royal power - an orb and a scepter in his hands. “This holy icon was painted to glorify the Tsar-Martyr in Russia,” reads the inscription on the image. The myrrh-streaming of the icon is perceived by believers as another sign of the Sovereign's holiness, another evidence of the need for his speedy canonization in his earthly Fatherland.

Signs of myrrh-streaming and crying icons are given to everything Orthodox world in different parts of the earth.

The most famous myrrh-streaming icon of the 20th century. became the Iberian-Montreal image of the Mother of God. Painted by an Athos icon painter, a copy of the ancient Iberian icon was presented to Joseph Munoz, an Orthodox Spaniard, who placed it in his apartment in Montreal. Since 1982, this icon has constantly exuded holy myrrh, and in August 1991, for the first time, tears were seen on it. Quite a lot of cotton wool with wonderfully fragrant world was sent to Russia. Healing mercy poured out on people who resorted to the Intercessor in sorrow and illness. The families of pious Christian prayer books exude myrrh-paper reproductions and photographs of the Montreal icon. A number of circumstances indicated that the image was mystically connected with the fate of Russia, the feat of the New Martyrs. After Joseph Munoz, the keeper of the miraculous icon, was killed under mysterious circumstances in Greece in October 1997, the icon disappeared.

The weeping of the Mother of God in New York is known: a family of Orthodox Greeks 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 Virgin, from which grooves formed on the paper. The icon of the Mother of God wept Hodegetria" in the church of st. Nicholas in Chicago.

In a small temple in the Australian town of Mount Pritchard in patronal feast Dormition of the Mother of God, On August 28, 1994, the 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 prayers, myrrh-streaming intensified so that drops fell from the icon to the floor. The miracle, which lasted more than a year, produced spiritual fruits. Many eyewitnesses, previously indifferent to faith and God, repented and became true Orthodox believers.

November 1996 in Bethlehem at the Church of the Nativity Christ began cry the image of the Savior. It is located at the top of a marble column, located on the side of the main altar, in front of the descent into the cave where the Divine Infant was born. The Basilica of the Nativity was built in the 4th century. St. equal to ap. queen Elena and in the past sixteen centuries its service has never been interrupted. Miracle officially witnessed by priests Greek church, one of whom said: "Jesus is crying because the world is going the wrong way."

February 3, 1997, on the day of the celebration of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy and Consolation" in the Kykksky monastery in Cyprus, the list of this miraculous icon wept. From the eyes of the Blessed Virgin and the right eye of the Divine Infant at the same time began to stream tears. The archbishop called the people to repentance, so that the entire island would not suffer the fate of its eastern part, where thousands of Orthodox were exterminated by the Gentiles.

The abundance of miracles and signs from icons performed in the end of 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 strike someone's imagination. In Christians, signs give rise to feelings of fear of God and joy in the Lord, induce to intense prayer and repentance.