Dear Friends,
Here is an online copy of a newly-glorified miraculous icon "Not made by human hands" in the Kharkiv region in Ukraine:
http://pravoslavie.kharkov.ua/2obraz.html For the one or two of you here that don't read Russian, this is the story behind it in a nutshell.
Alexandra Proskunina found this icon of Christ in the ruins of her bombed out home near Kharkiv during the Second World War. It was darkened by soot and damage to the point of being unrecognizeable.
She later gave it to the women's monastery of Sts. Boris and Hlib the Passionbearers where it was enshrined.
On 20 July 1997 during the Sunday Divine Liturgy when the Gospel was being sung, a strange golden light was seen to come from the icon. By the time the Cherubic Hymn was being sung, people saw that the icon was "renewed" miraculously and that it returned to its former pristine state, bright colours and all!
Even the figures of Sts. Michael and Raphael could be seen on either side of the icon.
A sweet-smelling myrrh could be detected and it filled the entire Church with its aroma - for a period of five days.
The Ukrainian Orthodox Metropolitan Volodymyr of Kyiv appointed a commission that affirmed the event as miraculous.
The icon was declared miraculous on October 28, 1997, its feast was set for 20 July together with liturgical prayers, including an Akathist that is also on that site.
This occurred during the 2,000th anniversary of the Nativity of our Lord.
Commentators say that the icon reflecs our own inner renewal in Christ as we listen to and heed His Words in the Gospel.
As a result, the Image of Christ in ourselves can also be similarly renewed . . .
Alex
