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Well the right thing is the right thing. SS. John Chrysostom and Gregory Nazianzus were Patriarchs of Constantinople and should rest there. However, I wonder if they are sending all the relics are just significant portions of them. Some have been given out already. Metropolitan Judson's episcopal ring (please no Latinization comments) was a base relief icon of Christ but contained a relic of St. John Chrysostom and was a gift to him from Pope John Paul II.

Fr. Deacon Lance

Alex, quite right.

I remember hearing the terms (rough translation) of the "warm" and "cold" Nicholas in Russian and Ukrainian. That, of course, refers to the May and December feasts.

Dear Diak,

Yes, and there is the miraculous icon of St Nicholas that is back at St Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv that saved a boy from drowning that is called "St Nicholas the Drenched"

There is also the third feast of St Nicholas on August 11th or that of his Nativity, signifying, as is mentioned in his Akathist, that he was already sanctified in the womb of his mother and so could perform miracles at an early age.

He is second only to the Mother of God in terms of popular Eastern European Orthodox and EC devotion, as you know better than me.

His many miraculous icons (I understand a new one was recently glorified in Russia) testify to this, including "St Nicholas Zaraisky" and others.

And, as for Fr. Deacon Lance's fair comments above, I think St John Chrysostom would not have had many objections to his relics being at Rome, since Rome defended him when he was so ill-treated in the Byzantine East.

Byzantines can be such boors sometimes, don't you think?

Alex

But you have to love them.

If I know the Pope of Rome, he sent the Vladimir Icon, and now the relics, with a particular mission in mind, ...asking for the help and intercession of great patrons before the Savior, that God might reunite his Church, and strengthen it for the coming trials.

Dear Alex (or someone knowlegable, like Alex),

Do you know something about the process of 'glorifying' an icon? Have you seen an account of this event or ceremony written in english?

Nick

I personally believe that the relics can be more safeguarded and more widely and freely venerated if they remain in St. Peter's basilica.

The Phanar is at best iffy, considering the "stranglehold" the Istanbul government has over the EP.

Hopefully, some portions are kept in Rome. Sts. John and Gregory belong to the universal Church, i.e., East and West.

Now, does somebody know where the relics of the 12 Apostles are?

When my daughter was in Rome for her study grant 2 school years ago, she said they visited the locations of some of the Apostles.

If I recall it right, the relics of the 12 original Apostles are located as follows:

(1) St. Peter: St. Peter's Basilica, Rome (St.Paul's relics are also in Rome)

(2) St. Andrew: originally in Constantinople but now in Rome?

(3) St. Bartholomew: Rome

(4) St. James (the Greater): originally in Judea now in Spain?

(5) St. James (the Less): still in Jerusalem?

(6) St. John the Evangelist: Ephesus (Turkey)

(7) St. Jude: Rome

(8) St. Matthias (xJudas): Rome

(9) St. Matthew (Levi): ?

(10) St. Philip: originally in Constantinople now in Rome

(11) St. Simon: originally in Babylon now in Rome

(12) St. Thomas: originally in Edessa>Chios(sp.?)>Ortona (?)

Thanks.

My feelings exactly. I wonder how many holy things have been lost or destroyed because they were in Turkey. Whether or not Rome is entitled to some of these things, it is my belief that they might have ceased to exist had they been elsewhere.

Dear Amigo Amado,

Actually, the tomb of St John the Theologian (whom you Latin guys call the "Evangelist" - but he is certainly that too) is in Ephesus.

But his body is not there, but in heaven.

As the liturgical tradition and the deuterocanonical tradition relates, St John was placed ALIVE into his tomb by his disciples and the tomb was covered.

The next day, they returned and opened it to find no one.

The Eastern Church celebrates the bodily translation into heaven of the holy Apostle St John the Theologian!

On his feast in the past when Christians gathered at his empty tomb to celebrate it, a strange, gentle breeze develops during the services that envelopes all present.

The breeze seems to carry shining particles that look like reflective dust into the air.

A fitting, miraculous tribute to the holy disciple who rested his head on the Chest of Christ!

Alex

Dear Nick,

Ah, in English . . . I'm sure there is!

Met. Ilarion Ohienko does a nice summary in his book on Saints and quotes a number of Russian Orthodox sources.

In a nutshell, when any icon is blessed, it is then open to the possibility of becoming miraculous and it is certainly a sacramental etc.

On one of the sites of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, Moscow Patriarchate, is a quite well documented account of the process for the declaration of an icon of our Lord (the Holy Napkin) to be miraculous.

This icon is in Poltava and was covered in blackened soot.

One day during the Liturgy, witnesses in the church saw a light emanate from the icon and, before their eyes, the soot disappeared revealing the icon beneath.

The Metropolitan of Kyiv was notified and he established a committee of competent theologians and bishops to investigate.

These called the witnesses one by one and questioned them closely about what they saw.

The documents concerning the questions and answers were delivered (and put on the site).

After this, the Metropolitan held a synod, the matter was discussed after the report of the committee was submitted, and the Metropolitan with his Synod officially declared the icon to be miraculous and thereby canonized it FOR THE LOCALE.

There is an akathist to this particular icon (as there are for other miraculous icons), and a feast-day was established separate from that of the general Icon Not Made by Human Hands that is observed on August 29th (it was the day the miracle occurred).

Such icons can be decorated in a special way, pilgrimages become official etc.

In every which way, such icons follow the pattern of canonization of saints and, of course, the Mother of God has an enormous amount of miraculous, canonized icons and also locally-venerated icons, not yet canonized, but that are venerated as such by the people.

To give an indication, there is the Icon of Pochaiv in western Ukraine (and the Administrator kindly pressed a copy of it to the original for me for which I will always be grateful!).

There are over 300 miraculous copies of this icon around the world, and several in the Pochaiv Lavra Monastery itself (the one with the Footprint, Braylovska and others).

There are miraculous crosses (there is a monastery in Belarus or Lithuania where St Josaphat the EC martyr was and where he received a heavenly communication through a miraculous three-bar Orthodox-style Cross - the Cross is still there in what is now an Orthodox monastery).

There are miraculous icons of our Lord, the Saints (five of St George on Mt Athos), miraculous relics of course.

In the Kyivan Caves Lavra are the myrrh-bearing skulls of 61 unknown Saints, the relics of a child martyred by Herod and others.

In every which way, the declaration of miraculous icons follows the same process whereby saints are canonized.

The Roman Catholic Church, although deferring canonization of saints to Rome, still does allow local bishops to "canonize" local miraculous images of our Lady and the Saints, such as the miraculous St Ann tableau in Quebec (not of Beaupre) that was canonized as such locally by a holy bishop of Montreal.

When the Pope was in Ukraine, he not only canonized the New Martyrs there, but also three miraculous icons on which he placed papal crowns, including the icon of Terebovl that is in the Cathedral of St George in Lviv.

Alex

Dear Charles,

I agree with you completely.

In Christ,
Alice

Indian christian tradition holds that St. Thomas's tomb is in India. How reliable this is I am not sure.
Filipe

Dear Orthodox Catholic,

Now you're all going to think I'm a little crazy, but I was going through my box of little icons three weeks ago, in order to discard some of them, and lo and behold, a small icon of Saint Nicholas had a slight fragrance.

Well, I figured I must be cracking up, since I rarely if ever pray to Saint Nicholas, (I have many other saints), and started sniffing the other icons to see if they might have absorbed some scent. They didn't! The only one that was fragrant, was the small one of Saint Nicholas; an icon that was given to me at my mother's funeral, about twenty years ago. Very strange, but it made me happy. A small miracle.

I do have some cotton with myrhh from an icon of our Lady, and when placed next to other pieces of cotton, they absorb the scent. The scent keeps multiplying, as well as the oil. A continuous miracle... Not that life itself isn't a miracle.

I checked once to see if anything other than cotton would absorb the scent, but to no avail, not even a fabric lined box.

Zenovia

Zenovia, several people in Knoxville have experienced rose fragrances over a period of several years, myself included. None of us know what it means, but we mark calendars when it happens. The fragrances don't seem to tie in with Holy Days or anything special, except for one I experienced outside on Dec. 8, 1995. There were no rose plants around and it was too cold for them to be blooming anyway. This occurs in random places. The last one I experienced was on Aug. 30 of this year, which is not a date that is anything special, that I am aware of. One of my friends and her daughter have experienced many more occurences of fragrance than I have. As I said, none of know what it means, and we are not speculating on it.

We never know when God will surprise us with a personal miracle, Friends!

He is the God of surprises, after all!

He is great, loving, powerful and knows what is best for us.

We are to pray and pray some more and ask for the Grace to be conformed to His Will - as we wait for more of His surprises.

Alex