By Katherine Hyde - Again Vol. 18 No. 3

Just over one year ago, the Orthodox people of Australia were blessed by a miracle - the first of its kind know to have occurred on that continent. On Sunday, August 28, 1994, in the tiny Antiochian parish of Saint Mary's in Mount Pritchard, New South Wales (a western suburb of Sydney), a five-foot-tall, full-figure icon of the Crucified Christ began to stream oil.

Saint Mary's is on the Old Calendar and August 28 is the parish's patronal feast day, the Dormition of the Theotokos. Shortly after the morning Divine Liturgy, Father Zoran, assistant priest of the parish, was on the church porch chatting with some parishioners when an altar boy who had been inside cleaning the church came up to him.

"Excuse me, Father," he said, "I think you should come and see the Cross."

Father Zoran accompanied the boy inside and went up to the Cross on which the icon of the Crucified Christ is mounted. (This cross is about four meters tall and stands against a brick wall.) He could see drops that looked rather like sweat on the face, hands, chest and legs of the icon. On the floor below the Cross was a pool of liquid. The liquid resembled oil but was light, not sticky, and had a fragrance which some described as being like fruit, other like roses or incense.

One of the parishioners who had followed Father Zoran in went to call Father Peter, Saint Mary's senior priest. He told the people not to touch anything and sent Father Zoran to call Archbishop Gibran Remlawi. The Archbishop gave instructions that nothing should be said and no one should touch the icon. He promised to come soon to examine it himself. Meanwhile, the people were overwhelmed with emotion, praying and crying before the icon; it was impossible to restrain them from telling their families and friends about the apparent miracle.

Authenticating the Miracle

On Tuesday morning the Archbishop came. He collected the liquid from the icon with cotton balls and gave these to Father Zoran, instructing him to send to a laboratory for analysis. The laboratory, which had no previous connection with the parish or with Orthodoxy, performed a spectroscopic analysis. The spectrographic "fingerprint" of the oil was identical to that of olive oil. The lab owner, Michael Morrison, said, "Scientifically it can't happen. Olive oil is not a naturally occurring oil. It has to be extracted from a fruit. It wouldn't be normally found in wood of any sort." Morrison refused payment for the analysis, asking for prayers instead.

Later, Archbishop Gibran sent some of the oil to the chemistry laboratory at the University of New South Wales, which came up with the same result. The Archbishop asked the scientists there whether the oil could conceivably have been produced from the wood, paint, or lacquer of the icon or whether it could have resulted from condensation. The answer was that all these things were quite impossible. When the Archbishop asked whether the chemist had any idea as to the origin of the oil, the chemist told him he would have to ask God.

Some observers suggested that the oil might have been poured onto the icon, but this was ruled out when the icon continued to produce oil in the sight of many witnesses. In addition, the icon was taken down from the Cross to prove that there were no tubes or other devices present which could produce the oil. The wood of the Cross and the brick wall behind it were also examined and produced no explanation.

All the investigations almost gave the impression that Archbishop Gibran was trying to prove that the oil was not really miraculous. He denied this, however, saying that it was traditional in the Orthodox Church to be very cautious in declaring miracles. It was his duty to rule out every conceivable natural cause. He told one reporter, "As a faithful I say it is a miracle; as a bishop I cannot proclaim it yet." He did formally declare it after the proclamation was approved by the Patriarchate in Damascus.

When asked for his personal response to the miracle, Archbishop Gibran said, "I am overwhelmed and humbled by it. I will not pretend I can interpret God. In my years one of the things I have learned is not to put words in God's mouth. I am only telling my people that this miracle, if it can be called that, cannot be the basis of our faith. [The oil] could stop right now so what stays with me then is my faith in my God and my relationship with my God." When asked why this had appeared in Australia, the Archbishop replied, "Perhaps because there are more sinners here than elsewhere." He also expressed a hope that God was visiting His people for mercy and forgiveness rather than for judgement or reprimand.

Healings of Body and Soul

Meanwhile. The oil continued to flow. Whenever some was wiped off the surface of the icon, more would appear in its place. The priests noticed that during prayer services the flow would increase to the point that the oil would drop off the bottom of the icon; at other times it would simply bead on the surface. A few times the oil ceased to flow when someone approached the icon unworthily or in lack of faith; then fervent prayer was necessary to start it flowing again.

One Russian priest who visited reported, "After prayer I wiped with cotton the Body of Christ dry. After a few minutes I witnessed that it gushed out streams. I was awed and stuck my finger in the leg and it went into the wood and out of the same place oil came. I believe this to be a miracle from God."

As word got out, people flocked to see the icon. The tiny church, which seats only fifty people, had hundreds of visitors each day, round the clock. Seven thousand came in the first month. They included Orthodox from every conceivable jurisdiction, as well as Catholics, Protestants, and non-Christians. They came from all over Australia and even from abroad. Whatever brought them there - and surely they had many different motivations, ranging from true piety to mere curiosity - many of them seemed to go away with a renewed and depended relationship with God.

The parishioners of Saint Mary's themselves experienced an unprecended revival of their faith. Many, from Saint Mary's and other parishes as well, who had never come to confession before began to come on a regular basis, and the fruit of their repentance has been visible in their lives. Young people who had been only nominal believers, coming to church only to please their parents or grandparents, began to experience genuine faith in Christ for the first time. The young man who first discovered the miracle is now in a monastery in Greece. Countless lives have been deeply and lastingly touched with the grace of God.

As requests poured in, cotton balls soaked with oil were sent all over the world. Saint Mary's received report after report of people who had been healed of all sorts of diseases after being anointed with the holy oil. At the Archbishop's insistence, many of these healings were documented by physicians. One five-year-old girl was cured of asthma. A Roman Catholic man who was suffering from a degenerated disk was completely healed, and has X-rays to prove it. He now attends Saint Mary's regularly and has converted to Orthodoxy.

One deacon's son works in a children's hospital, where he met a ten-year-old Roman Catholic boy named Michael who had cancer in his hip. Michael had undergone radiation therapy and was completely bald. The deacon's son told Michael's parents about the icon and they brought him to see it. The priests anointed Michael and gave him some oil to take with them. Back at the hospital, Michael continued to anoint himself with the oil. Some time later he returned to Saint Mary's to report his cancer was in remission. He then took more oil and began anointed other children at the hospital. Michael's father returned to the church to give thanks and to help take care of all the visitors.

Spiritual healings abounded as well. One Greek boy came with a busload of high-school students from Melbourne, 650 miles away. The priests said a moleben service and told the students about the icon and how it had begun to exude oil. While they were speaking, two boys at the back of the room began to weep. When they all went outside, one of the boys came up to Father Zoran and told him that he had not been a true believer, but had been going to church only to please his grandmother. For a long time he had prayed to see a miracle; at last his prayer had been granted and now he truly believed in God. The boy went back to Melbourne and told all his friends about the icon and how it had changed his life. Many of them travelled the 650 miles to see the miracle for themselves.

A neighbouring priest of the Moscow Patriarchate, Father Vladimir, frequently brings Russian visitors to see the icon. One he brought a journalist who was not a believer. As the journalist was returning to Russia by air, his plan ran into serious difficulties and the passengers feared for their lives. The journalist told them all about the icon and suggested they pray. The passengers prayed and the plane landed safely. The journalist later returned to Australia and was baptized.

Reflections on a year of grace

AGAIN spoke with Father Zoran recently about the situation at Saint Mary's now, one year and 150, 000 visitors later. He told us that although the icon produces oil at a slower rate now, and the flood of visitors has subsided to steady but manageable stream, the spiritual fruit of the miracle has not diminished. Healings continue to occur. People continue to repent and to live in repentance and prayer.

The internal life of Saint Mary's has become permanently changed for the better. Father Zoran's words, the people "have become more serious about what they say about themselves. If they are Christians, then they have to act like Christians. They have to trust in God, they have to have the faith, they have to have this unshakeable confidence in His power and in His mercy."

We asked Father Zoran why he felt the miracle had been granted in this particular place and time. His feelings is that it has occurred at partly to bring all Orthodox of Australia together. Where previously there was a lot of internal squabbling, the icon has proven to be a strong unifying force. Clergy and laypeople from all jurisdictions, Old Calendar and New Calendar, Russians, Greeks, Arabs, Serbs, Macedonians, Romanians, all have come and prayed together in one church, using the language of whatever chanters happened to come that day. Church politics were left outside. Father Zoran said, "Really only this icon of Jesus brought them together, otherwise they never would have even talked to one another."

Father Zoran thought perhaps Saint Mary's had been chosen as the site of the miracle because it is not a strongly ethnic parish. It is under the Antiochian Patriarchate but began as a mission parish with many ex-Roman Catholics. Father Zoran himself is not Arabic, but Serbian. Therefore the parish was more open to having people of many different backgrounds get together. But Father Zoran also said, "Probably this happened here because we're the greatest sinners - God knows."

Whatever the reason for the miracle, this myrrh-streaming icon has been a tremendous blessing to Saint Mary's, to the Orthodox people of Australia and all over the world. Glory be to God!

Katherine Hyde is Associate Editor of AGAIN.