(Translate from Russian by Google)
Conversation with the guardian of the Iveron Montreal (Hawaiian) Icon of the Mother of God
Most recently, Kailua (the city of “two seas”, as this name translates from Hawaiian) was known for its golden sandy beaches with turquoise water – a paradise for surfers! And Kailua was one of the residences of the kings – the rulers of Hawaii. Barack Obama, when he was president, moved his office here for the winter. Now the city, located just a 20-minute drive from the center of Honolulu, has also become associated with the Russian Orthodox Church and its shrines, primarily with the world-revered Myrrh-streaming Iveron Montreal (Hawaiian) Icon of the Mother of God.
It’s not easy to get to Hawaii. Only from the edge of the big land, it will take more than five hours to fly there across the Pacific Ocean. However, there is also a Russian “treserve” in the decoration of the temple. Our Lady in the altar before his consecration was written by Matushka Anna Kalinina from Moscow – one of the first to get to the island of Oahu after the coronavirus pandemic. And the deacon in the temple is Nectarios Youngson, the guardian of the myrrh-streaming icon. He shared with us the difficult history of his parish, told us about the miraculous acquisition of the Hawaiian icon and the miracles and healings that occur through prayers before this image.
Deacon Nectarios Youngson
Islanders
– Father Nectarios, were you born in Hawaii yourself?
– My family is indigenous people of Hawaii, we have been living on the island of Oahu for many years. My great-great-grandfather, originally from China, married a Filipino. My great-grandfather was born from this marriage. He married a Puerto Rican woman of Spanish origin. We did a genetic test and, in addition to Polynesian, many ethnic lines intersect in our family, including Portuguese, Spanish, French, Filipino, Japanese, Chinese and, interestingly, Georgian and even Russian!
I was the first in the family to become Orthodox, being baptized at the age of 12. Before that, all my relatives were Catholics
As far as I know, I was the first in the family to become Orthodox, being baptized at the age of 12 (before that, all my relatives were Catholics). One day my stepmother and her parents went to the Greek festival in Honolulu and bought there the book “Orthodox Way” by Metropolitan Calliste (Ware). So she became a parishioner of the Greek Church of Saints Constantine and Helena. She invited me to the temple. I became interested and began to go to catechesis classes. Father Peter Salmas served there. He was going to baptize me, but then the Greek Archdiocese sent him to California. Then I began to go to the temple of the Russian Church Abroad. Then it was a small mission that rented premises in an episcopal church. When I first got into their service, it seemed to me that angels were singing, although only two people were singing on the choiros. I was fascinated by the service itself, the atmosphere in the parish, and the kindness of parishioners.
Then Father Seraphim Rolman served there. He agreed to baptize me next Friday and asked what name I would like to get in baptism. I said I had read about a wonderful man – St. Nektarios of Aegina, and I would like him to be my heavenly patron. “Oh!” exclaimed the priest, “this Friday is just the day of his memory.”
That’s how I was baptized on the day of memory of St. Nektarios of Aegina in the old style. For me, this was a confirmation that I made the right choice and came to the temple where I should have been.
On Sunday I was blessed to read the Gospel, and I communed for the first time. And after the service, Father Seraphim gave us a large closet with everything necessary to perform divine services and said that Archbishop Anthony (Medvedev) of San Francisco sends him to serve in Montana, and so far there will be no priest in the parish.
By the way, in the same parish I met our future priest – Father Anatoly Levin, who was then a long-term subdeacon.
The Parish was rectored by the professor
– Father Nectarios, the history of your parish is the story of rent, transition from one building to another; once you had a priest, once he was not there, and you had to maintain the “breath and life” of the parish yourself…
I, a 12-year-old, began to ride a bicycle to the temple every Sunday, where I laid out icons and read the impoverishment with a secular rank
– That’s for sure! And at that time, the future father Anatoly taught in Vladivostok, and I, 12-year-old, began to ride a bicycle to the temple every Sunday, where I laid out icons, took out books and read the luncheon with a secular rank. The temple was empty, almost no one came because there was no priest. I finished reading, packed everything in the closet, closed the temple door and went to the ocean. And no one knew if the priest would come or when he would come.
Finally, a gifted shepherd, Hieromonk Averky (Moreno), came from Jordanville. He stayed on the island for a month and so came four times a year. When he arrived, a lot of people gathered. He was our abbot for several years.
Meanwhile, our subdeacon Anatoly returned from Russia. Father Averky, knowing that we need a permanent priest and that our subdeacon would turn into a worthy pastor, began to persuade his Japanese wife Emiko to agree to her husband’s ordination. Father Anatoly was a professor at the University of Honolulu at that time, and after retirement he could devote all his time to the temple.
Priest Anatoly Levin
In 1984, Archbishop Anthony (Sinkevich) of Los Angeles came to us and said that the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God began to stream myrrh in Montreal, and brought us a copy of it. Vladyka proposed to dedicate our parish to the Iveron Montreal Icon of the Mother of God. So our community became the first in the world to be dedicated to this image.
Since 1986, Hieromonk Thomas (Delano; a former Hollywood actor who took monasticism in 1978) served for five years, then again there was no permanent priest for almost ten years.
But we were gradually building our parish. Sometimes I was sad, called Father Averky in Jordanville and almost shouted: “Well, why can’t we just go to the Greek church?” But Father Averky said that we should continue to pray and that there should be more temples, not fewer; that the Mother of God will help us.
And so God sent us Father Anatoly. That’s when we started a real regular liturgical life.
At that time, we had only a few families that supported the parish: Russians, Ukrainians, Serbs, Romanians, local Hawaiians.
We then served in a tiny office converted into a temple (only 18 square meters!)
Father Anatoly tried to talk about the church as much as possible, and the parish gradually grew. We then served in a tiny office converted into a temple (only 18 square meters!). But what a joyful atmosphere there was! I remembered the words of Bishop John (Maximovich). When the cathedral was taken away from his community in Shanghai, they had to serve in the garage, and many cried. And then their saint comforted them that this place is more than any cathedral, because here is the Body and Blood of Christ. We felt the same thing when we served in our little room. Ten years later, we rented a larger room – in the center of Honolulu.
And the temple we have now is just a miracle!
Our iconostasis was made… 100 years ago
– Five years ago, our long-term pastor was going to retire (now Father Anatoly is our honorary rector and continues to serve as much as he can). We needed a younger priest. In 2016, I just went to Alaska with an icon and several priests. There I liked one priest – Father Athanasius Kon. He lived with his family on the island of Kodiak in Alaska for many years, and he had an islander mentality.
Archbishop Kirill of San Francisco and West America considered him a good candidate for our church and sent him to Hawaii. Our parish is mixed: now it has Russians, Serbs, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Palestinians, believers from Alaska, and we needed a missionary priest who could continue to spread Orthodoxy on the island, lead people to faith to seek Christ and follow Christ to church.
Two years after Father Athanasius came to us, in 2018, we began to look for a new place to come. But we had little money, especially since the parish decided to pay the rector’s salary for more than 20 years so that he would not have to work in secular work. After all, it’s no secret that almost all clergy work abroad, except for service. There are computer priests and doctors, builders, truckers and even cleaners. And in Hawaii, life is expensive.
We couldn’t find a suitable place to rent for a long time. We thought: maybe we can buy it? We were looking for two years, and once we got a call and told that in Keilua, not far from Honolulu, there is a room for a former mission that moves to Texas. It was a Baptist community with a small church, a school that needed to be converted.
We liked the place. The pastor told us that Jehovah’s Witnesses and representatives of other denominations wanted to buy these premises, but he wanted to sell it to a real Christian parish.
Temple in Kailua
Then we started looking for a bank that would help us with the money, but could not find it. And then something interesting happened. We found an Orthodox bank that gave Orthodox churches money on credit for repair, expansion, re-equipment, but never gave money to buy a temple. Father Athanasius and I turned to them, but before that we served a moleben to the Mother of God. And they accepted our application! And all the management of the bank, starting from its president, was very willing to help our mission. We launched a fundraising campaign, and people from all over the world sent money that we were able to make as an initial payment.
All this happened during the coronavirus pandemic. We bought the premises of our future church in March 2020, served Easter services in the old place, and my father, a contractor, began working on the reconstruction and refurbishment of buildings.
Last year was a year of great work. And all this time we had some obstacles. But as soon as obstacles appeared, a decision came!
When we started updating the masonry on the outside of the church, the mason took money for the work and disappeared. But on the same day another mason came and offered help. He did everything in the best way, and even poured cement near the temple where there used to be land.
And one day the head of Joy of Sorrow Cathedral in San Francisco said that he had an iconostasis, which is eighty years old or older, and asked: “Do you need an iconostasis?” We would love to take it, because at this time we were just doing pulpit in the temple. But he didn’t even know the exact size. My father told me: “Let’s build a pulf, then we’ll decide. The Mother of God will help.”
We collected the iconostasis presented to us, and it turned out that it definitely fits our pulver!
The iconostasis was delivered to Hawaii in a container. We collected it, and it turned out that it was definitely suitable for our pulmo! As Father Anatoly said, the iconostasis was made 100 years ago just for us.
About a year ago, we generally completed the reconstruction of the church building and the neighboring school building, kitchen, library, and began to serve in our new church.
Despite the fact that the new church is a 15-minute drive from the previous one, for some of our parishioners who live close to the center of Honolulu, it turned out to be psychologically difficult to accept the very idea of going through the mountains. We lost several families, but gained even more. We have a Sunday school, children serve, sing in the choir where my mother studies with them.
About personal
Mother Iya
– Father Nectarios, usually people see you in temples where you are with a myrrh-streaming icon. But few people know about your worldly life, about Matushka, in particular…
– Blythe grew up in a not too church family, but loved music and sang in the choir in the same Epiphany Episcopal Church in Honolulu, where our Orthodox liturgy began at the end of their service. But we found it later. In the mid-1990s, she converted to Orthodoxy and was baptized with the name Oia. Interestingly, on the same weekend when Blythe was baptized, I was cut as a reader.
We got married, and when I was ordained a deacon in 2018, Iya became a mother. By origin, she is Japanese, by profession – a mathematics teacher, teaches in high school of a Catholic school. In the temple, she leads the chore and teaches the younger generation to read and sing.
Honolulu
– And who are you by secular profession?
– I was a policeman, and after I was seriously wounded in the line of duty, I switched to investigative work. Almost at the same time, the icon was mirrothy, and I had more opportunity to pilgrimage with it. I take my computer with me on trips and work. When there is a lot of work, one of the accompanying persons is in the temple at the icon, and I work with documents – in the church office or in the car.
I love my job, but I’m still waiting for the time when I will retire and be able to devote more time to the icon of the Mother of God and the temple.
– Did you count how many temples, monasteries you visited with the icon?
– This year marks the 15th anniversary of traveling with the Iveron Montreal (Hawaiian) Icon. As much as Brother Joseph Muñoz pilgrimage to the Montreal Icon. Only by car I travel more than 160 thousand kilometers a year, not counting flights from Hawaii to the continent and back!
The icon and I visited more than 1,700 churches around the world
The icon and I visited more than 1,700 churches around the world, in the United States and Canada – more than 1,200 in almost all states, except maybe one or two. And wherever I go, nowhere and never have I seen empty temples.
I remember a lot of people either by ordinary parishioners or students of Holy Trinity Seminary in Jordanville, St. Tikhon’s and St. Vladimir’s Seminaries.
Some priests come up to me and ask, “Do you remember me? I was a seminarian and was friends with a girl. Now I’m a priest, she’s my mother, and we have four children!”
The icon was sent for sale, and it was mired
– How did the icon start to myrrh?
– It happened in 2007. In the late 1990s, Father Anatoly went to Toronto and bought a small icon in a church kiosk. It was sold on sale for $20 because it was considered too dark. She was the last, and her grandmothers were arguing who would buy her. Mother Nadezhda, who worked at the kiosk, said: “Let the icon go to Hawaii.” And Father Anatoly bought the icon. He brought her to the temple and gave it to me an angel for day.
In 2006, my fiancée and I got married, moved the icon to our new apartment and put it on the highest bookshelf.
In 2007, I began to smell throughout the apartment. I told my cousin, and she also smelled similar to how the flowers of the macarorange plant smell (this is a mixture of rose and orange smells). I’m very allergic to odors, and in the store I can’t even approach the shelves with cleaning products. But I wasn’t allergic that time. And still, I asked my wife what it smelled like. And he even joked: “Do you want to get rid of me?” She confirmed that the air in the apartment is fragrant. The smell appeared or disappeared.
It was at the same time that I was wounded in the service and taken to the surgical department. I remember when I woke up from anesthesia after surgery, I immediately felt a familiar aroma. It smelled like roses again.
I had a small cross at home, I looked at it and saw drops of liquid on it. I thought – where from? And again I felt the same smell of roses.
Time passed. I once worked at home in my office. I also had a red corner with icons. Suddenly I noticed our cat entering the room and approaching the red corner. He stood on his hind legs just at the place where the Iveron Montreal Icon of the Mother of God stood on the shelf. The cat began to sniff and was going to jump on the shelf, which he had never done before. I came up to remove it, and then I felt the aroma again – and so strong! It was October 6.
I called my wife, and she confirmed again that it smells like a rose. We started looking for where the fragrance came from. I raised my hands and found that the shelf was wet, and the smell of roses comes from there. I took the icon, and oil liquid flowed out of it in streams – myrrh. Miro flowed right from under the dust on the icon. Then drops began to appear on the icon itself.
We knew about the myrrh-streaming Iveron Montreal Icon of the Mother of God, because our parish is named after her, but I have never seen her myself, she never came to Hawaii. I was told that brother Joseph Muñoz was going to come with an icon, but while he lived on earth, he failed. Perhaps after his martyrdom, he was here with an icon.
We soaked the icon, but it became wet again and again. Then I realized that the icon was myrrh-streaming. And the cross also ates myrrh.
My godfather, a Serbian, advised the priest to tell about it. We brought the icon and the cross to the temple. Father Anatoly served a moleben and said: “Now we have a myrrh-streaming icon of the Mother of God, and it will change our whole lives.”
After Christmas, with the blessing of Bishop Kirill, we brought an icon and a cross to the Joy of Sorrow Cathedral in San Francisco and left them there for a few months.
I returned to Hawaii, not knowing what would happen to the icon: maybe it will be left in the cathedral or transferred to some monastery.
The clergy noticed that when they pray in front of the icon, it begins to turn myrrh more
In 2008, the archbishop said that the icon was returning to Hawaii. I was happy. We have our own myrrh-streaming icon! The clergy in the cathedral told me how they began to notice that when they pray in front of the icon, it began to turn myrrh more.
In the Week of Triumph of Orthodoxy, the icon was first taken out of the altar by believers for worship. Before that, she was in the altar, and her stay in the cathedral was kept secret.
Bishop Kirill told the priests to change cotton wool inside the icon, but not to tell anyone that the icon is here. Believers were anointed with peace, not even everyone got rolls in peace, but then people who were anointed with peace began to approach the bishop and the priests of the cathedral and say that they were healed! Who’s from cancer, who’s from another disease.
On the Sunday of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, an icon and a cross were placed in the cathedral so that people could pray and venerate them, and soon we took them to Hawaii. The cross began to be constantly stored in the temple as a blessing to parishioners, and the guardian of the icon of the Mother of God was appointed.
How I became an iconophor
– The guardian is the person who is called an iconophor (iconian) in Greek. Pushkin used this Greek word in his works, but more often in Russia they said “former”.
– Yes. In a broad sense, this is generally a person who cares about church utensils and the church in general. Bishop Kirill told me that since the icon of the Mother of God constantly ignitates, people should be witnesses to it. And not only to see the miracle with your eyes, but also to feel it with your heart, so the icon should visit as many temples and monasteries as possible, and it should have a guardian who will take care of her and travel with her to parishes.
I asked who would do all this, and he pointed to me.
I got confused and began to say that I have a wife, a job, a cat. I work every day, I pay a loan. That’s why it should be someone else. “The Mother of God came to you and chose you. And she had a reason for that,” said Vladyka. “And you must answer Her call. Of course, you can refuse, but several times in your life God does not offer this, and there may no longer be such an opportunity to serve Him. So decide!” – and I agreed, putting all hope in the Mother of God.
We brought the icon to the island, and since then for almost 15 years the icon has been traveling around the world, and millions of people in hundreds of churches pray to the Most Holy Theotokos in front of this small icon. In the church alone in Georgia, where we were in 2014, more than 100 thousand people came to worship her. The Georgian Patriarch told us then that only in that small temple two women were healed of cancer. They were healed during a moleben, which was served late in the evening by the priest of that church for his family and his loved ones. Among those who prayed were those two women.
A woman who died five minutes ago was put on her chest, she was breathing, and her heart began to beat
It is noteworthy that in those days a lot of obsessed people were healed in Georgia and even a woman who died five minutes ago. An icon was put on her chest, she breathed, and her heart began to beat.
In a monastery, I saw the healing of a girl. She twisted in front of the icon, then a priest came out of the altar, prayed and anointed her with peace. Before that, I had not seen how the rite of exorcism took place, and for me what I saw then was the most terrible and at the same time spiritually strengthening.
People tried to keep her, and at some point the girl screamed loudly. Abbess asked if we could put the icon on her chest. At that moment, I looked at her face – distorted and really “demonic.” We put the icon on the girl’s chest, she raised her hands to the icon and tried to hug her like a child. And suddenly an incredible fragrance begins to come from the icon and penetrate all corners of the temple.
Later, the abbess told me that the girl was healed the same day and played calmly with other children. It’s incredible that they tried to expel the unclean spirit from the girl for months and couldn’t. And the world from the icon was anointed only once – and she was completely healed.
I have a priest I know in Washington, D.C. His friend, a Catholic exorcist priest in Rome, told him how difficult it is for them to expel spirits there. And our priest sent him myrrh from our Hawaiian icon.
“What did you send us?” the exorcist from Rome wrote to him. “People are being healed. Can you send me more?” Of course, we sent him a myrrh. We send it to everyone who asks.
– Do you visit churches of other denominations?
– As a rule, no. They don’t ask. Catholics, Anglicans usually come to the places where the icon happens.
An unOrthodox woman asked me to come with an icon to her son’s hospital – and he was healed
I can bring the icon home, to the hospital if they invite me to visit the patient. I even visited a sick Muslim girl. There was a case when an unOrthodox woman asked me to come to my son’s hospital with an icon – and he was healed.
Some people are indignant and say that I should visit only Orthodox with an icon. But everyone can come to the temple and ask for healing. People should not be forbidden to come to the Mother of God and ask for help.
It’s one thing to say sacraments, but it’s unfair to close the icon for prayer from those who have not yet come to the right faith. You can’t separate some people from others. It’s unmerciful!
You have to be patient with God
– Father Nectarios, how do you choose places where to go with the icon?
– I don’t choose myself. Our Lady decides everything. And I get certain signs. I feel, for example, that I have to go to Texas. Then I usually wait, because with God, as well as with people, you have to be patient. He’s patient with us!
I wait, pray, and suddenly a priest from northern Texas calls me and asks: “Can you come to Texas?” And then a priest from Austin, from southern Texas, calls me and also invites me to come. And after him – regardless of those priests – I get a call from the abbess of the monastery from Houston. And all this happens within a few days. And they offer dates close to each other, although they didn’t even agree. That’s how the Mother of God guides me.
I’ve learned to read such signs and never force trips. I’m like a humble “duckle” who stands next to him and waits for him to be taken and pulled in one direction or another.
At the very beginning, I tried to force, initiate trips myself, but everything didn’t work out, everything went wrong.
For example, a few years ago I was with an icon in a temple in San Francisco, and I was offered to visit one of the monasteries. A group of clergy gathered and went with the icon in one car, and I went to another. Suddenly I noticed that I was falling asleep. I decided to stop by the coffee shop, bought coffee and saw a Woman at the car. “You need to come back,” She said. “How?” I asked. “You shouldn’t go any further. Come back.” I opened the car door and felt a strong smell of peace coming out of the car. But there was no icon there! I turned around – the woman disappeared. I realized that it was the Mother of God and came back.
Monastery as a gift
There was a Young Woman nearby: “Stand up, it’s time to board the plane,” she said. I took my things, and She disappeared
– And this case is not the only one. One day I was flying from Honolulu to Fresno, California with a transfer to San Francisco. It was about two hours before landing, and I decided to take a nap, and put the icon in the case under my head. They announced the landing, and I was still sleeping. It turns out they’ve already announced my name on the loudspeaker, but I didn’t hear it. Suddenly someone patted me on the shoulder. There was a Young Woman nearby. “Apart, it’s time to board the plane,” She said. I took my things, and She disappeared.
In Fresno, the abbess of the monastery, Matushka Markella and her sisters were waiting for me. I approached her, and she says, “Dad the Mother of God appear to you?” – I ask: “What do you mean?” – and I realized who was the Young Woman who woke me up at the airport.
Abbess told me that a family from Ukraine came to the monastery, and their daughter is very sick. She asked to bless the girl with an icon and anoint her with holy peace. And the girl was healed!
Her father, who worked at the construction site, was so happy that he rebuilt that monastery. This is a convent in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Life-Bearing Spring”, one of the most beautiful women’s monasteries.
A man in a cloak
– October 31 marks the 25th anniversary of the tragic death in Athens of brother Joseph Muñoz-Cortez, who for 15 years was the guardian of the myrrh-streaming Iveron Montreal Icon of the Mother of God. Have you ever felt fear while traveling?
– Once in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I saw a man enter the temple after a prayer service. At this time, the priest was just anointing the people with peace. The man was wearing a long cloak. And since I’m a policeman, I usually have an instinct right away: something is wrong here. And I’m starting to watch.
The man knelt down and began to cry. I realized that the Mother of God is now “doing” something with him, with his soul
The man approached the icon. I also came up and looked closely at his hands. He knelt down and began to cry. I cried a lot. I realized that the Mother of God is now “doing” something with him, with his soul.
The man approached the priest, he anointed him with peace, and the man came up to me. He opened his cloak, pulled out a big hunting knife and handed it over to me. He said that he left his office for lunch and then saw a leaflet hung by someone, perhaps someone from the church – about the arrival of the Hawaiian Icon at their temple. And he heard a voice forcing him to destroy the icon and kill the man who brought it. The voice in his head sounded over and over again. When he came to the temple to destroy the icon, he felt that someone hugged him from behind, began to breathe in his ear and as if kissed him on the neck, as his mother usually did when he was a child. He felt that his mother was holding him in her arms, fell to the floor, and his voice disappeared.
Subsequently, this man converted to Orthodoxy, and before that he knew nothing about faith.
I always remember the words of our Archbishop Kirill – never travel alone. The Mother of God undoubtedly protects in Her image. But I remember what happened to Brother Joseph in Athens. And with the myrrh-streaming Iveron Montreal Icon, which has disappeared and traces of which have not yet been found. Therefore, I appreciate every minute, every second, while a copy from it – our Hawaiian icon – is with us. Because at any time she can, God forbid, disappear.
With Deacon Nectarios Youngston
Tatiana Veselkina talked
Honolulu, Oahu Island
Photo by the author
April 21, 2022