The Holy Myrrh of Panagia Malevi
According to the Testimony of the Nuns of the Monastery
At an altitude of 1,100 meters, in a verdant mountaintop where the Monastery of Panagia Malevi has been since 1116 AD, the icon of the Dormition of the Theotokos - one of the seventy painted by Luke the Evangelist - has not stopped gushing Myrrh from 1964 until today, while the whole area is fragrant without anyone being able to give an alternate explanation.
Her appearances, as well as miracles, number in the hundreds, though most never become known. However, word of mouth of her divine signs are transferred throughout the world and every year believers from every corner of Greece but also from abroad, such as America, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, travel as far as Arcadia to venerate her grace and ask for her help. And she doesn't disappoint them. She reaches out to them and heals their wounds.
That which has deeply moved my soul and has literally disturbed me is the heavenly, the divine Myrrh, this supernatural Myrrh which emanates from this miraculous icon.
The miraculous icon was brought to Kynouria by the inhabitants of Mount Athos who came to the area in the year 971. The icon was originally located in the first monastery that was built in Kanalon.
But the monks died tragically from the cold and, according to what has prevailed all these years and is described to us by the nun Agni:
"The icon left by itself and came to the place where the monastery is today.
At that time there were cottonwoods in that area and the icon was standing in the cottonwoods, while an oil lamp was burning next to it that never went out. Three times they moved the icon to its original position, but it returned to that particular spot.
So it was decided to build her new home there. We believe that she chose this place, as many people met a tragic death here. In fact, during the work for the construction of the monastery, many bones were found."
Her appearances, as well as miracles, number in the hundreds, though most never become known. However, word of mouth of her divine signs are transferred throughout the world and every year believers from every corner of Greece but also from abroad, such as America, Australia, Canada, Cyprus, travel as far as Arcadia to venerate her grace and ask for her help. And she doesn't disappoint them. She reaches out to them and heals their wounds.
That which has deeply moved my soul and has literally disturbed me is the heavenly, the divine Myrrh, this supernatural Myrrh which emanates from this miraculous icon.
The miraculous icon was brought to Kynouria by the inhabitants of Mount Athos who came to the area in the year 971. The icon was originally located in the first monastery that was built in Kanalon.
But the monks died tragically from the cold and, according to what has prevailed all these years and is described to us by the nun Agni:
"The icon left by itself and came to the place where the monastery is today.
At that time there were cottonwoods in that area and the icon was standing in the cottonwoods, while an oil lamp was burning next to it that never went out. Three times they moved the icon to its original position, but it returned to that particular spot.
So it was decided to build her new home there. We believe that she chose this place, as many people met a tragic death here. In fact, during the work for the construction of the monastery, many bones were found."
How Did the Holy Myrrh Appear?
How many who have examined its composition in the end were left speechless and captivated because no matter how many attempts they made, they remained dumbfounded. This myrrh has no equal on earth. It is not like the myrrh that various Saints exude. It is unprecedented Myrrh which our sweet Jesus gave as the most precious gift to His Eternal Mother.
How did it appear? In 1964, before even gushing, the Holy Myrrh smelled exquisitely and excessively throughout the Monastery for twenty days on the icon of the Panagia. The icon smelled fragrant but at first we did not understand that it was a miracle and one asked the other: "Did you sprinkle perfumes on the icons?", but no one knew anything.
We also asked Father Stylianos:
"What do you smell Father?"
"What I smell is the perfumes you've put on."
"Father," we said, "we didn't put anything on."
Demetrios Kalitsis who had come from Agios Petros told us "the Panagia smells."
The fragrance continued and was so strong that one night I was out on the roof and I said:
"My Panagia, what is this thing, it will open some river to drown us."
On the Friday of the last Salutations, April 17, 1964, pilgrims had come and worshiped for the Vigil. The first drops appeared. Sister Theonymphi saw them first, the pilgrims also ran and saw them.
On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, after Vespers, sister Theodouli came a bit agitated and sat down in an armchair in the winter room and said: "Sister Mariam, go to the church to the Panagia, it seemed to me like an optical illusion, see what it is."
I had not gone to Vespers because I was busy doing work. We ran to the church, I took a candle and looked at the icon and I saw the Panagia open and close her mouth and it gushed like a bubbling fountain. When she opened her mouth it flowed out much like a faucet and when she closed her mouth it cut off.
And when she opened her mouth again it ran like a faucet, but upwards. And the color of the water pierced the glass as if it were nothing and ran down. The icon stand was full but outside the glass it flowed and was the color of milk.
We were disturbed, we were afraid and said what is this thing, and we did not sleep that night. On Monday morning Panagiotis Kolovos the field officer came from Agios Petros. He went to venerate the Panagia and came and told us that the Panagia has drops outside the window. We, the sisters, went and saw some drops from outside the glass and the color was the color of the sky, blue, but the fragrance was very strong.
In the afternoon, the eldress Parthenia who was away came and we told her what we saw and she was surprised, she didn't know what to tell us. What was this miracle? Because among the miracles of the Panagia that we have read about, we had not seen a similar miracle.
The next day again the icon gushed out a few drops that we could see coming from the inside out. The glass did not stop them and they ran down to the icon stand. The color was like a clear diamond and there was a fragrance.
The next day on Wednesday it continued to gush intermittently several times a day. The color was like the gold of a lira, yellow, as it is today yellow like oil, and it flowed many times and so much that we put it in a vial filling it up to half, then we sealed it and the next day there was nothing in the vial.
How many who have examined its composition in the end were left speechless and captivated because no matter how many attempts they made, they remained dumbfounded. This myrrh has no equal on earth. It is not like the myrrh that various Saints exude. It is unprecedented Myrrh which our sweet Jesus gave as the most precious gift to His Eternal Mother.
How did it appear? In 1964, before even gushing, the Holy Myrrh smelled exquisitely and excessively throughout the Monastery for twenty days on the icon of the Panagia. The icon smelled fragrant but at first we did not understand that it was a miracle and one asked the other: "Did you sprinkle perfumes on the icons?", but no one knew anything.
We also asked Father Stylianos:
"What do you smell Father?"
"What I smell is the perfumes you've put on."
"Father," we said, "we didn't put anything on."
Demetrios Kalitsis who had come from Agios Petros told us "the Panagia smells."
The fragrance continued and was so strong that one night I was out on the roof and I said:
"My Panagia, what is this thing, it will open some river to drown us."
On the Friday of the last Salutations, April 17, 1964, pilgrims had come and worshiped for the Vigil. The first drops appeared. Sister Theonymphi saw them first, the pilgrims also ran and saw them.
On the Fifth Sunday of Lent, after Vespers, sister Theodouli came a bit agitated and sat down in an armchair in the winter room and said: "Sister Mariam, go to the church to the Panagia, it seemed to me like an optical illusion, see what it is."
I had not gone to Vespers because I was busy doing work. We ran to the church, I took a candle and looked at the icon and I saw the Panagia open and close her mouth and it gushed like a bubbling fountain. When she opened her mouth it flowed out much like a faucet and when she closed her mouth it cut off.
And when she opened her mouth again it ran like a faucet, but upwards. And the color of the water pierced the glass as if it were nothing and ran down. The icon stand was full but outside the glass it flowed and was the color of milk.
We were disturbed, we were afraid and said what is this thing, and we did not sleep that night. On Monday morning Panagiotis Kolovos the field officer came from Agios Petros. He went to venerate the Panagia and came and told us that the Panagia has drops outside the window. We, the sisters, went and saw some drops from outside the glass and the color was the color of the sky, blue, but the fragrance was very strong.
In the afternoon, the eldress Parthenia who was away came and we told her what we saw and she was surprised, she didn't know what to tell us. What was this miracle? Because among the miracles of the Panagia that we have read about, we had not seen a similar miracle.
The next day again the icon gushed out a few drops that we could see coming from the inside out. The glass did not stop them and they ran down to the icon stand. The color was like a clear diamond and there was a fragrance.
The next day on Wednesday it continued to gush intermittently several times a day. The color was like the gold of a lira, yellow, as it is today yellow like oil, and it flowed many times and so much that we put it in a vial filling it up to half, then we sealed it and the next day there was nothing in the vial.
Holy Myrrh
At this unprecedented miracle we were horrified and wept. We didn't know what this sign was and what it meant? Would be good? Destructive? What could we say.
The sixth week of Lent and Palm Sunday were for us days of mourning and weeping.
One day we rang the bells all day but no one came. They heard the bells as they told us later but they did not come. We were alone. We notified the Metropolis, the Priests of the Metropolis came, took the icon out of the shrine, cleaned it, inspected it and were informed with their own eyes of the miracle of the Panagia.
The police came, people came, from the villages they came on bicycles, motorbikes, some on animals, others on foot and they venerated the Panagia.
The police escorted the people out of the church, the icon was left alone, they closed the church, we didn't see what they did, the policeman himself informed us that when he wiped the icon, the Panagia threw Myrrh on his face and he said: "I believe, my Panagia."
The icons smelled, the pews smelled, the whole church, the whole Monastery. The cars that took Holy Myrrh, all the people smelled because they took the Myrrh that we gave them with cotton.
The fragrance reached the street below, very strong fragrance. The way the icon gushed at first was clear glass, it was clouding the glass. We saw it, then it became big drops, it covered the glass as if the glass was nothing and ran out. It ran down to the icon stand and several times a day it would reach down to the floor and we would collect it in the cottons and the people would take it.
Our emotion was great, we kept reading Salutations to the Panagia and Supplicatory Canons. Holy Week came and we were reading Salutations. We used to say "we don't salute our Panagia during Holy Week" but our emotion was so great that we read them all through Holy Week.
The icon gushed intermittently several times a day. On Holy Easter it stopped gushing. TDuring Renewal Week it didn't gush, but it started again the week of Thomas in the same way.
The colors changed between four, as I said earlier, a color like milk, a color blue, a color like diamond and the color yellow which remained constant, then it did not change again. Once I saw - I stayed until midnight on the feast of the Panagia - a drop as big as blood red came out of the icon and passed through the glass as if it was nothing and came out, stayed there, I didn't touch it, and in the morning I got up earlier than the sisters, I rushed to the church, and the drop outside the icon was dry.
After the service we extracted it and it came out as dry blood but the fragrance was always the same. When the icon was gushing to the floor many times it felt like a sword tore at my insides. I ran and went and venerated the Panagia wherever I was otherwise I could not take the pain.
Myrrh was collected from the ground. Sometimes the fragrance of Myrrh came in a different way, it came in waves, you could feel that it was not something natural. Another smell that is natural either perfumes or whatever else and the smell stops. This fragrance of the Myrrh of the Panagia was not like them, the curtains did not prevent it from going out or coming in from the outside.
Like the Lord, it was not hindered by the seals and the stone of the tomb. The same did not prevent the fragrance and the Myrrh from coming from outside to the inside nor from the icon we saw that the Myrrh that was coming out was not prevented by the glass and the way of the fragrance of the Myrrh was not natural, it came in waves so as not to leave the slightest doubt even to the most unbelieving.
No one remained unmoved, prayers and entreaties and supplications and tears to the Panagia, were sent by almost all the pilgrims, throughout the whole world.
Chrysostomos of Nafplion was the overseer after the death of Bishop Germanos Roubanis. The Bishop of Nafplion sat as overseer for a while and the Bishop of Sparta Kyprianos came as overseer.
He came here to our Monastery, inspected the icon, informed himself of the miracle and said: "Blessed be the name of the Theotokos. May the miracle of the Panagia spread."
At this unprecedented miracle we were horrified and wept. We didn't know what this sign was and what it meant? Would be good? Destructive? What could we say.
The sixth week of Lent and Palm Sunday were for us days of mourning and weeping.
One day we rang the bells all day but no one came. They heard the bells as they told us later but they did not come. We were alone. We notified the Metropolis, the Priests of the Metropolis came, took the icon out of the shrine, cleaned it, inspected it and were informed with their own eyes of the miracle of the Panagia.
The police came, people came, from the villages they came on bicycles, motorbikes, some on animals, others on foot and they venerated the Panagia.
The police escorted the people out of the church, the icon was left alone, they closed the church, we didn't see what they did, the policeman himself informed us that when he wiped the icon, the Panagia threw Myrrh on his face and he said: "I believe, my Panagia."
The icons smelled, the pews smelled, the whole church, the whole Monastery. The cars that took Holy Myrrh, all the people smelled because they took the Myrrh that we gave them with cotton.
The fragrance reached the street below, very strong fragrance. The way the icon gushed at first was clear glass, it was clouding the glass. We saw it, then it became big drops, it covered the glass as if the glass was nothing and ran out. It ran down to the icon stand and several times a day it would reach down to the floor and we would collect it in the cottons and the people would take it.
Our emotion was great, we kept reading Salutations to the Panagia and Supplicatory Canons. Holy Week came and we were reading Salutations. We used to say "we don't salute our Panagia during Holy Week" but our emotion was so great that we read them all through Holy Week.
The icon gushed intermittently several times a day. On Holy Easter it stopped gushing. TDuring Renewal Week it didn't gush, but it started again the week of Thomas in the same way.
The colors changed between four, as I said earlier, a color like milk, a color blue, a color like diamond and the color yellow which remained constant, then it did not change again. Once I saw - I stayed until midnight on the feast of the Panagia - a drop as big as blood red came out of the icon and passed through the glass as if it was nothing and came out, stayed there, I didn't touch it, and in the morning I got up earlier than the sisters, I rushed to the church, and the drop outside the icon was dry.
After the service we extracted it and it came out as dry blood but the fragrance was always the same. When the icon was gushing to the floor many times it felt like a sword tore at my insides. I ran and went and venerated the Panagia wherever I was otherwise I could not take the pain.
Myrrh was collected from the ground. Sometimes the fragrance of Myrrh came in a different way, it came in waves, you could feel that it was not something natural. Another smell that is natural either perfumes or whatever else and the smell stops. This fragrance of the Myrrh of the Panagia was not like them, the curtains did not prevent it from going out or coming in from the outside.
Like the Lord, it was not hindered by the seals and the stone of the tomb. The same did not prevent the fragrance and the Myrrh from coming from outside to the inside nor from the icon we saw that the Myrrh that was coming out was not prevented by the glass and the way of the fragrance of the Myrrh was not natural, it came in waves so as not to leave the slightest doubt even to the most unbelieving.
No one remained unmoved, prayers and entreaties and supplications and tears to the Panagia, were sent by almost all the pilgrims, throughout the whole world.
Chrysostomos of Nafplion was the overseer after the death of Bishop Germanos Roubanis. The Bishop of Nafplion sat as overseer for a while and the Bishop of Sparta Kyprianos came as overseer.
He came here to our Monastery, inspected the icon, informed himself of the miracle and said: "Blessed be the name of the Theotokos. May the miracle of the Panagia spread."
Policemen and Chemists Try to Establish the Origin of the Holy Myrrh
In 1969 the supreme gendarmerie commander of Tripoli came with the commander of Astros, they inspected the icon and as the commander told the people of Agios Petros that there is no forgery, and though he was not God-fearing before, when he himself saw the miracle with his own eyes he said: "A Great God exists."
And a Chemist from Tripoli was forced to perform a chemical analysis on the Myrrh of the Panagia, and he saw miraculous power, he saw nothing natural, and he shouted "A Great God exists."
The Myrrh of the Panagia was in this way for a few years as I said above. As the glass was clear it was clouding the glass and it was becoming big drops and it was coming out of the glass, it was piercing it, we could see it coming out and running down.
We used to collect it with cotton balls and give it as a blessing to the people, but after a few years there was a big earthquake and since then the glass is constantly gushing, it is constantly wet, it does not dry, we wipe it and in a few hours it is full again.
The miracle of the Panagia was not spread very far. The area around knew it and a little further. After six years, Demetrios Panagopoulos came in July 1970 from Athens, a pious man and preacher of the Divine word.
Many people know him from his sermons and from the modesty of his life. This preacher of the Divine word spread the news of the miracle of the Panagia to the whole world in a pamphlet he publishes once a month "Agia Marina".
Pilgrims are now starting to come from the capital, from all over Greece and from abroad, and those who cannot come send us letters and ask for the Holy Myrrh of the Panagia. The Holy Myrrh works miracles, many sick are cured.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.
In 1969 the supreme gendarmerie commander of Tripoli came with the commander of Astros, they inspected the icon and as the commander told the people of Agios Petros that there is no forgery, and though he was not God-fearing before, when he himself saw the miracle with his own eyes he said: "A Great God exists."
And a Chemist from Tripoli was forced to perform a chemical analysis on the Myrrh of the Panagia, and he saw miraculous power, he saw nothing natural, and he shouted "A Great God exists."
The Myrrh of the Panagia was in this way for a few years as I said above. As the glass was clear it was clouding the glass and it was becoming big drops and it was coming out of the glass, it was piercing it, we could see it coming out and running down.
We used to collect it with cotton balls and give it as a blessing to the people, but after a few years there was a big earthquake and since then the glass is constantly gushing, it is constantly wet, it does not dry, we wipe it and in a few hours it is full again.
The miracle of the Panagia was not spread very far. The area around knew it and a little further. After six years, Demetrios Panagopoulos came in July 1970 from Athens, a pious man and preacher of the Divine word.
Many people know him from his sermons and from the modesty of his life. This preacher of the Divine word spread the news of the miracle of the Panagia to the whole world in a pamphlet he publishes once a month "Agia Marina".
Pilgrims are now starting to come from the capital, from all over Greece and from abroad, and those who cannot come send us letters and ask for the Holy Myrrh of the Panagia. The Holy Myrrh works miracles, many sick are cured.
Source: Translated by John Sanidopoulos.