Miraculous icons

[Waldemar]

Miracle Icons

http://english.pravda.ru/science/19/94/377/13096_icon.html

06/15/2004 14:10

Today, science cannot find logical explanation to a strange phenomenon: when an icon image appears on the icon's glass.

Russian newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" presented a dozen cases of such strange occurrence as icon "rejuvenation". However, only five scientists in the whole country are researching this phenomenon. Why so few? "We are all like-minded people; such issues are not to be resolved by mere voting," harshly comments professor Pavel Florensky, one of the members of the Committee of unexplained miraculous occurrences, that take place within the Russian Orthodox church. Similar to his four colleagues, he is pious, but at the same time rather curious person.

Such thirst for truth makes these scientists attend various congregations.

Icon rejuvenation-is one of the miraculous events that takes place rather frequently. Its essence lies in the fact that some barely visible colors suddenly reappear on the icon"s surface, thus bringing the icon its new look.

-The latest of such icon rejuvenations that our Committee had a chance to explore took place in the Yaroslav region of Russia, explains Florensky. "Father Alexi told me an interesting story. He was once on his to the church, when he spotted a blank piece of wooden board. He picked it up and placed and placed it on a bookshelf between the books. To his astonishment, after a year or so, he remembered about the wooden board, reached for it, and couldn't believe his own eyes! An angel"s image appeared on the surface. Isn't this a miracle?

-How do you think this happened?

-Have you ever had a polished table? When you accidentally place a cup with hot beverage on top of the polished surface, it leaves white circular marks. Lacquer that covers the table tends to whiten after such contact with heat. It is rather difficult to get rid of the white spot afterward. In case with the icon the opposite took place. Lacquer has fully dried out in the course of several years and colors got fully restored.

-But it could have easily remained in the snow longer?

-Exactly. Science always attempts to determine some sort of a pattern in any process. Russian famous restorer Adolf Nikolaevich Ovchinnikov "brought to life" many of Russia"s icons. However, he has never witnessed such miracles. According to our data, majority of rejuvenated icons are "young" icons, created in the end of XIX or XX centuries.

-How can this be explained?

-I don't know exactly.

People embark on pilgrimages just to see such miracle icons. After saying a prayer, true believers leave their offerings on the icon's frame.

-Another common miracle is the appearance of the icon's reflection on the glass.

-There exists an entire array of hypotheses in regards to such occurrences. No one can provide the right explanation yet. Not so long ago, we received one of such glasses for testing. Upon a closer look, we were able to discover that those particles on the glass were not crystals, as was assumed, but drops. The substance is close to soap in terms of its structure. It is not present in trees, in lacquers or in paints. What appears of most significance is that drops of this substance appear on the actual contour of an icon"s image. If evaporation comes from the image and condensate accumulates on the glass, then the image should be smeared with this substance. However, in reality, outlines the image. The easiest explanation would be electrostatics. Considering the fact that the glass is being wiped daily, it is therefore being electrified. However, such assumption does not hold true due to the emergence of drops.

-In our Committee I personally represent the skeptical wing. God not only gave us laws of ethics but also laws of nature. Our studies are not aimed at making people loose their faith. We exclude trickery. We scientists simply want to know what and how it all happens.


-So you are saying miracles exist?

-I think that modern day technology allows us to describe such phenomenon. Whether this is miracle or not is not up for us to decide. This cannot be measured in centimeters, meters or liters. We have to have a miracle visionary in order to see miracles. If there is no miracle visionary, there is no miracle. Today, we have a chance to witness the greatest miracle. Do you know what it is? It is people's return to the church!

Anna Selivanova

Photo: Konstantin Solomatin (from Pavel Frorensky's archive)

[Daniel Jeandet]

Thanks for that mate. I am always looking for things like this.

[Alec Lowly]

Concerning icons, miraculous or otherwise:

What are people's thoughts concerning the real depiction of saints' personal appearances in icons?

Photography has been around long enough now that we have accurate depictions of 19th and 20th century saints, such as, for instance, St. John of Kronstadt and St. Elizabeth of Moscow, Nun-Martyr. Although I have seen icons that appear to take their personal appearance into account, most that I've seen have followed the traditional "generic" types.

I know that an icon is not supposed to be a naturalistic representation -- but I find it jarring to have the visual memory of a photograph in my head when facing an icon that does not reflect the person's actual appearance.

Photography is here to stay. It has changed the way we see things. Should not the iconographic traditions make an accommodation for this fact and place a somewhat greater emphasis on verisimilitude when depicting modern people whose photographs exist?

[Fr Seraphim (Black)]

Dear Alec,

I tend to feel as you. I have seen icons of St. John Maximovitch, Father Seraphim Rose, St. Silouan the Athonite, Elder Cleopa of Sihastria etc. One can discern in some of the icons a certain either lack of skill on the part of the icon painter, and an almost identical drawing of the photo results. These I find rather disturbing.

Fr. Sophrony was a an icon-painter and he knew and lived with Staretz Silouan. Ouspensky did a beautiful icon of Staretz Silouan which still hangs in the small Chapel of St. John the Baptist, at Tolleshunt Knights - neither this icon by Ouspensky, not subsequent icons by Fr. Sophrony, nor the icons done in Greece of St. Silouan are even remotely based upon the three existing photographs we have of (Staretz) Saint Silouan. These icons are respectful, traditional, and lead one to prayer.

[Byron Jack Gaist]

Dear Alec,

This is a very interesting question, because for me it raises other questions, about the spiritual significance of our actual physiognomies.

From what I know of icons, they are as you say not naturalistic, because they are attempts to represent something of the archetypal "otherness" of the person depicted, not as they were here on earth, but as they are now in the Kingdom, as they are meant to be in the next world. Hence, even these depictions must be symbolic and limited, since nobody knows what persons are in their actual essence or where the Kingdom of God is, or what it really looks like (or even if it has such a thing as visible appearance in any ordinary sense).

Having said all this, I feel like Fr Seraphim that icons are primarily stimuli and aids to prayer. We do intuitively sense that our features, particularly those of the face, are linked to our uniqueness in a way that is spiritually significant; but I for one am unable to say what the gestalt of a person's features really means, and I think the iconographer probably therefore does have to use some traditional rules or guidelines in order to render the saint depicted.

Thanks again for asking such a stimulating question!

In Christ
Byron