On Myrrh-flowing Relics and Their Fragrance
ST Theophylos the myrrh-gusher lived in the time of the holy Patriarch
Niphon (1556). He was sent by the PaŽtriarch and the Holy Synod to Egypt to
confirm the amazŽing miracle which had taken place there, the movement of
the mountain Ntour Tag from one place to another. Even though in the world
he had received various ecclesiastical offices, including notaries, St.
Theophylos had abandoned everything to come to Mount Athos, where he had
lived the ascetic life in the holy monasteries of Vatopedi and Iviron, and
in St. Basil's cell of Pantokratoros.
Before his repose in the Lord, this ever memorable one had asked his
disciple not to bury his body but to throw it into the woods. This was done.
For forty days the wild beasts and fowl did not attack his holy body.
His tomb emitted a sweet smell of myrrh which even to this day is sensed by
pious people who come to revere his relics. Such was holy Theophilos, God's
true friend, the fragrant rose of virtue and ascesis.
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In 1948 there reposed in the Lord a newly manifested saint, j our father
Savvas of St. Anne's, who after he left the Holy Land, went to live in
Kalymnos, where he established the All Saints Monastery for women.
He was a pupil of St. Nectaries the miracle worker. Tel years after his
departing to the Lord, when his relics were translated his body was found
whole and in tact, emitting the fragrance of myrrh and working miracles.
Indeed this in the way God glorifies those who glorify Him.
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In the desolate area between Kafsokalyvia and Vigla, in the steepest cave on
Mount Athos, our holy father Neilos the myrrh-gusher had lived, leading a
totally ascetic life of sanctity. After he fell asleep in the Lord, so much
myrrh poured forth from his tomb that it flowed down through the floor of
the cave and into the ravine below.
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St. Simeon had been the spiritual father of St. Savvas the! Serbian. After
St. Simeon reposed, a vigil was offered in the monastery of Chilandari on
the memorial day of his passŽing. During the Doxology there came from the
saint's tomb! an ineffable fragrance which filled the whole area surround-:
ing the monastery. This manifestation assured St. Savvas that his spiritual
father was sanctified, and he gave thanks' to the all-merciful God Who
glorifies in return all those who glorify Him.
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St. Simon, the builder of the holy Simonopetra Monastery, led his ascetic
life in a cave near the monastery, a cave which is preserved to this day. He
heard the voice of the Mother of God during a Christmas vigil; he wrestled
with demons victoriously; he saved his disciple who had fallen down the
ravine from a great height; and he cured the possessed daughŽter of King
John Ouglesi of Serbia. Following his repose, myrrh flowed from his holy
relics, palpable evidence of his sanctity.
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Great in virtue, good works and faith also was St. Athanasios from
Esphigmenou, an excellent cenobitic who served in the monastery's trapeza.
Because of his great humility, he was raised to the office of Patriarch of
Constantinople and, as St. Gregory Palamas tells us, his tomb and relics
became a source of miracles and untold fragrance, for the glory of God and
of monasticism.
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In 1840 in the holy monastery of Vatopedi, the monks deŽcided to transfer
the bones of the deceased fathers to anŽother location. After they had torn
down one of the walls of the massive crypt and reached its foundation, they
smelled an ineffable fragrance, a "smell beyond this world." As they went
further on, they saw that the fragrance was coming from the relics of an
unknown saint whose skin and bones were still in tact. With great reverence
and piety the priests, fully vested, placed the body in a casket and with
lit candles brought it to the monastery's main church. Although they did not
know whose body it was, they all agreed to name him Eudokimos, and he is
honoured on October 5th of each year.
From the position of the uncorrupted relics, it is clear that this unknown
saint, now called Eudokimos, when he knew that his end was near, came to the
crypt where among the bones, he prepared himself: he crossed his hands and
went to the sleep of the just, unknown and invisible to all, avoiding human
praise and destructive glorification.
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Monk Savvas from the kellion of St. Nicholas, which is attached to the
little chapel of Ravthouhos and presently belongs to Pantokratoros, was
known for being faithful in attendance at services and for his piety and
bodily endurŽance of ascetic labours. For a time he lived in the cenobitic
monastery of Esphigmenou. When he realized his end was near, he came to the
monastery in which he had begun as a monastic. When, three years after his
repose, his relics were translated, his skull gave off a fragrant scent, an
event which became well known
A novice of the monastery, filled with the doubt of weak faith, thought that
they might have poured some fragrance on the relic; so he took the skull and
threw it into a reserŽvoir of water. With great sadness the elders searched
for it Twelve days later he revealed where he had thrown it. It was still
emitting the fragrance. Then the novice believed that Monk Savvas was indeed
a holy man.
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I remember when I first came to the Holy Mountain," an old monk told me. "I
would pass by the skete's cemetery and the crypt where the fathers' relics
were kept. Numerous times I smelled such a fragrance coming from them that I
would stop there to enjoy the wonderful experience." He was eighty-nine
years old, and his emotions were obvious on his face.
"But two years passed by and I lost this gift from God. I did not smell the
heavenly fragrance again. The Lord deŽprived me of it. Who knows why?
Probably because of my sins, or because He may have given me this divine
gift only for a time, in order to strengthen me at the beginning of my
monastic life."
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In the Meeting of the Lord kalyve, which is located above St. Anne's Skete,
lived the pious monk Elder Dionysios. He was trying to repair some old
ledges at a point where one ledge was crumbling when he unearthed the relics
of an unknown ascetic, completely preserved.
Amazed and very moved by this finding, for the relics gave off a marvellous
fragrance, he started to pray, asking the unknown saint to reveal his name.
He also had a thought to go to the main church and ring the bells to notify
the fathers so that they could bring the relics to St. Anne's cenŽtral
church with honour and incense, and so that they could pray and ask the
saint to reveal to whom these holy relics belonged.
While he was thinking this, the blessed ascetic appeared to him in a vision
and ordered him in a stern voice to cover the relics and not to reveal to
anyone, as long as he lived, that God had made him worthy of seeing them.
Elder Dionysios told his group of monks about this event shortly
before he died, but without telling the exact location where the relics were
buried stopped by the command of the unknown saint who, even after his
death, avoided the glory of men; for he was honoured by God in the Heavenly
KingŽdom.
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The ever memorable elder Pavlos the Lavriotan, a medical doctor, in one of
his letters to me in 1971 wrote the following:
Talking with Elder Gerontios, one of the Danielites, I had mentioned to him
Father Leontios, one of the well-known spiritual fathers from Moutalaski of
Kaisaria, whom I had met and some of whose work Orthodox Catechism, writŽten
in Turkish, I had read. It was an important work to the Karamanlides, and we
have it in our library. He replied to me that Elder Leontios had died in
Thessaloniki where, on his translation day, his body was discovered to be
undissolved and gave off fragrance.
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A Christian once had read in the biography of St. Akakio the Kafsokalyvitan,
that while he was passing by St. Anne! graveyard, he smelled a fragrance of
myrrh coming from of the father's relics. Remembering this, the Christian,
who was sitting in the skete's graveyard, said "I wonder if the are still
such relics like those in St. Akakios' days." Immediately after he had
thought this, he smelled a fragrance coming from the graveyard! He got up,
searched a!' around, and found a skull which had an fragrant scent, i was
inscribed "Hieromonk Philimonos, from the Dormition of the Theotokos hut,
near the St. Eleftherios vouleftirion. He thought to call the others, but at
that thought he started shaking, for he realized that the deified father
would not want him to tell about the fragrance coming from his relic.
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I do not remember the exact year (it may have been twenty years ago), on the
feast day of the Forerunner St. John the Baptist, in St. Dionysios' holy
monastery, just before
Compline I went through the small door of the sanctuary and smelled a
fragrance known as that of the Forerunner, coming from the holy sanctuary. .
.
At other times when I have been walking on the path from the cell of St.
Neilos the Myrrh-gusher toward the Great Lavra, on Chairi, I have smelled
waves of fragrant breeze.
On this same spot many fathers and travelers and pilgrims have had the same
experience. It has been passed down by word of mouth that in this area many
hermits have strugŽgled in past times, leading ascetic lives at the highest
spiritual level of grace and sanctity. The exact locations of their burial
places are unknown.
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In 1927 on the feast day of St. John the Baptist's birthdate, a monk who was
the monastery's cook smelled an ineffable fragrance during the
magnification, when the Holy ForeŽrunner's right hand is revered. He
confided this occurrence to Father Lazaros.
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The ever memorable elder Lazaros, among his many stories about the fathers
and brothers of Dionysiou, told us also about the blessed end of the
hieromonk Markos, who was hegumen of the monastery between 1926 and 1931 and
who for his whole life went about serving in three or four obediences, happy
and humble. He ate only once a day.
At the time of Father Markos' repose, Father Lazaros was an infirmarian in
the monastery. The very moment that Father Markos slept in the Lord, the
whole hospital room was filled with fragrance which lasted twenty minutes,
which was witnessed also by the blessed hegumen of the monasŽtery at that
time, Father Gabriel, who had come to read a prayer for the dying.
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It has long been known that buried in the holy ground of Mount Athos,
filling the garden of the Mother of God with the fragrance of myrrh, are
many saints from whose relics flow this sweet oil of holiness. In
Xenophontos in 1989, it was the feast day of the holy and great victorious
martyr St. George, he who, in addition to all his other charisms, is a
myrrh-gusher. The vigil, full of grandeur and piety, had just begun when, in
the middle of Compline, the holy hegumen Alexios, clearly moved, interrupted
the service to announce to all the marvellous, and for the first time
occurring inciŽdent of myrrh flowing from St. George's hand. It was a sign
that the saint was present. Father Alexios immediately had the paraklesis to
St. George served and the holy relic reŽvered by everyone.
Shortly before this gracious manifestation, Father Alexios had invited into
the sanctuary the Most Reverend Ambrosios, Metropolitan of Polianis and
Kilkisiou, a hierarch noted for his support of monasticism and thus a bright
presŽence on this feast day. Also in the bema were Archimandrite
Christodoulos, the hegumen of Koutloumousiou, as well as the abbot of St.
Anne's Skete, the spiritual father Anthimos, who was in his eighties. All of
these were there to confirm by eyewitness the grace of myrrh-flowing.
All of us who were present at this festal celebration, the representatives
of the monasteries, the hermits, the cenobitic monks, and the faithful,
venerated this relic with uplifted hearts, and with the piety and
compunction which were suited to this moment, when the mighty and faithful
guardŽian of the mountain, St. George, was present with us, leadŽing the
feast, glorifying God and being glorified by Him in return. It was as if we
all, full of piety, were saying silently, "Great are You, O Lord ... no
words are sufficient to praise your wonders."
At the point where the relic was flowing myrrh, it looked as if it had a
wound. And the fragrance emanating from it was, characteristically, the same
fragrance that all holy relics have. The grace of this holy relic was
consonant with the joyful message announced at the vigil: "We preach Christ
who was crucified, and who is risen from the dead. O Death, where is your
sting? Hell, where is your victory? Christ is risen and you have been
defeated!"
The blossoms on the lemon trees and the roses in the monastery's garden were
confirming the spring's presence, and the flowing of myrrh from the "Slave's
Deliverer" was declaring that "the Lord has risen indeed!" Even the
Doxastikon was filled with fragrance and mystical power:
Spring has appeared: let us rejoice! Christ's resurrection has shone forth!
Come, let us rejoice in the mention of the Victor, Who gives joy to the
faithful
