Sitka Icon Cleveland

Published by The Plain Dealer, October 10, 2005

Sitka Icon of the Virgin Mary draws hundreds to 2 churches

Broadview Heights, Monday, October 10, 2005 -- It is perhaps the soft gaze of the Virgin Mary that draws in so many, rendering them speechless as to what transpires upon locking eyes with a wonder-working icon.

"I don't have words to describe it," said Melissa Tesar, a parishioner at Holy Archangel Michael Russian Orthodox Church in Broadview Heights. "It's calming . . . amazing."

More than 500 parishioners and visitors attended services at the church Sunday and placed kisses upon the Sitka Icon of the Mother of God.

The metal- and glass-encased image adorned with flowers and candles, whose permanent home is at the Cathedral of St. Michael the Archangel in Sitka, Alaska, is midway through its 48-state pilgrimage.

Hundreds of parishioners spilled into a handful of Cleveland and Akron churches over the weekend for veneration of an icon credited by Orthodox Christians with many healings and miracles.

John Mindala, parish council president of Holy Archangel Michael Church, also was at a loss for words when talking about the Sitka Icon.

"It's hard to describe what the feeling is," Mindala said. " . . . it brings an inner peace. People have prayed and have had miracles."

In the early 1800s, the icon was commissioned for Sitka's Archangel Michael Cathedral by St. Innocent Veniaminov, North America's first ruling Orthodox bishop.

Laborers of the Russian American Co. gave it to the cathedral in Sitka as a gift in 1850, two years after the construction of the cathedral.

Because of its warm and peaceful gaze, the icon has been described as a gem of Russian ecclesiastical art, reflecting harmony and purity.

The two-month tour of the icon, accompanied by clergy from St. Michael's, ends Nov. 7.

The Sitka Icon, which survived a 1966 fire that destroyed the original cathedral, was headed for Akron on Sunday evening after stops at Holy Trinity Church in Parma and Holy Archangel Michael.

The pilgrimage to more than 60 Orthodox Christian parishes across the United States makes its final stop on the East Coast in November.

"When you see the icon, you see the softness and kindness in the eyes of the Virgin Mary," said Marge Dzmura, a parish council member at Holy Archangel Michael. "You feel the compassion . . . it's powerful. It's more than an icon."



Volume 7 Number 42 - Tuesday, October 18, 2005	A Publication of the ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN LAITY