The Sitka Icon (again)

  • Sitka IconSo I went and saw.

    I’ll be hon­est. I didn’t note a mir­a­cle dur­ing the ser­vice, unless it was that the choir sang almost con­tin­u­ously for 25 min­utes and didn’t lose pitch. But then, as I said, I’m not always sure what I’m sup­posed to be look­ing for.

    On the other hand, it is a beau­ti­ful icon, and I’m not usu­ally par­tial to the West­ern style icons. I almost feel like the expec­ta­tion of Some­thing Hap­pen­ing keeps us some­times from appre­ci­at­ing the pro­fun­dity of what’s in front of us. The icon is quite large — 17″ x 36″ — and the case makes it seem even larger. It was mounted on an easel in the front of the church, and at the end of the ser­vice, the packed house lined up to ven­er­ate it and be anointed with oil from its pres­ence light. The choir sang any­thing to the Theotokos we could find — even hap­pily belt­ing out “The Angel Cried” two times when we were told it was okay — and still the line was sig­nif­i­cant.

    It wasn’t until I was in the line myself and get­ting close to the front that I could see why. As peo­ple ven­er­ated, they would stop in front of the icon and take a moment (or some­times two) to offer their prayers as they looked right at the icon.

    Ohhhh. What was it the one hymn said? “To your icon we Ortho­dox run when about to embark on a new enter­prise or to set out on a jour­ney by sea, land or air, offer­ing you a prayer of thanks­giv­ing and ask­ing for your bless­ing and your help and our deliv­er­ance from tribu­la­tion and assault…”

    And to those who are uncom­fort­able with some­thing like this, Kon­takion 8 may be help­ful to hear:

    Doubters and unbe­liev­ers are amazed to hear that streams of divine grace flow through your icon, while we know that this is so with this icon of Sitka and that God’s grace will abide with it for­ever. There­fore, stand­ing rev­er­ently before it, we kiss it and ven­er­ate it as we would your very self; for the honor paid to icons passes to their pro­to­type, and God’s grace acts through this icon in won­ders and signs for those who run to you with faith and cry to God: Alleluia.

    I was very glad that this was the way of it, because I did in fact have sev­eral peti­tions on my mind. So when my time came, I said my bit, ven­er­ated as I’ve been taught and then looked — oh my! — into the eyes of the icon. I’m so used to the Byzan­tine style. The gaze was so gen­tle, the face so young and the look seemed … I don’t know … full of what? Won­der? Sym­pa­thy? Joy? I couldn’t find any of the sor­row that the Byzan­tine icons have that reminds me of what I’ve heard of Theotokion icons — “she looks on those who cru­cify her son.”

    I admit it. I’m enough of a thrill-seeker in my own way that I took a chair near the icon as oth­ers ven­er­ated. As I went home, I still could see that look bestowed on one after another, the ren­der­ing so sub­tle that it really seemed to me to change expres­sions. Some­times sad­ness. Some­times joy. Once — when a four-year-old bent slowwwwly from the waist to ven­er­ate and then turned and ran, arms pump­ing, to her mother in a pure ecstasy of a job well done — about to laugh.

    I don’t know. It might have just been what I thought I saw. The lovely thing is that if I just imag­ined that, the mir­a­cle is still there. A 200+-year-old icon that sur­vived hos­tile weather, hos­tile pol­i­tics (Fr. Chad gave a fas­ci­nat­ing talk about the con­di­tions of the Ortho­dox mis­sion­ar­ies in Alaska) and a church fire to be with many faith­ful. Father Chad also said that as he has made the tour with the Sitka icon, he has noticed that it has got­ten lighter. Look­ing at other pic­tures of it, I think I saw that too.


    Related posts:

    1. The Sitka Icon
    2. Pascha on the porch
    3. Prayer request

    September 29th, 2005 | Grace | 4 Comments |

4 Responses and Counting...

  • Michelle 09.29.2005

    Beau­ti­ful, Grace! I’m so glad you were able to attend.

  • Grace

    So am I. Things like that are really very special.

  • steven paul

    Hi Grace,
    The icon vis­ited one of our local OCA parishes. I’m not crazy either about the “Roman Catholic Holy Card” look­ing icons, but this one has the sub­tlty of the Mona Lisa IMHO. If an icon can soften this heart even an iota, it has worked a wonder.

  • Grace

    S-P,
    Exactly! Some­times the West­ern style icons strike me as too sen­ti­men­tal, too sweet — I’ve seen a cou­ple that are down­right smarmy. I would have to try to get into a lot of artsy lan­guage to con­vey why this one doesn’t have that qual­ity, but it doesn’t mat­ter. It’s one you have to see for your­self. But even if that’s not pos­si­ble — I believe the tour ends today or tomor­row — the pic­tures do it a bit of jus­tice. And as I men­tioned, a friend of mine expe­ri­enced a sort of “heal­ing” even from my low-quality print. Amaz­ing stuff.

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