The liturgy done, the crowds gone, the perfume of incense fading, the Rev. Michael Varvarelis led two visitors to the front of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church on Thursday and gestured at the 9-foot cross behind the altar.
Under the lights, vertical streaks of oil glistened on the head, torso and feet of the painted Christ.
Varvarelis said the 25-year-old icon at the Bethlehem church began exuding the colorless, odorless oil in late February, at the beginning of the Orthodox holiday of Great Lent. The strength of the flow has diminished since, but it hasn't stopped.
A blessing, declared Metropolitan Maximos, bishop of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Pittsburgh, when he visited the church two weeks ago at Varvarelis's request to examine the cross. St. Nicholas is part of the Pittsburgh Diocese.
The metropolitan said the oil would serve to draw attention to the cross and its meaning. He did not call it a miracle, though some in this church of 700 families are inclined to believe it is one.
''What message is trying to send us?'' wondered Varvarelis's wife, Maria, discerning a divine hand at work behind the oil. ''Sometimes a little sign like this makes you nervous, because you don't know what might happen. But we are excited about it".
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-icon0326mar26,0,3556131.story?coll=all-news-hed
Under the lights, vertical streaks of oil glistened on the head, torso and feet of the painted Christ.
Varvarelis said the 25-year-old icon at the Bethlehem church began exuding the colorless, odorless oil in late February, at the beginning of the Orthodox holiday of Great Lent. The strength of the flow has diminished since, but it hasn't stopped.
A blessing, declared Metropolitan Maximos, bishop of the Greek Orthodox Diocese of Pittsburgh, when he visited the church two weeks ago at Varvarelis's request to examine the cross. St. Nicholas is part of the Pittsburgh Diocese.
The metropolitan said the oil would serve to draw attention to the cross and its meaning. He did not call it a miracle, though some in this church of 700 families are inclined to believe it is one.
''What message is trying to send us?'' wondered Varvarelis's wife, Maria, discerning a divine hand at work behind the oil. ''Sometimes a little sign like this makes you nervous, because you don't know what might happen. But we are excited about it".
http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-icon0326mar26,0,3556131.story?coll=all-news-hed