Our Holy Mother may
have left her earthly life at the age of 103 on the throne
of the Godhead that summer morning hundreds of years ago but
she continues to breath life and fulfill the dreams of all
who seek her help with faith.
From her miraculous weeping icon,
to
her heavenly apple, Saint Irene, The
Most Gracious Abbess Of The Sacred Monastery Of Chrysovalantou, is here to embrace and comfort, guide and
protect, cure and rejuvenate all who seek her help with
faith.
Although
it is impossible to document every miracle our holy
mother has performed, below...you will find what is a
small fraction of her miraculous
work, both modern (from letters of thanks by faithful
souls) and from her earthly life.
LETTERS OF
THANKS TO SAINT IRENE CHRYSOVALANTOU
Click
here to submit a Letter of
Thanks
(English or Greek)
The
monastery receives many letters of thanks with breathtaking stories of Saint Irene's
miraculous interventions from faithful around the globe.
Some are listed below, but you may
visit the monastery's
monthly publication -
THE VOICE OF ORTHODOXY -
to read some of the month's most recent
letters.
Beloved Mother of every needy unfortunate person, Saint
Irene: I am sending you this
letter immediately after I arrived home from the
hospital. I was there for two months undertaking tests
without diagnosis. I was full of desperation and
anxiety…A week ago my sister Helen visited me from
Astoria and she brought me a Holy Apple, blessed from
Your Grace and I ate it, without fasting, since I was
too weak to do so. The same night you came into my
dream, like a tall Nun with the name Irene and you
prepared my luggage. After that you touched my hand and
you told me that after ten days I was going to be
healthy discharged from the hospital!
Yes, Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, today is the 10th
day, and what you said became reality. Today I was
discharged from the hospital and I feel healthy and very
strong! The doctors questioned
how I recovered my strength. I answered them proclaiming
Your Miracle and showing them Your Holy Icon, which I
had hanging over my pillow. I was saying that within 10
days Saint Irene was going to heal me, as She promised
me in my dream… Venerable
Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, now I will visit Your Shrine
together with my entire family to express our thanks,
even if we have to travel one whole day to visit You!
Your unworthy servant
Kyriaki Zafeiropoulos,
Detroit,
Michigan
My hand is shaking by the emotion and the joy, Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, while I am trying to write this thank you
letter and to express my great happiness and my husband’s
too, because on Your name day and after having passed
together with my husband under Your Miraculous
icon, we both ate of Your
blessed apple and now, in less than a month my doctor
says I am pregnant. That’s why
I ran immediately towards You to thank You. After eight
years I am able to become a mother thanks to your miracle,
my dear Saint.
With faith and gratitude
Christina Chelioti
Bronx, N.Y.
Holy
fathers of the church of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, I
ask for your blessing! This is the second time that
Saint Irene, who you serve with great faith and piety,
is performing a miracle to me, Her unworthy servant. The
first time She cured me from gangrene with Her Holy Oil
and this time she cured my vision with Her Holy Apple. I
cannot find the words to thank Her. Nevertheless, I wish
to tell Her that, as a token of gratitude, every year on
her nameday I will offer the five loaves at her church
in Astoria and I will stay all night next to her
miraculous icon.
Your blessing,
Chrysoula Pericleous
Albany, NY
Saint Irene Chrysovalantou, I
want to thank You for releasing me from the evil spirits that have been haunting
me for the past five years. During Holy Confession, His Excellency suggested
that I attend the Wednesday services of the Prayer for health and exorcisms and
to receive Holy Communion often. I took his advice, and since then, with the
grace of Holy Communion and the exorcism, the evil spirits bother me no more.
Saint Irene Chrysovalantou appeared in my sleep and said to me, "Sofia my child,
come under my umbrella, and fear no more." I shall continue to stay under the
safety of the umbrella of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou who sent the evil spirits
away from my life.
Sofia Menegatou
Astoria, NY
My name is Stylianos
Papadakis. I have lived in Chicago with my family for the past twenty years. A
while ago I did some medical exams because I was having severe abdomen pains and
doctors found that I had a large tumor. I immediately thought of Saint Irene
Chrysovalantou whose icon I had venerated two years ago when Her Holy Icon came
to Chicago. On the same day that I received the results I found the address of
the Holy Church of Saint Irene Chrysovalantou. Immediately afterwards I wrote
you a letter asking for the Holy Apple and you sent it to me without delay. I
thank you for the prompt reply. My whole family fasted, my wife, my children and
I, the ailing one, and with a prayer I ate the Holy Apple. Doctors, relatives
and my family all say that Saint Irene is a GREAT HEALER! The tumor disappeared!
Blessed be the name of my healer. We will be waiting for Her Holy Icon to come
to Chicago to venerate Her again.
Stylianos Papadakis
Chicago, IL
MIRACLES DURING THE LIFE OF SAINT IRENE
CHRYSOVALANTOU
A group of wicked men were jealous of a
certain relative of St. Irene who was a high ranking nobleman, and was
from a proud and glorious family. These men told the
emperor that this nobleman sought to murder him. The
emperor imprisoned him in a dark corner of the palace and
considered drowning him in the sea so that nothing would
be heard of him neither would he be made worthy of burial.
The
relatives and friends of this lord, not being able to help
him in any other way, ran to St. Irene and fell down
at her feet. They begged her with tears to have mercy on
her beloved relative and to save him from the unjust
penalty of death. Being greatly moved, our venerable
mother cried and comforted his relatives and friends
saying, "Don't be sad, bur rather return to your homes
hoping in the Lord and this same Lord will come to his
aid." Our holy and God-bearing mother then went to her
cell and implored the Lord to quickly come to the
salvation of the unjustly condemned man. The Lord as the
Lover of mankind hears the prayers of His servants and
immediately came to the aid of this nobleman in a most
amazing manner. During the
middle of the night the emperor saw St. Irene first in his
sleep and then again after he had awakened and she said to him
loudly and fiercely, "Get up immediately, O King, and free
the man you have imprisoned unjustly, because out of
jealousy did they falsely accuse him. If you refuse to
hear me, I will beg the King of the heavens to strike you
dead and to give your flesh over to the beasts and
vultures." Hearing
this, the King became mad and said, "Who are you to
frighten me and how dare you come into my bedroom with
such insolence at this late hour?" She
replied, "I am the abbess of the Convent of Chrysovalantou
and Irene is my name." Saying this she pricked him twice
on his side and he awakened from the pain with anger and
then (how great the miracle!) he saw her in front of him,
no longer in a dream but in real life and she again told
him the same thing. She then exited through the door. The
emperor cried out for his servants and they came running.
The emperor then asked the nightguard if he had seen a nun
come out of his room. The guard was bewildered by this
question and reminded the King that all the doors of the
palace were locked and that the King himself had all the
keys on his bed. Then did the emperor realize that the
vision was divine. In the
morning the emperor had the condemned nobleman brought
before them. He then questioned him trying to discover if
the man in reality had made any plot on his life and why
he had performed sorcery during the middle of the previous
night. The man replied that he had never wrought any kind
of magic and that the
Lord is his witness that never did he plot against the
emperor's kingdom. Putting away his anger the emperor
meekly asked the nobleman, "Do you know the abbess of
Chrysovalantou?" The
nobleman replied, "Yes, she is a relative of mine and a
most virtuous handmaid of Christ." The King
then asked, "Maybe if I send someone there he will find
her in the convent?" The man
replied, "She never goes outside of the abbey." The emperor
then sent for an expert
artist to make a sketch of her face that he might verify
the truth. In the meantime, he again imprisoned the
condemned man. Knowing all that was happening by the grace
of the Holy Spirit, our holy mother told the nuns on that
day at the end of the Orthros, "Last night I saw a dream
that the emperor sent so many noblemen here that they
filled the yard of the nunnery. Do not fear, however, for
God is working for our good." After a little
while it came to pass as St. Irene had said and the
noblemen arrived at the convent. Our venerable mother came
out of the church and she called the noblemen in order to
speak with them. On arriving they venerated her and as
they were rising up, light as a great lightning bolt shot
forth from her face and the noblemen fell back not being
able to bear the intensity of the light. The saint lifted
them up saying, "Fear not my children, for I also am a
weak mortal. Why has that unbelieving one put you through
the trouble of coming here? Tell him again, as I told him
in the dream, to set that man free from the prison for he
has done nothing against the emperor. If he will disobey
me, everything that I prophesied to him will come to pass,
for the Lord is not slow to answer those who call upon Him
in truth." Hearing this, the noblemen became even
more frightened and said, "We will relay your message to
the emperor as you have said. We beg you now to teach us
something for the benefit of our soul and toward
salvation." They also said this in order to give the
artist an opportunity to depict St. Irene more exactly.
The depiction being finished, the noblemen returned to the
emperor, telling him all they had seen and heard. When
they showed the emperor her image, a lightning bolt came
out of it and hit the king in the eyes and for hours he
was unable to see. He was trembling from his fear and
crying out "Have mercy on me, O God, according to your
great mercy" and he remained in a state of shock for a
while. Reviewing the
image of St. Irene, he said it looked like the nun he had
seen in his dream. Immediately he freed the nobleman and
asked his forgiveness and gave thanks to God that he was
spared the punishment he would have received for his
unrighteous condemnation to death. He then wrote a letter to
St. Irene saying, "We were delivered from danger by your
holy order, O handmaid of God, and we give thanks to you. We
also ask forgiveness for anything we might have done against
your holiness and that we did not believe from the First
vision, but rather we bothered you. Beg the Lord for us, as
I and the empress beg you, to come and visit us and bless us
with your own hands. If you do not want to come, then we
will come to venerate you." The emperor
sent this letter along with royal gifts to our venerable
mother. She sent him a letter in reply which read "God as
the Lover of mankind, O King, lowers himself to heal our
illnesses and desires not the death of the sinner but rather
his repentance. Therefore, thank and glorify Him and not me.
It is not proper for your Highness to come here neither is
it proper for me to go the palace. It is not necessary that
the sinful and lowly handmaid of God bless you, for you have
the patriarch and the other bishops of the church and the
spiritual fathers of the monasteries. If you want to please
God and wisely and piously and righteously rule your
kingdom, follow the advice of these spiritual men. If you do
not listen to me and come here, I will not receive you well
and only God will you displease. If you listen to what I say
to you the All-High One will protect you and always deliver
you from every
temptation." Our holy
mother then sealed the letter and sent it along with some
other things as a blessing to the emperor. The emperor
piously received what her holiness had sent but was very sad
that she had not accounted him worthy of seeing her holy
face. In order not to scandalize her, he did not attempt to
see her, but often sent her his respects and gifts and she
the same. In this way, the emperor received much help and
consolation from the handmaid of God, Irene. St. Irene's
kinsman who had been delivered from death fell at her feet
and cried so much that he washed her feet with his tears.
She advised him to keep the statutes of the Lord in order
not to be found in such temptations again, because such
things happen to us because of our sins. After having
properly instructed him, they together with the entire
sisterhood gave thanks to God and she lead him to his
relatives rejoicing.
There was a certain man by the name
of Christopher who was a friend of St. Irene's and a most
pious and God-loving man. He would often visit the convent
and our holy mother would always receive him, knowing that
he was a virtuous man and they would converse. One day when
Christopher had come to visit the saint and they had talked
for a long time it came time for him to leave. He
prostrated himself before our holy mother and asked
forgiveness. The saint of God said to him, "Go my child and
may God grant rest to your soul with the righteous." Hearing
these words he remained shakened and sorrowful because as a
wise person he realized that the saint was not saying this
without meaning. When our holy mother realized that she had
disturbed him with her words, she made it seem as if she was
speaking about someone else and having duly consoled him she
sent him home. He went forth
from the nunnery without the slightest sign of illness and
reaching his home, he ate well and then suddenly died in the
evening. No one could have known about this except for our
holy mother by the grace of the Holy Spirit. One of the
sisters, who happened to be there when St. Irene made this
comment, asked her, "My lady, why did you say that to
Christopher and he left here sorrowful?" Our venerable
mother responded, "Don't think that I said this simply to
make conversation, but rather because I saw a young
brilliant man standing behind Christopher and he was holding
a sharp-edged sickle. I saw other men standing nearby and
they were counting the years of Christopher's life on their
fingers and they decided that today is the last day of his
life. If you don't believe this, call your handmaid Evythia
and send her to his home to see that he has died." So they sent
Evythia to his house and she found the man dead. Then all
the sisters were amazed and glorified God that He counted
them worthy to have such a teacher and from thenceforth they
paid much attention to her words for whenever she said to
someone, "May God grant rest to your soul," that very day he
would die.
