On Saturday, October 29, 72 parishioners of St. John the Baptist Cathedral in Washington, DC assembled at the church at 4:30 AM. After loading personal belongings into a chartered bus and several private cars, they departed for Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville, NY. That journey became the church community’s 14th annual pilgrimage to ROCOR’s "Diasporan Lavra." The parishioners’ purpose was to worship amid the monastery’s holy treasures and to pray at the grave of Joseph Muñoz-Cortes, custodian of the Myrrh-Streaming Montreal Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, and who was murdered in Athens in 1997.

The trip was a long one, taking seven hours, but thanks to prayer, fellowship, and religious talks about Brother Joseph's martyric struggle, the hours flew by. By 1:00 PM, the pilgrims had already arrived at their hotel in Herkimer.

By 3:00 PM, the pilgrims were already at the cemetery at Holy Trinity Monastery, ready for the panihida for Brother Joseph. It was cold, and a light snow was falling, but the hearts of those gathered were warmed by words familiar to them since childhood, words of prayers for the reposed...

The panihida was served by the pilgrimage’s director, Archpriest Victor Potapov (rector of St. John the Baptist Cathedral and Dean of the South), co-served by Hieromonk Anatoly (Zilin) of Holy Trinity Monastery. The pilgrims sang the panihida along with several members of the seminary choir, under the direction of Nikolai Kotar.

At the conclusion of the panihida, Fr. Victor reminded the pilgrims that the recent and providential visit (October 22-23) of the "Hawaiian" Iveron Icon of the Mother of God to ROCOR’s parish in the nation's capital city. He emphasized that the current gathering in prayer at Brother Joseph’s grave was a kind of continuation of our festive, blessed0 gathering before the Iveron Mother of God one week earlier. Fr. Victor also noted that Reader Nectarios Yangston, custodian of the "Hawaiian" Myrrh-Streaming Icon, had expressed his deep conviction that God’s gift of help through the Icon "is directly related to the glorification of the memory of the martyred chosen one of the Mother of God." Fr. Victor called on everyone to reflect on murdered Brother Joseph’s words: "One must not get used to a miracle." "In that regard, we must always treat with due reverence all of the signs that, in His boundless mercy, the Lord sends us, and must accept and become accustomed to them in an appropriate and not an unworthy manner. That especially pertains to the greatest of all of the miracles given us by the Lord, the miracle of the Holy Eucharist."

After the panihida, all of those in attendance were anointed with myrrh from the "Hawaiian" Iveron Icon of the Queen of Heaven, and anyone who so desired received a vial with oil from the vigil lamp at brother Joseph’s grave, a photo of the murdered chosen one of the Mother of God, and copies of the icon of the Guardian Angel written by brother Joseph.

Following the panihida at the snow-covered cemetery, the pilgrims partook of kutia, and went to warm up before the evening meal at the Monastery. The monks had set up long tables in the former print shop, and had prepared enormous pots of tea. The thankful pilgrims were able to drink quite a bit of tea, fortify themselves with pastries, and share their first impressions of the pilgrimage.

After the evening meal, the pilgrims prayed in Holy Trinity Cathedral at the three hour-long Vigil. In the lower church of St. Job of Pochaev, and throughout the evening Services, Fr. Victor heard the confessions of all of the pilgrims who intended to commune of the Holy Mysteries of Christ the next day.

On Sunday October 30, after the meal following the Festal Liturgy, Deacon Andrei Psarev, professor at the Holy Trinity Seminary, talked to the pilgrims about some of the things of note at the Monastery – the cathedral, its frescoes and its holy treasures, the lower church, the bell-tower, the seminary, and the iconography studio; he also responded to a host of questions. The pilgrims prayed at the graves of ever-memorable founders, builders, and benefactors of the Holy Trinity Monastery who lie in the monastic cemetery and in crypts under the cathedral’s altar. They also visited the women's Skete of the Holy New Martyr Grand Duchess Elizabeth.

At 3:00 PM, the pilgrims once again assembled at Brother Joseph’s grave at the cemetery for a farewell panihida. The day was sunny and cold. Brother Joseph’s grave was covered with a great number of candles lit by the pilgrims.

In a homily following the panihida, Fr. Victor directed the attendees’ attention to the fact that brother Joseph was buried next to Ivan Mikhailovich Andreevsky, one of the professors at Holy Trinity Seminary. This remarkable man, who had served several terms in various Soviet prison camps, beginning with the camp at the Solovetsky Monastery, gained renown in the history of ROCOR not only as a great thinker and teacher, but first and foremost as a confessor of the Faith. Brother Joseph gained renown in ROCOR as a martyr. Together, the graves of Ivan Mikhailovich and Brother Joseph make up a unique holy space at Holy Trinity Monastery, one which you cannot pass without having a sense of particular reverence.

In his concluding remarks, Fr. Victor thanked all of the pilgrims for sacrificing two days of their lives in order to come to Jordanville and prayerfully mark the 14th anniversary of Brother Joseph Muñoz-Cortes’ murder. The rector of St. John the Baptist Cathedral related tentative plans for the 15th annual commemoration of the murder of the chosen one of the Mother of God. He said that Nectarios Yangston planned to bring the Myrrh-Streaming "Hawaiian" Icon to Holy Trinity Monastery. Abbot Dorotheos, prior of St. Nicholas Monastery on the island of Andros, Greece, the monastery Drother Joseph visited on the eve of his martyrdom, also intended to come for the 15th anniversary commemoration. At the Monastery of St. Nicholas, an icon of the Mother of God painted on the wall began to weep when Brother Joseph walked into the church.

God grant that ever more people who love the Mother of God might visit the holy Monastery of the Most-Holy Trinity and the place where the chosen one of the Mother of God was laid to rest.

Media Office of the Eastern American Diocese

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