The 9th annual parish pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery in Jordanville took place on November 18-19 in an atmosphere of thankful prayer to God. Joining our own pilgrims on this pilgrimage were faithful of two Washington-area parishes of the Orthodox Church in America. Most of the 70 participants went to the Mystery Confession and communed of the Holy Gifts of Christ. Panikhidas were served twice at the grave of murdered brother Joseph Munoz-Cortes, faithful curator of the Iveron Montreal Icon of the Mother of God. After the first Panikhida Archpriest Victor Potapov, pilgrimage director, reminded those gathered together that the martyred curator of the Miraculous Icon would often say that “one must not become used to a miracle.” As if extending that thought, Fr. Victor stated that we cannot allow ourselves to “forget the sign sent down to comfort us over the course of 15 years, the Myrrh-streaming Icon of the Mother of God, and her faithful curator.” Further, he explained that these annual pilgrimages to brother Joseph’s grave take place so that we might remember the great sign that over the course of many years visited grace upon the lives of the faithful in the Russian Diaspora. “In Russia, reverence for brother Joseph’s memory is spreading ever more broadly, while here, unfortunately, it is fading away.”

The pilgrims were happy to hear that the entire next issue Orthodox Life, published in Jordanville, will be devoted to brother Joseph.

With God’s help, next year, on the 10th Anniversary of the murder of the Chosen One of the Mother of God, the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist intends to sponsor not only a three-day pilgrimage to Holy Trinity Monastery, but to also hold a small conference and present an exhibition of things belonging to brother Joseph.

November, 2006

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