Below we offer excepts from the reminiscences of one servant of God, living in France, who asked to remain anonymous.

Joseph was very saddened by the fact that no way for him to take the Most-holy Image to Russia was opening; with all his soul, with all his heart, he yearned to go there.

Before the Feast of the Nativity in 1992, Joseph came with the Holy Myrrh-streaming Icon for an extended stay in the Lesno Convent. He was to work on the festal row of icons in the iconostasis of the winter church. I wanted to give him a Christmas present. Mother’s aunt, who had lived for many years in the Holy Land, sent me little icons which had been blessed in the Tomb of Christ and at other holy sites. I kept some of them at home. I began to search among them. When I took into my hands the icon of the Appearance of the Mother of God to St. Athanasius of Athos, an icon unfamiliar to me, I sensed some kind of internal response: This is the one!

During the life of St. Athanasius, there was a famine on Mt. Athos. Monks began to leave the Lavra of St. Athanasius. He prepared to leave as well. A “woman” appeared to him along the way. She said: “Do not abandon the Lavra.” In response to his troubled question: “And who are you?”, she stated “Strike the ground with your staff and you will learn who I am.” When St. Athanasius struck the ground with his staff, a spring burst forth, and the Most-holy Theotokos disappeared.

I gave Joseph the little icon, and told him of its origin and who was depicted thereon. He smiled and said: “This is a miracle!” He had recently been given relics of St. Athanasius of Athos, and had wanted to place them before an icon of the saint. He had not had an icon of St. Athanasius, and had no pattern from which to make a copy.

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As I have already said, brother Joseph loved Russia. One more thing: My Russian relatives once sent me a letter, together with some snowdrops. They looked practically fresh. I sent them to brother Joseph. When I saw him later, he told me “ I put them on the Icon. It is as if Russia is huddling against the Most-pure Myrrh-streaming Image.

July, 1999