Let us remember that amazing day, when on the first anniversary of brother Joseph’s martyrdom, a memorial cross was erected and blessed on his grave. On that day, hundreds of people came to the monastery cemetery in Jordanville to honor the memory of the curator of the Iveron Myrrh-streaming Icon.
Let us remember that October day… White flowers, like a delicate first snowfall, blanket the grave of murdered brother Joseph. The flowers are orchids as well as flowers with the touching name “baby’s breath.” The middle of the grave is decorated with a cross of live purple roses. Dozens of candles flicker on the grave. White blends into gold, and it seems that the earth itself is radiating light. The reflection of candles plays over surface of the dark green malachite-colored Cross. It is noteworthy and a joy to behold that together with the pilgrims, a new copy of the Iveron Myrrh-streaming Icon has come to Jordanville. This new icon was written especially for those who were Joseph’s friends and who honor him, by the same Athonite monk whose brush had previously brought forth the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God whose curator Joseph had been. It is profoundly symbolic that the newly-written icon of the Mother of God stands at the foot of the Cross. A host of people surround the grave as the panikhida is served. It is cold, a piercing wind bites our faces and hands. But do we feel the cold during these glorious and touching moments? With one mouth and one heart, all pray to God, and in this prayer establish communion with murdered brother Joseph, a union which had been externally broken one year earlier by his martyrdom. There is no doubt: He is with us, here and now.
The Christian Church was strengthened by and grew on the graves of the martyrs, where the earliest Christians gathered to pray and to glorify the holy sufferers. Gathered around the grave of the new martyr Joseph, we as well experience an amazing feeling of living oneness with the first Christians. Unfortunately, it is rarely thus. People go to the same church year after year, but in their hearts remain strangers to it. But here, on the grave of a martyr, such a state is unthinkable. Here we are all one in spirit, here we clearly recognize ourselves as the Church, gathered in one True Faith. Here we comprehend the heart, we comprehend what Orthodox Christianity is… But here at Joseph’s grave, our conscience is also faced with difficult questions: What does the martyrdom of the curator of the Iveron Myrrh-streaming Icon mean to us? Why did this Icon hide itself from us?
Here I will permit myself to relate something that happened to one of those living in our monastery. A year ago, before the death of Joseph, this person began to be assaulted by evil thoughts which caused him to doubt his Faith. Anyone who has experienced similar battle in his mind knows how difficult it is. On top of all of this, the man became ill, and was forced to spend a number of days in his cell. In the quiet of his cell, he began to pray to the Lord, that he might receive spiritual help. One evening, he dared to ask the Lord for a sign to strengthen his faith. The next morning, someone knocked on his door and told him “Brother Joseph has been murdered.” This man said that at that moment, he was pierced by the thought, “Surely this is God’s sign.”
Yes, brother Joseph’s martyrdom is unquestionably a sign to all of us, a sign manifested unto the strengthening of our faith. Although it frightens me to try to discern the meaning of such lofty things, I nonetheless will dare to express several ideas about what I think this sign means to us. First of all, let us consider: are we ready to accept this sign, or is our old man still seeking after other signs? I can say for myself, that I am probably not alone in the following: When I venerated the new copy of the Iveron Myrrh-streaming Icon of which I spoke, this tiny idea came to mind: “Perhaps this copy as well will begin to stream myrrh. Here in a moment we will pray, and it will begin to stream myrrh.” I furtively gazed at the icon, hoping to see the miraculous streaming of at least a single drop of myrrh. Pharisee! I was looking for a miracle for the sake of a miracle. I was demanding a sign like unto that which the Jews demanded of the Savior. Do you remember how he answered them? “An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matthew 12:39-40).
The prophet’s being in the belly of the whale for three days prefigured the coming extreme humility and disparagement of the Savior, His salvific suffering, and his death on the Cross. The life and death of any Christian martyr is in miniature a likeness, image and emulation of Christ’s suffering. Martyrdom, as a spiritual struggle of Christian love, is that lofty sign which has so often been manifested in the sight of men. What more is there to say or teach about this true sign? It heralds and bears witness to the triumph of Truth, to the victory which overcometh the world, to our Faith, to the ultimate triumph of Orthodox Christianity. After all, the crucifixion and burial of the Savior was followed by His Most Glorious Resurrection. And each martyr, murdered by his executioners, acquires life eternal. Ultimately, the history of the Christian Church on earth will end in a martyr’s Golgotha, for without Golgotha, there is no Resurrection.
I think that whenever the Lord gives the Church a new martyr, we should remember all of this. We can truly characterize the 20th Century as the age of Russian martyrdom, even though of course in our time glorious martyrs have shone forth in other Local Churches as well. I believe that brother Joseph, the chosen one of the Mother of God, was made worthy of Divine mercy to crown the glorious list of the New Martyrs of the 20th Century, the century with which ends the second millennium of Christianity. Accordingly, those who say that brother Joseph’s martyrdom is an event of universal significance are correct. From now on, martyr Joseph belongs not just to Russian Orthodoxy, but to all Orthodoxy throughout the world.
Perhaps it was for this reason that the Myrrh-streaming Icon which had been in brother Joseph’s keeping for fifteen years has now hidden itself from us – so that we might now direct our spiritual attention towards her humble curator, whose martyrdom was presaged by the grace-filled streaming of myrrh for many years from the Iveron Icon of the Theotokos. Now the Mother of God Herself wishes to glorify Her faithful servant.
Glory to God, that the Lord grants unto us new myrrh-streaming copies of the Montreal Iveron Icon, an icon which we may justifiably call brother Joseph’s Icon. Already, we know of many incidents of myrrh-streaming from paper copies of that Icon. Nonetheless, we must not forget that God blesses icons to stream myrrh so that we might grow in faith and love for Him, for love even unto death, unto self-sacrifice. From now on this difficult path, a life-long, voluntary, Christian martyrdom, is illuminated for us by the radiance of brother Joseph’s spiritual struggle.
Those who were close acquaintances of the faithful curator of the Iveron Myrrh-streaming Icon, testify that his life was a spiritual struggle of love, a struggle of self-denial, of self-crucifixion for the sake of service to the Mother of God and for the sake of suffering people seeking spiritual and physical healing by the miraculous icon. Often sick, Joseph would take the Miraculous Icon even in inclement weather to wherever people were in need of help from the Queen of Heaven. Although he had the opportunity to become fabulously wealthy through the Icon, Joseph lived very simply. He courageously and patiently endured sorrows and sufferings which he hid from others, and sought comfort by praying, which as people say, he did without ceasing. Brother Joseph’s life was one of voluntary martyrdom hidden from the wise men of this age but obvious to the little ones of the Gospel.
We have not the slightest doubt that brother Joseph’s life, crowned with a suffering death, was a true continuation of that unassailable Christian sign, that light which on Golgotha illumined the path of Christians for all time. This is that single sign which one should truly seek.
…The day of the erection of the Holy Cross upon the grave of the new martyr Joseph was cold and windy. We saw that some of those present, especially women and children, were shivering. Yet no one left before the end of the rite of blessing of the cross and the panikhida. Moreover, we did not hurry away after the panikhida. We were warmed by prayer, we were warmed by faith, we were warmed by love, and this was truly that “victory that overcometh the world.” Had someone asked us at that moment “In what do you hope? Show us the Faith, show us your Christianity!” we would have responded “Come and see!”
Monk Vsevolod
Jordanville, 19 Oct./1 Nov. 1998