c. 1996 Religion News Service
(Frederica Mathewes-Green is a member of the Eastern Orthodox Church. She is the author of the recent book”Real Choices”and a frequent contributor to Christianity Today magazine.)
(RNS) The vast middle of this country is sometimes termed, by bicoastal bigwigs,”Flyover Land.”It’s the land you fly over on your way to somewhere you think is more important: the patchwork squares of farmland rolling endlessly by; the dry, scrubby mountain ranges studded with rock; the harsh and tedious desert baking in the sun’s glare.
But early in the history of the Christian church, some people came to believe that for their soul’s health they should flee the cities and move to flyover-land. The church had flourished under persecution and martyrdom, but success and acceptance threatened to kill it with complacency. Solitary hermits who established rocky homes gradually attracted followers seeking their wisdom, and eventually the first monasteries were established.
It’s a tradition that continues today, even in America. Father Benedict, head of the Russian Orthodox Christ of the Hills Monastery in Blanco, Texas, just outside Austin, says,”We chose the most remote location we could find. You had to ford a river at low water, then go eight miles down dirt roads to find us. The way was not marked.”The Texas hill country around the monastery is bleak and dry, ideal for hermits but not much else.
All that changed on May 7, 1985. A young monk known as Father Pangratios was dusting the icons in the little mobile home that served as a chapel.”I noticed that one was wet on the surface,”Father Pangratios says.”I wiped off the moisture, and then I smelled that sweet aroma. That was my first inkling.”Beads of fragrant oil, or myrrh, were welling up from the eyes of the flat, painted figure.
The icon, painted on a plank of wood about a foot square, shows the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus, their faces pressed together in a tender embrace. Though this copy was painted in 1983, it is modeled on the ancient”Virgin of Vladimir,”which according to tradition was painted by St. Luke the Evangelist.
As this icon”weeps,”drops of myrrh stream from the eyes of the Virgin, running over the face of the Christ Child and down to the end of the board. Cottonballs are set along the bottom edge of the icon to catch the liquid, and then used to anoint pilgrims. The mysterious liquid is oily, golden-colored and bears a pungent-sweet fragrance.
But before the monks could come to any conclusions about the weeping icon, they needed their superiors’ approval. A clerical commission including a bishop and archbishop arrived, and checked the icon for hidden tubes or other trickery; one camped out in the chapel all night to verify that the image wept without human assistance. The phenomenon was approved, and blessed for pilgrims to visit in prayer.”We tried to keep it a secret at first,”Father Benedict says.”If a pilgrim arrived very sick, we would take him in privately to show him the icon.” Healings occurred, which the monks are collecting into a book.”Then word got out; before long they put it on TV.”The state of Texas spent a million dollars putting a bridge across the river and paved the road up to the very gates.
Flyover land has become a destination. There are now 30 men and women living at the site in linked male and female monasteries, and 100,000 pilgrims visit every year.
Which brings us full circle: The monks moved here because it was remote, and it was remote because it was barren and inhospitable. Hardly the place to bring hundreds of visitors each day. Especially now, as this area goes into its second year of drought.
On the eleventh anniversary of the initiation of the icon’s weeping,”our well had gone completely dry. The cisterns were also all empty,”says Father Benedict. With the heavy use of the facility about 13,500 gallons of water are required a week. It’s no use drilling more wells; they’ve tried that, and the water is too thick with minerals.
In the short term, the monks are hauling water in from other cities, at astronomical costs that threaten to bankrupt the community. A long-term solution calls for gutters, cisterns, and pumps; rainfall for the area is sufficient to meet water needs, if only it can be collected and stored.
A weeping icon is a stunning supernatural phenomenon; providing water for those who want to pray before it is much more mundane. On the day we spoke, Father Benedict was chiefly concerned with buying a fire tanker-truck to haul the week’s water.
Donors to their water fund, Father Benedict promises, will be remembered with a plaque in”the central pumping station of our water system.”It’s not as romantic as a plaque under a stained-glass window in a cathedral, but if the Scripture about giving”a cup of cold water”in Jesus’ name holds true, it’s probably a good alternative.”We didn’t seek this,”Father Benedict concludes, speaking of the crowds that come to see the icon.”We came to the desert to seek God, and our solitude is precious to us.” They never wanted the stress of success that comes with a miraculous phenomenon. But sometimes solitude isn’t what the Lord has in mind _ not even for those who withdraw to flyover land.
MJP END GREEN
