My trip to St. Irene Chrysovalantou Monastery in Astoria, NY
Today, August 10, 2003, I visited St. Irene Chrysovalantou monastery in Astoria, NY with my wife Michaela. July 28 is the feast of St. Irene Chrysovalantou, and since the monastery is on the Old Calendar (although they are under Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople), today was the feast day. I didn’t know what to expect since I have never been to an Old Calendarist Church, so I went with a completely open mind, ready to experience whatever happened.
Michaela and I arrived at 9:30, just as liturgy was beginning. Orthros had begun that morning at approximately 7:00 am, but we were not interested in attending since we knew the liturgy would be approximately three hours long anyway. Upon entering the Church, we were immediately struck by its beauty. It is immaculately decorated with hanging oil lamps, icons were painted directly on the walls, and a marvelous wood-carved iconostasis was the focal point of the Church. One thing that struck us, however, upon entering was that the church had pews! Now we are not fanatical anti-pew types even though I don’t like them personally, but I was surprised to see them in an Old Calendar monastery.
The Church was packed full of pilgrims and parishioners. It was so full that after ten minutes Michaela almost fainted. But we found a convenient place against the back wall to lean, and that remained our spot for the next hour and a half, until we were asked to move so that we would not get in the way at the procession at the Cherubic Hymn. The liturgy was chanted all in Greek, which although it is not our native tongue has never been a barrier to my wife and me personally; we have attended enough Greek liturgies that she knows what is going on while I understand most of the words. We were amazed by the Byzantine Chant, which was thankfully done without the accompaniment of an organ as is often done in Greek churches in the United States. In fact, I felt as if I were in heaven listening to the words chanted so beautifully.
The Church hosts a miraculous icon that weeps myrrh. Many people were there to see the icon and to venerate it. Unfortunately, many of them were only there to do that, and not to participate in the liturgy. It made me wonder what they thought they would accomplish by missing liturgy but venerating an icon—it seemed kind of superstitious to me. However, this is their custom and their “peasant piety” and who am I to judge? At least they made it to Church and perhaps their veneration of the icon will lead to their conversion to more pious observance of Church life. One practical disadvantage was the pushing and shoving that went on to get to the icon; it was very distracting and several times I had some very unchristian thoughts when people shoved me!
The liturgy went on for about three hours. Something curious happened which I have never seen before—at the "It is truly proper and just" [Axion Estin] hymn to the Theotokos, the monks started ringing all the bells, they started swininging the hanging oil lamps and a nun processed through the church striking that wooden thing that Greek monks have to call people to prayer (what they began using when the Turks banned ringing bells). The energy level at the church rose to an extreme high at this point. It was utterly astounding. I was confused because they administered communion at the end of the liturgy instead of at the customary time. There were three sermons: one by a monastic priest, one by Metropolitan Alexios of Atlanta (GOA), who was the main celebrant, and one by Metropolitan Paisios of the monastery. Metropolitan Paisios has a program called “Voice of Orthodoxy” that appears on the Greek TV here in New York, and it showed—he was so animated, jumping up and down, screaming and shouting, with a big smile on his face. At one point he started talking to the icon, then he started talking to the people venerating the icon. It was interesting to say the least.
At the conclusion of the liturgy, everyone went outside and the icon was carried out. It was covered with the usual cloth canopy, and people were carrying banners. Girls were carrying poles with candles on top and pink ribbons hanging from them, and there were both military and police escorts. Some of the police even venerated the icon! As the procession began, we walked with it for awhile but then “ducked out” as by this time four hours had passed and my wife was very tired. We definitely will be returning to the monastery!
But you came real close, only a few miles.
