Fire everywhere. A church destroyed. But implausibly unharmed?
Parishioners of a Philadelphia Ukrainian Orthodox
church say the four-alarm fire that destroyed millions of dollars in
furniture and artifacts and left a gaping hole in the center of the
historic building also revealed a miracle.“The fire was blazing, so when we saw
the fire, we thought everything burned,” Saint Mary the Protectress
Ukrainian Orthodox Church treasurer and parishioner Pasha Prasko said.
“But now that we can see inside, we looked at it and said it’s amazing
so many icons are still there.”Although a large portion of the
church’s roof collapsed and more than 100 firefighters doused the
building in water to tame the blaze, several icons remained untouched by
the flames at the historic house of worship in the East Oak Lane
section of the city on Sunday.
October 31, 2013 at 3:13 am
If you were familiar with the icon Joy for All who Sorrow with coins in St. Petersburg, Russia, this miracle wouldn't astound you. There was an icon of Joy for all who Sorrow (looks like the memorare, with the Mother of God in supplication and on either side of her angels and supplicants) in the chapel of the glass factory. During a thunderstorm, the glass factory was struck by lighting and set on fire. Amid the destruction was found the icon, face down, on coins from the almsbox which had burst. When they picked up the icon, its colors had renewed (the colors had become dark from the incense and candles burning) and the coins had adhered to it. Not a stretch to believe that a similar miracle could occur again.