DIOCESE OF EASTERN AMERICA AND NEW YORK: November 2, 2011
The Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God Spends Six Days at St Nicholas Monastery

With the blessing of His Eminence Metropolitan Hilarion, St Nicholas Monastery in North Fort Myers, FL, was visited by the Kursk-Root Icon of the Most Holy Mother of God. For six days, from October 21-27, 2011, monastics and pilgrims were given a foretaste of Paradise by the joy that surrounded this glorious visitation.

Hundreds of believers from all over Florida piously awaited the arrival of the main holy icon of the Russian diaspora to Fort Myers, who venerated it during its visit. Because of the daily Liturgies, molebens and hymns that were chanted throughout the Icon’s stay, these individuals experienced for their first time the rich spiritual life of the holy Orthodox Faith. Clergymen of other faiths also came to venerate the Icon, including those from the Episcopal, Lutheran, Catholic, Protestant, and Greek Catholic communities. According to Hieromonk Nikolai Perekrestov, who traveled with the Icon to St Nicholas Monastery, “this type of response from the heterodox community is unprecedented. I do not know of another instance in which so many hundreds of non-Orthodox persons came with faith before the Icon. A number of these individuals have expressed their desire to learn more about our Holy Orthodox Faith.”