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Two righteous figures of the Russian Church in the twentieth century—one from Tsarist Russia and one from Chile—were united in America. Bishop Basil (Rodzianko) and Jose Munos-Cortez met in 1984 when Brother Jose brought the miraculous myrrh-streaming Montreal Iveron icon of the Mother of God to Washington. That meeting became the beginning of their spiritual friendship, as related by Vladyka Basil’s closest assistant, Marilyn Swezey.
For this twenty-fifth anniversary of Bishop Basil's repose, Dmitry Zlodorev spoke with Marilyn Swezey.
Muñoz with Montreal icon of the Holy Virgin — Marilyn, how did Vladyka and brother Jose meet for the first time?
— It was in 1984, when Vladyka had moved back to Washington from San Francisco. At that time, he was not strong due to a problem with his feet, typical for priests. So, my husband and I had him stay at our house for about a week or so until he was able to get around better and move into his apartment.
During that week, Brother Jose came to Washington with the Montreal icon. Father Victor Potapov, rector of St. John the Baptist Cathedral arranged for Jose to come to our house to visit Vladyka with the icon. The icon was brought up to Bishop Basil in our guest room and faced him. That was their first meeting. Vladyka remained in Washington until the end of his life. Any time Jose came with the icon, Vladyka always visited St. John the Baptist Cathedral to see him and to venerate the icon.
— What was it like when the icon was in your house? Do you remember what you felt?
O, wow! It was wonderful because the spiritual sense of the presence of the Mother of God was there. I always remember that experience. I remember it so clearly in spite of the fact that it happened in 1984, forty years ago! So many experiences occurred in succeeding years, but the one that I so vividly is the icon.
Bishop Basil (Rodzianko) — What did Vladyka and Br. Jose talk about? What common ground did they find?
I don’t know, because I was not present at all of their conversations. Any time I was present, we were talking about Jose’s travels, where he had been, and where he was going. And about the icon in its travels, as that was very important. Beyond that, I do not know. But they definitely found common ground. Each one was sympathetic, shall we say, to the other. Jose certainly understood Vladyka Basil’s position and Vladyka certainly understood the remarkable mission of Jose with the icon, how he was traveling around, how people were responding — I think he reported all of that to Vladyka, what his experience had been as a missionary with the icon, how people responded — which was of course remarkable.
— What did Vladyka tell you about his meetings with Brother Jose?
— He always looked forward to seeing him with the icon. Vladyka was very devoted to the icon’s mission, if we may call it that, and to the icon itself because it was such an experience to be in its presence. Any time the icon was in the church and people were praying, it was exuding oil, a wonderful, fragrant oil. There really was a spiritual presence around the icon.
— Vladyka was a bishop of the Orthodox Church in America (OCA) at that time and Jose was in the Russian Church Outside of Russia, (ROCOR). The two jurisdictions were not in spiritual communion at that time. Did Vladyka visit our ROCOR cathedral in Washington to see the icon?
— O, yes, he did. Most of the time, he was just in the church with parishioners, but after a while, Father Victor invited him in to the altar. But not to serve, of course.
— Do you remember any remarkable stories about Vladyka and Brother Jose?
— During one of his visits to Washington, Br. Jose brought the icon to Vladyka’s apartment. We called this apartment a chapel. It was his monastic residence which included a small chapel with Royal Doors, a small library area and dining area along with kitchen. Vladyka had services there on Saturdays. When the icon came, Vladyka invited some of us to come.
— I was in Vladyka’s apartment, it was very, very small...
— That’s right.
— It must have been full of myrrh when the icon was there, right?
— O, yes.
— Why did Bishop Basil serve Liturgies there on Saturdays and not on Sundays?
— Vladyka started this wonderful tradition for the English speaking parishioners of the St. Nicholas Cathedral in Washington. On Sundays, he served the Slavonic services in the cathedral, so he served English Liturgies in his own little chapel on Saturdays. Brother Jose visited his apartment chapel several times, bringing the icon there.
— Do you know of any miracles related to the icon?
— The main and constant miracle was the effect presence of the icon on people in the who were uplifted, and sometimes just brought to a renewal of their faith. I am sure there were probably some conversions, people converted by the powerful presence of the Mother of God. I remember once when the icon was at the home of Father Victor and Matushka Maria in between services in the church. I was present when a wonderful priest from Connecticut, Father Theodore Shevtzov, to pray there. He was a scientist, and I asked him about the wonderful of presence in the icon. How the myrrh is always exuded from the front of the image on the icon.
He gave me a very interesting answer from his scientific knowledge within a spiritual context: “Well, you see,” he said, “the myrrh exudes from the front of the icon, not from the back of it. And it does not come from the icon, the myrrh comes to it from the presence of the Mother of God.” I thought that was really fascinating, so interesting. And it made sense. That is why we have that feeling we can hardly describe — that sense of Her presence at the icon, even when the icon is not streaming oil.
— What did you feel when you were approaching the icon?
— Anytime I saw the icon in Washington, I felt a spiritual presence, very uplifting, very fragrant.
— Do you think that both Vladyka Basil and Brother Jose are saints, not yet canonized?
— Yes, exactly!
I can tell you one very remarkable experience I had. My husband and I were in Baltimore on a weekend visiting our two sons who were in college there at the time. We were staying at a hotel the night Jose was murdered. I did not know that yet, but in a dream I saw Jose. He was in a Liturgy and looked wonderful. “O, how interesting!” I thought. Later the next day, I learned from Father Victor and Matushka Maria Potapov that Jose had been murdered.
Did you recognize the place? Did he tell you anything?
No, no. I saw him in the Liturgy, but I did not see anything of the church. I did not see the icon there. I did not see anything except him, smiling and looking wonderful. He looked great.
