Varna, Bulgaria, August 20, 2026
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
Doctors, patients and children at the largest hospital in northeastern Bulgaria got a rare visit this week from the myrrh-streaming Hawaiian Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, which stopped at the pediatric hematology and oncology clinic of St. Marina University Multiprofile Hospital for Active Treatment in Varna on August 17.
His Eminence Metropolitan Ioann of Varna and Veliki Preslav carried the icon into the clinic himself. He was joined by Fr. Nectarios Yangson, keeper of the wonderworking image, Archpriest Ilia Marzev of the Bulgarian Diocese of the USA, Canada and Australia, Fr. Iasen Shinev, who looks after the hospital’s chapel, Fr. Ventsislav Georgiev and Deacon Georgi Neichev. The hospital’s executive director, Prof. Dr. Silva Andonova-Atanasova, along with numerous doctors, children and parents, came out to greet them, reports the Bulgarian Orthodox Church.
Metropolitan Ioann offered a prayer to the Mother of God for health, salvation, peace and help for everyone working in the hospital as well as the patients being treated there. He also addressed those gathered, stressing how important it was for doctors and sick children to touch the myrrh-streaming icon.
Photo: bg-patriarshia.bg
“When there’s illness, it’s faith that supports us, that gives us strength,” Metropolitan Ioann said. He noted that the icon’s continuous streaming of myrrh, along with its arrival in the diocese on the eve of the feast of the Dormition, was a sign of God’s mercy.
The Metropolitan thanked Fr. Nectarios and Fr. Ilia for the chance to bring the icon to the hospital and wished them health and strength. He also prayed that the Mother of God would help and heal the children in the hospital.
Small paper copies of the icon and cotton swabs with its myrrh were handed out at the hospital. Before leaving, Metropolitan Ioann blessed the entire children’s ward and then the rest of the hospital.
The Hawaiian icon arrived in Bulgaria on August 1 and remained in the country until yesterday, August 19. During its stay, it was also brought to a hospital in Sofia, where a miraculous healing was reported.
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