I have just returned from a one day pilgrimage to the relics of my namesake, St. John Maximovitch, in San Francisco. While there I had the opportunity to venerate his holy and incorrupt relics, take confession (along with hundreds of other pilgrims) and attend the all night vigil in the Cathedral of The Virgin Mary Joy of All Who Sorrow. The experience was profoundly edifying and frankly one of the most emotional since my reception into the Orthodox Church.
I added my own contribution to the sea of candles burning before the relics of St. John for innumerable family (both blood and spiritual), friends and those who have touched my life in so many positive ways. Thank you to everyone for being there in the good times and not so good.
A Correct Way to Correct
20 hours ago
4 comments:
Wow! His relics are incorrupt? I have to confess this phenomenon is very strange to me as a modern, skeptical, "enlightenment"-influenced Western.
How long has he been there? Do you have any pictures? How "incorrupt" is "incorrupt?"
Ed,
His relics are indeed incorrupt. That is not to say that he looks alive. He looks quite dead. But most bodies that were not mummified would have decomposed to skeletal remains in the near four decades since he reposed. What I could see of him looked very drawn and leathery. But he is still there. Sadly I did not take any pictures. (This was not a tourism trip for me.) I hope to get some pictures the next time I get there. Also I will look online and see if there are any posted.
In ICXC
John
Thanks John,
I had just wondered. Yes, no doubt a normal person would have decayed over the course of a few decades, even given clean, air-tight (etc) surroundings. Having grown up on a farm, I've seen things (groundhogs, goats, etc) waste away very quickly under the force of the elements.
Ed,
I found some pictures of his relics and posted them on the blog. Also the most recent post has a video taken inside the cathedral that shows his relics.
Yours in ICXC
John
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