Our Mother Among the Saints

Irene of Chrysovolantou

Commemorated on July 28

St. Irene was the daughter of a noble family from Cappadocia. The Empress Theodora sent her messengers out in search of a bride for her son Michael, then twelve years old. The messengers found in St. Irene everything they could hope for in a future empress. St. Irene gathered together her servants and belongings and began the journey to Byzantium. En route she stopped at Mt. Olympos to receive the blessing of the hermit who lived there, St. Ioannikos the Great. He hailed her as a bride of Christ, prophesying her entrance into the convent of Chrysovolantou.

When the bridal party reached Byzantium, they learned Michael had that very day married another girl. St. Irene was now free to act on St. Ioannikos' prophecy. She freed her servants, gave her dowry to the poor, and disposed of all her goods before entering the convent of Chrysovolantou dressed as a novice in a habit of plain sackcloth.

Before the end of her first year there, St. Irene acquired the gift of standing all night keeping vigil in prayer. She ate only bread and water with some herbs or vegetables. The only thing she owned was her one habit. Every year at Pascha she received a new one, cleaning the old one and giving it to the poor. This former noblewoman chose as her duty in the convent the cleaning of its toilets. She was renowned for her humility and obedience.

When the abbess was dying, she called together all the nuns except St. Irene and told them to accept only St. Irene as their new abbess and obey her. After the abbess' death, the nuns appealed to the Patriarch Methodius the Confessor for his guidance. Having heard nothing of the abbess' instructions, he asked if there was a nun among them named Irene. She should be their choice. The nuns were amazed to hear the abbess' order confirmed. The Patriarch ordained St. Irene a deaconess, then clothed her as an abbess.

St. Irene prayed for the gift of clairvoyance so she could better discern the nature of her nuns' struggles and guide them according to their true needs. God sent a guardian angel to stand at her side, listening to the nuns' troubles and especially to their Confessions. The angel in turn counseled St. Irene as to the best remedies for the nuns' afflictions. For this St. Irene has been given the title "Converser with Angels."

One night a demon tipped over a candle and set St. Irene ablaze as she stood deep in prayer. A nun passing by smelled the burning and rushed in to put the fire out. St. Irene hadn't noticed anything, questioning the nun on her concern for worldly pain even while the nun picked the bits of charred clothing from St. Irene's burned skin. The smell of myrrh filled the convent. In just a few days St. Irene was whole again, and even stronger in her ability to prophesize.

St. Irene was involved in a number of situations where miraculous help was delivered in response to her prayers. One of the most impressive involves the Emperor Basil, the successor to Emperor Michael. A nobleman related to St. Irene had been wrongly imprisoned by the Emperor Basil. The family appealed to St. Irene for her help. She appeared to the Emperor in a dream, telling him who she was and charging him to release the man whom he knew to be innocent. The Emperor refused to believe the truth of his dream. St. Irene repeated her warning, then struck the Emperor across the face. When he woke up in the morning, the mark on his cheek convinced him he hadn't been dreaming. He questioned the nobleman again, satisfied himself as to the man's innocence, and released him. He then sent his court artist to the convent of Chrysovolantou in order to get a glimpse of the abbess. When the artist returned with the sketch he'd made, the Emperor knew without a doubt St. Irene had indeed appeared to him. He wrote to her begging her forgiveness and prayers.

The event that inspired the icon most often written of St. Irene involved another miracle. One night a novice was awakened by a bright light shining out in the courtyard. When she went to investigate, she found St. Irene out there praying, standing up as usual with her hands upraised. The novice was astounded to see St. Irene floating a full meter off the ground! What's more, the pine trees around her had bowed their tops down to the ground in reverence. In order to make sure this wasn't some delusion of the Devil, the novice tied her handkerchief to the top of one tree. In the morning, there it was, way up at the top of the straightened tree.

There is an apple orchard at the convent of Chrysovolantou. That orchard can trace its roots back to the very fields of Heaven itself. One day a sailor on a boat heading for the Greek islands saw a man standing on the nearby shore, beckoning to him. The sailor hailed him, and the man came walking across the water to the boat. He gave the sailor three apples and told him to take them to the abbess of Chrysovolantou, telling her they were a gift from the servant of God John. St. Irene received these apples with great joy. The first she ate bit by bit with small sips of water. The second she later divided up and shared with all the nuns in the convent. The third she consumed much later, in anticipation of her death. The seeds from these apples were kept and used to plant the orchard that now grows in the convent grounds.

Just as the previous abbess had done, St. Irene called all the nuns to her and named her successor. At the age of more than one hundred years, St. Irene went to her rest on the day after the Feast of St. Panteliemon, the Great Martyr and Healer. Even today, people from all over the world write letters to the convent of Chrysovolantou, imploring St. Irene's help. She is known in particular for helping with matters of fertility and childbearing.

St. Irene of Chrysovolatou is my patron saint. I was fortunate enough to receive the blessing of a piece of an apple from this orchard after the wife of my parish priest visited family in Greece. I also have small bottles of holy oil and holy water from the convent. While I was in the hospital with my son Michael, I kept her icon in my room, along with the holy water and holy oil. When the doctors told me I had to have an emergency C section right then, I sent a nurse for the holy oil and anointed myself even as they were prepping me for surgery.