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St. George Church celebrates 25th Anniversary of Weeping Icon miracle
St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Chicago’s west suburb of Cicero will hold a special service on Tuesday April 22 to honor the 25th anniversary of the discovery of a weeping icon of the Virgin Mary that has come to be known officially as “The Miraculous Lady of Cicero, Illinois.”
St. George Antiochian Orthodox Church officials will join other clergy, hierarchy and the faithful including Metropolitan Joseph and Bishop Anthony at a celebration of the anniversary to be held on Monday, April 22, at the church, 1220 S. 60th Court in Cicero, Illinois beginning at 7 PM. Officials said they will host a celebration November 14 – 17th, 2019 at the church also.
On April 22, 1994, parishioners witnessed tears shedding from the eyes of The Icon of the Theotokos on the Church’s Iconostasis. His Eminence the late Metropolitan Philip Saliba, who only last month passed away, formally declared the weeping icon a miracle and named it “The Miraculous Icon of Our Lady of Cicero.”
Weeping Icon, Miraculous Lady of Cicero, St. George Church, Cicero, Illinois
The 25th Anniversary of the Miraculous Weeping Icon of Saint George Antiochian Orthodox Church in Cicero, Illinois, is this Monday, April 22, 2019.
There will be Supplication Prayers to the Virgin Mary following the Bridegroom Service which starts at 7:00 pm this Monday.
The miracle began as just an ordinary day. The congregation was engaged in the traditional Lenten chanting at St. George Church as Father Dahdal was preparing for the Friday evening services. Also visiting at the time was Father Douglas Wyper. Dahdal, Wyper and other parishioners at the church noticed that an Icon of the Virgin Mary had what appeared to be streaks coming from the Icon’s eyes. By the stroke of midnight at the church, the witnesses saw four streams of tears flowing down the icon that continued to the bottom of the icon itself.
In the 20 years since, more than 1 million visitors from around the world have traveled to the community of Cicero, Illinois in the United States, to visit St. George Antiochian Church and to view the Weeping Icon which is on continuous display for public viewing. Many people who came to the church with their ailing family members claimed that they experienced miracles as their family members were healed.
Ray Hanania is an award winning political and humor columnist who analyzes American and Middle East politics, and life in general. He is an author of several books.
Hanania covered Chicago Politics and Chicago City Hall from 1976 through 1992 at the Daily Southtown and the Chicago Sun-Times. He began writing in 1975 publishing The Middle Eastern Voice newspaper in Chicago (1975-1977). He later published “The National Arab American Times” newspaper (2004-2007).
Hanania writes weekly columns on Middle East and American Arab issues as Special US Correspondent for the Arab News ArabNews.com, at TheArabDailyNews.com, and at SuburbanChicagoland.com. He has published weekly columns in the Jerusalem Post newspaper, YNetNews.com, Newsday, the Orlando Sentinel, Houston Chronical, and Arlington Heights Daily Herald.
Hanania is the recipient of four (4) Chicago Headline Club “Peter Lisagor Awards” for Column writing. In November 2006, he was named “Best Ethnic American Columnist” by the New American Media. In 2009, Hanania received the prestigious Sigma Delta Chi Award for Writing from the Society of Professional Journalists. He is the recipient of the MT Mehdi Courage in Journalism Award. He was honored for his writing skills with two (2) Chicago Stick-o-Type awards from the Chicago Newspaper Guild. In 1990, Hanania was nominated by the Chicago Sun-Times editors for a Pulitzer Prize for his four-part series on the Palestinian Intifada.
His writings have also been honored by two national Awards from ADC for his writing, and from the National Arab American Journalists Association.
Hanania is the US Special Correspondent for the Arab News Newspaper, covering Middle East and Arab American issues. He writes for the Southwest News newspaper group writing on mainstream American issues.
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