CLINTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. — Although we sing and proclaim, “God is with us,” that spiritual reality is often trampled by the struggles of daily life. Perhaps for this reason, the Mother of God throughout history has made her presence known in special and miraculous ways.
Sometimes, she has expressed herself in the form of weeping icons. This phenomenon is a manifestation of grace within the church.
Among all of the weeping Marian icons, that of Our Lady of Mariapocs has a special place in the Eparchy of Parma, where a shrine was built in her honor in Burton, Ohio, and dedicated by Bishop Nicholas T. Elko in 1956. Every year, faithful from across the eparchy attend the mid-August pilgrimage. This year’s pilgrimage will be Aug. 18-19.
In 1676, the Ruthenian Byzantine Catholic people of the village of Pocs in present-day eastern Hungary built a wooden church, and an icon of Mary was commissioned.
Twenty years later, from Nov. 14 to Dec. 8, 1696, that icon miraculously wept several times during Divine Liturgy. Dozens of people witnessed it, including Count Andrew John Corbelli, an officer in the Austrian army. He immediately notified Emperor Leopold I, who ordered that the icon was to be brought to Vienna, where it remains today at St. Stephen’s Cathedral, although it has never wept again.
The carriage transporting the icon to Vienna was delayed at each Post Depot by large groups of people who wanted to pay homage. Corbelli was so impressed by the piety that he ordered a Jesuit priest to make a copy of the icon. Once the copy was completed, the people carried the new icon in procession to Pocs, later renamed to Mariapocs.
The second icon of Mariapocs miraculously wept several times in 1715, and again in 1905. As such, the church became a popular pilgrimage site, and Pope Pius XII raised its status to the rank of minor basilica in 1948.
The replica that now resides in the eparchy’s shrine in Burton is a new, exact reproduction of the miraculous weeping icon. It was touched to the second miraculous icon of Mariapocs, and it arrived in Parma in June 2017.
Many miracles, healings and stories of conversion are attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Mariapocs. Prince Eugene of Savoy attributed to her his victory over the Ottoman Turks in Zenta, Serbia, on Sept. 11, 1697.
A young girl was healed instantly of her serious illness in 1776, upon kissing the weeping icon. In 1812, another young girl, who accidentally died by drowning, was restored to life after the family prayed to Our Lady of Mariapocs. A blind man from Pacin, miraculously recovered his sight in Mariapocs in 1860, and the stories go on.
The Weeping Mother also had great influence in our own family. This anecdote involves our great-grandmother, whose devotion to Our Lady of Mariapocs was passed on from generation to generation.
Mariapocs had become a popular destination for religious pilgrimage. Many pilgrims walked for days to visit and pray at the site. A young teenage pilgrim, Maria Hegyes (1896-1968), travelled from her village of Koritnani, south of Uzhorod in present-day western Ukraine, with her uncle and blind cousin to pray to Our Lady of Mariapocs. At the shrine, she received a print to commemorate her pilgrimage.
Maria then carried this “souvenir” document inside her coat when she and her family immigrated to the United States in 1911. The fold-lines are still visible today.
Mary Hegyes Kolarchick eventually moved to Detroit with her husband and children in the early 1920s, where she was an active parishioner of St. Nicholas Byzantine Catholic Parish. She displayed the certificate in her home for many years, and now it is at our parents’ house.
Like our great-grandmother, other faithful ancestors of our church brought their Mariapocs devotion with them to their new homeland. Shrines, icons, and banners to Our Lady of Mariapocs can be found at numerous Byzantine Catholic parishes in North America
Father Lajos Angyal, a family friend and pastor of St. George Hungarian Greek Catholic Church in Courtland, Ontario, says: “The weeping icon is very humble and gentle. If we come closer to her and spend time in silence, we will get inspiration for conversion. We need her help because sometimes we are helpless. We need her strength because we do not have enough spiritual power. In closeness to her, we hear her silent direction: ‘Go to my son, and listen to him.’ And the first thing that Jesus would like to say to us is to ‘Stay in my love.’”
We urge you to come close to her and get a more personal understanding of Our Lady, by spending some time at the shrine in Burton this summer and especially during pilgrimage, Aug. 18-19.
Caption:
In 1911, Maria Hegyes Kolarchick brought with her to the United States the certificate she received at the Shrine of Our Lady of Mariapocs in Hungary, attesting to her pilgrimage there. The certificate, as well as her devotion to the Weeping Mother was passed down to her family for generations. (Photo: Nikolaj Nagrant)
As published in Horizons, July 8, 2017. Sign up for the Horizons e-newsletter.