At first glance, it looks like something you’d find on the clearance shelf of a Christian bookstore, a glossy print of Mary holding baby Jesus with a gold background and eyes that seem to follow you when you walk past it. But this particular image, rescued from a bargain bin in Toronto for a measly twenty bucks, is now at the center of what believers call a modern miracle.
The framed replica, housed at Honolulu’s Holy Theotokos of Iveron Russian Orthodox Church, has been oozing a sticky, fragrant substance that smells faintly of roses. According to parish priest Father Nectarios Yangson, the print began secreting myrrh, the biblical resin once gifted by the Wise Men, sometime in late September. “I began to notice an unbelievably strong smell of myrrh, at home, in my car, even at work,” he wrote in a letter to his congregation, describing how the scent appeared before the liquid itself.
Soon, beads of the substance formed on the baby Jesus’ left knee. “We were afraid,” he said. “We asked if we had recently cleaned or anointed the icons. We hadn’t.” Within days, the image was glistening with resin that believers say has healed chronic pain, cancer, and even blindness. The faithful began arriving at the church, dipping cotton swabs into the oily drips, pressing them against foreheads, and crying in the pews.
Isn’t it wild you can physically go and see an Orthodox icon stream miraculous myrrh with your own eyes and there’s STILL people who don’t believe in Christianity. pic.twitter.com/v8laTN3Wbd
— Ben Luigi (@RealBenLuigi) October 16, 2025
A $20 Jesus Print Is Leaking Myrrh and Performing ‘Miracles’
Father Nectarios calls it a blessing and maybe a warning. “Some days have been completely dry, while on other days they are covered in myrrh,” he said, noting that the rose scent never fades. “It is truly a great miracle. I sometimes wonder if it is a sign.”
The original Montreal Iveron icon this copy was modeled after is famous among Orthodox Christians for similar “streaming” episodes that began decades ago. The Hawaiian version has become its own phenomenon, traveling to more than one hundred churches across the United States and Europe since receiving church approval in 2008.
Whether divine or chemical, the image has taken on a life of its own. On social media, worshippers post photos and videos of the weeping print with captions like “proof of faith” and “God’s hand at work.” Skeptics are trying to determine whether the miracle has a more earthly explanation, such as humidity or varnish.
Still, crowds continue to gather in Honolulu, hoping for a drop of the sacred resin. Even if science one day explains it away, the faithful already have their answer. As one believer told The New York Post, “You don’t need proof when you can feel it.”
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