After the Divine Liturgy on the Feast of Annunciation, Metropolitan Irineu of Oltenia led a procession through the streets of Craiova carrying a wonderworking icon of the Mother of God known as Madonna Dudu and the relics of Saint Nephon of Constantinople to help fight the coronavirus outbreak.
‘In these difficult moments of trial, our hope is with the Mother of God,’ His Eminence Metropolitan Irineu said March 25.
His Eminence recalled the miraculous interventions of the Mother of God through the Madonna Dudu icon during cholera and plague outbreaks in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The icon was moved from the holy place only three times in history: in 1813 and 1848, when the City faced the plague epidemics, but also in 1913 during the cholera outbreak.
“More than a century ago, the miraculous icon of the Mother of God from Dud went out to the City to deliver the inhabitants of Craiova from cholera. Today we appeal again to her mercy to be delivered from this plague.”
“We ask the merciful God to guard us all! We especially pray for the sick, doctors, nurses and all those who struggle with the disease in the first ranks! God and His Blessed Mother protect us from all evil,” said Metropolitan Irineu.
Photography courtesy of the Metropolis of Oltenia
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