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- <text id=92TT0060>
- <title>
- Jan. 13, 1992: American Notes:Icons
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- Jan. 13, 1992 The Recession:How Bad Is It?
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- NATION, Page 21
- American Notes
- ICONS
- No Euphoria in Astoria
- </hdr><body>
- <p> St. Irene may be the patron saint of peace, but last week her
- image provoked an unseemly squabble. Two days before Christmas,
- thieves stole a small jewel-encrusted painting of the saint from
- St. Irene Greek Orthodox Cathedral, which is located in Astoria,
- a predominantly Greek neighborhood in New York City. The icon,
- which congregationers say began to shed tears at the prospect
- of the Persian Gulf war, is valued by the church at $800,000.
- Church leaders went on television to plead for the icon's
- return. New York Mayor David Dinkins--and the Mafia--joined
- the appeal. On Dec. 28 the icon showed up in the mail, without
- the jewels and gold.
- </p>
- <p> Then a representative of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of
- North and South America suggested not only that the icon had
- never wept, but also that the purported theft had been an inside
- job. St. Irene's bishop, Vikentios of Avlon, who belongs to a
- breakaway branch of the church, retorted that he would file a
- $50 million defamation suit against the archdiocese. The police
- say they have no evidence of fraud. If St. Irene was not crying
- before, she may be now.
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-