A MIRACLE AT THE CLEANER’S

In February, 2004 some of Fr. Brendan’s vestments were taken to the Up-to-Date Cleaner’s in Houston, Texas for cleaning. The vestments are typical of those worn by Orthodox priests during the Divine Liturgy. These particular vestments were hand-embroidered in Greece and were intended to be worn during Great Lent and Holy Week.

Three days later the cleaning company was destroyed by fire shortly before dawn.  Fr. Brendan and Presvytera Sharon saw the news on early-morning television and drove immediately to the cleaning company, which was owned by members of Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church. Fire-fighters were still spraying the smoldering ruins of the building and the ashes of the clothing inside when he arrived.

Seeing one of the workers crying, he tried to comfort her with a joke. “I guess this is not a good time to pick up my cleaning,” he said. She stopped crying and then suddenly looked shocked. “I saw your robes hanging in the fire!” she shouted. “Come with me!”

Taking Fr. Brendan’s hand, she led him into the building through what used to be a large window, which was now completely gone. The building was still smoldering and filled with smoke. Stepping into the ashes into the dark room, it was possible to see the white vestments hanging on a rod in the far end of the room—the place where the fire had started. The metal rod that held the vestments had sagged, so that the vestments were dragging into the ashes on the floor. There were no other clothes in the entire room, except for pieces in the ashes.

She snatched the vestments and ran outside into the sun. There, she and Fr. Brendan began to turn the bag around and around, looking to see how badly burned the robes were. They expected to see large holes, but there were none.

The plastic bag which was around the robes had mostly melted away, but the remains did not stick to the cloth. Also, a metal clasp at the top of the sticharion had bent outward from the heat, although the cloth was not scorched anywhere. In fact, the only sign that the vestments had been in the fire at all, was the smell of smoke and the print of a fireman’s boot on the hem of the sticharion.  The print is still there.

As documented on television later that day, all the other clothing in the building was completely destroyed, existing only as ashes and tiny fragments of burned cloth on the floor. The camera operator filmed the unburned vestments and then turned his camera to the floor, which was still smoldering, showing the remains of all the other clothing in the store. “Why do you think these robes were saved?” he asked Fr. Brendan. “Do you think it was supernatural?”

Fr. Brendan pointed out that most of the other clothes in the cleaner’s at that time were the uniforms of Houston police officers. Since these uniforms were in the front window of the cleaner’s, police speculated that the fire was started by a person who hated the police (the arsonist was later arrested). Fr. Brendan noted that while police wear their uniforms into very difficult and even evil places every day, an Orthodox priest’s vestments are worn into a holy place every Sunday and at every divine service. They are filled with the fragrance of incense. “They are filled with holiness. They were surrounded by holy angels,” he said.

These were the white and red vestments which Fr. Brendan wore this year, and every year on Sundays during Great Lent, and in the Holy Week services. They serve as a reminder that we can trust God in every circumstance.

In the Book of Daniel we read that the three young men were preserved in the fire which was intended to destroy them. Perhaps these vestments can be a reminder that the things which are dedicated to God are holy—even in a fire!