José Muñoz Cortés

Brother José (Joseph) Muñoz Cortés (a privately tonsure monk Ambrose; 13 May 1948, Santiago, Chile – 30/31 October 1997, Athens, Greece) was an Orthodox monk, and the keeper of a revered copy of the Panagia Portaitissa (Iveron Icon), in Montreal, Canada.

This article uses Spanish naming customs: the first or paternal family name is Muñoz and the second or maternal family name is Cortés.
Muñoz with Montreal icon of the Holy Virgin

Early life

Muñoz was born in Chile into a pious Roman Catholic family of Spanish descent. When Muñoz was 12, he became acquainted with local Archbishop Leontius (Filippovich), and under his influence Muñoz was baptized into the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia two years later, with his mother's consent.

A talented artist, Muñoz moved to Canada when he secured a job teaching art at the University of Montreal. While there, he began studying iconography.

Iveron Icon

In the summer of 1982, Muñoz went to Mount Athos, in northeastern Greece, to visit some sketes and monasteries specializing in icon painting.

At the small skete of the Nativity of Christ, Muñoz felt an immediate and strong attraction to an icon of the Mother of God, a contemporary (1981) copy of the ancient and revered Panagia Portaitissa (Iveron Icon). He was disappointed to learn that it was not for sale, but to his great joy, as he was leaving the skete, Abbot Clement unexpectedly handed the icon to him, saying that it pleased the Mother of God to go with him to North America.

Back in Montreal, Muñoz began reading an akathist daily before the icon. A few weeks later, on November 25, he awoke and smelled a strong fragrance. The new icon was streaked with myrrh, miraculously emanating from the hands of the Mother of God.

For the next fifteen years, as myrrh continued to flow from the icon, Muñoz devoted himself to its care, accompanying it on numerous trips to parishes all over the United States, Canada, South America, Australia, and Europe. Muñoz was also faithful in fulfilling the countless requests for prayers that he received, daily commemorating scores of people, among whom were several dozen godchildren.

Death
Muñoz' grave at the Holy Trinity cemetery in Jordanville, New York

In October 1997, during one of his trips with the icon, Muñoz was tortured and murdered in a hotel room in Athens, Greece during the overnight hours of October 30 or 31. The icon was stolen, and has not been seen since. Muñoz had planned to return to Canada the following day to celebrate the fifteenth anniversary of the appearance of the miraculous myrrh on the icon.

See also
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