American Notes: Icons

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.

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.