The hand of St. Irene is now preserved at St. Irene Chrysovalantou Greek Orthodox Church in Astoria, Queens, New York City, and that Church has become a place of pilgrimage, as reported in the following article:

Ojito, Mirta. 1996, 23 December. "The Power of St. Irene's Hand; Relic Brings Clout and Miracle Seekers to a Queens Church." New York Times, v. 146, pg. B1(L), col. 3.

Along with her hand preserved at St. Irene Chrysovalantou Greek Orthodox Church in Astoria, Queens, New York City, is an icon of St. Irene that is said to have wept preceding and during the Persian Gulf War. The weeping began on 17 October 1990 while the icon was on loan to the Greek Orthodox Church of St. Athanasios and John the Baptist, and continued to weep after being returned to New York. This is described in the following articles:

Navarro, Mireya. 1990, 5 November. "Saint's Weeping Portrait Draws Curious and the Faithful." New York Times.

Interestingly, Rev. Ieronimos Katseas, the Greek Orthodox priest involved with the weeping icon, was excommunicated in 1993. Shortly thereafter, refusing to leave the parish in Toronto to which he had later been assigned which was in the midst of financial difficulties, an icon of the Madonna at that church began to weep as well, and was also attacked by Greek Orthodox leaders. This occurrence, along with some material on the icon of St. Irene, is discussed in the following article by Joe Nickell of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal:

Nickell, Joe. 1997, March-April. "Something to Cry About: The Case of the Weeping Icon." Skeptical Inquirer, v. 21, n. 2, p. 19 (2).

Joe Nickell has also discussed the weeping icon of St. Irene in other publications, always, of course, through the eyes of an atheist. Among these publications on the icon of St. Irene are the following:

Nickell, Joe. 1993. Looking for a Miracle: Weeping Icons, Relics, Stigmata, Visions and Healing Cures. Buffalo, NY: Prometheus Books. Discussion pages 54-55, pictured Figure 5.

Nickell, Joe. 1991, Summer. "Weeping Icon Revisited -- Still Dry-Eyed." New York Skeptic (Newsletter of the New York Area Skeptics), pgs. 6-7.

The references on this page to articles from the Newark Star-Ledger, the New York Skeptic, and those articles without page numbers from the New York Times are taken from Nickell's notes in Looking for a Miracle.

On 23 December of 1991 the weeping icon was stolen by three armed and a woman while in the presence of two priests and four laypersons. Within the month the icon was mailed to the Church, but the $800,000 worth of gold embellishments were never recovered. The following articles from the New York Times and the Newark Star-Ledger (arranged in chronological order) discuss the theft and subsequent reappearance of the icon:

"Gunmen Steal 'Weeping Icon' From a Church in Queens." 1991, 24 December. New York Times.