A few days before His Passion, Jesus sat at supper in Bethany. A woman came in carrying a small alabaster jar, broke it open, and poured its contents over Him. Some of the guests grumbled about the waste. The Gospel of John adds a detail you can almost smell: "the house was filled with the odour of the ointment" (John 12:3).
That ointment was spikenard — nard — one of the most precious fragrances of the ancient world. Two thousand years later, its name still rises from censers in Orthodox homes, in the form of incense handmade by monks on Mount Athos. So what is spikenard, why does it matter, and how can it become part of your own prayer?
True nard comes from a small flowering plant that grows high in the Himalayas. Its roots and stems give a deep, earthy, slightly sweet aroma. In the time of Christ it was carried thousands of kilometres by caravan, sealed in alabaster to keep it fresh. No wonder Judas complained that it could have been sold for three hundred denarii — roughly a labourer's wages for a whole year.
Yet the Lord defended the woman. "She hath done what she could," He said in Mark's Gospel; "she is come aforehand to anoint my body to the burying" (Mark 14:8). What looked like extravagance was in fact love, and prophecy. She gave the best she had, and the whole house was filled with it.
Scripture had already sung of this scent centuries earlier. In the Song of Songs the bride says that while the king sits at his table, her spikenard sends forth its fragrance. The Church Fathers read this as the soul's longing for Christ — a love that cannot stay hidden but spreads like perfume through a room.
Orthodox worship engages the whole person: eyes see the icons, ears hear the chant, lips kiss the Cross, and the nose breathes in incense. This is not decoration. We are bodies as well as souls, and God saves the whole human being.
Every evening at Vespers the Church sings the words of the psalm: "Let my prayer be set forth before Thee as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice" (Psalm 140:2). As the smoke climbs, we are reminded that our prayer is meant to rise too — freely, completely, without holding anything back.
Incense also speaks of:
On the Holy Mountain, incense-making is part of the monastic rhythm of prayer and work. The process is simple, but it takes patience:
The monks pray as they work. Many of them say the Jesus Prayer with every batch. When you open a packet of Athonite incense, you are not opening a factory product but a small piece of a monastery's daily life.
If rose is bright and myrrh is rich and resinous, spikenard is grounded. It is warm and earthy, with a soft sweetness underneath — the kind of scent that settles a room instead of filling it with perfume. Many people find it especially fitting for:
You do not need to be a priest or own an ornate censer to bring incense into your home. Many Orthodox families keep a simple hand censer or a small standing one in the icon corner. Here is how to begin:
Hold a piece of church charcoal with tongs and touch a flame to its edge. Within a few seconds sparks will run across it. Place it in the censer and give it a minute or two, until it glows and turns grey at the edges.
Two or three small pieces are enough for a whole room. Athonite incense is concentrated — more is not better. Place them on top of the glowing coal and watch the first thread of smoke rise.
Many families begin with the Trisagion prayers, then gently cense the icons, then each room of the house, and finally each person present. A simple prayer to say is: "Incense we offer to Thee, O Christ our God, as an odour of spiritual fragrance. Receive it upon Thy heavenly altar, and send down upon us the grace of Thy Holy Spirit."
Set the censer on a heat-safe surface, away from curtains and children, and let the coal burn out on its own. Open a window if the room is small. The fragrance will linger long after the smoke is gone.
A packet of incense is one of the simplest and most meaningful gifts an Orthodox Christian can give — to a godchild, a new family in the parish, a friend moving into a new home, or a priest on his name day. It is affordable, it is used up in prayer rather than sitting on a shelf, and it carries the blessing of the Holy Mountain with it.
Spikenard in particular carries a story worth telling. Give it with a note: "May your house be filled with the fragrance, as the house at Bethany was."
Handmade on the Holy Mountain · warm, earthy fragrance
$5.00 CAD
Shop now →Yes. "Spikenard" is the older English name for nard, the precious ointment used to anoint Christ at Bethany. Our incense is named for that biblical fragrance and its warm, earthy character.
A censer is best, but any heat-safe dish filled with a layer of sand will do. You will need a piece of church charcoal, because resin incense is burned on a glowing coal, not lit directly like a stick.
Because you only need two or three pieces at a time, a single packet can last for many weeks of daily prayer.
The woman at Bethany gave the Lord the most precious thing she had, and the whole house remembered it. Your offering may be small — a few grains of incense on a coal before your evening prayers — but offered with love, it rises just the same. If you would like to bring that fragrance into your own icon corner, our Spikenard incense from Mount Athos is in stock and ships from Canada. You will find charcoal and our other Athonite blends in the store as well.
