Icon of Virgin Mary Portaitissa of Iviron

Icon of Virgin Mary Portaitissa of Iviron. Silver icon exact copy of Byzantine Art.

The metal part is plated with pure silver 999 and gold 24K, while the painted part is created on canvas, according to the traditional method of Byzantine hagiography.

In the Holy Monastery of Iviron is the miraculous Icon of Portaitissa, which according to tradition is the work of the Evangelist Luke. Its dimensions are 137 cm high and 94 cm wide, and it weighs 96 kg, including the votive offerings and other items. The austere expression of Her holy face, accentuated by Her imposing, captivating gaze, is awe-inspiring.

This nickname was given to the Virgin Mary, because the holy icon is placed in the chapel of the monastery of Iviron, which is located to the left of the central gate.

This icon was the property of a pious widow in Nicaea, when iconoclastic soldiers discovered it in her house, in front of which she was burning a sleepless candle. On the promise of money the prudent widow took a day’s extension, and at night she, with her son, threw the Icon into the sea, which suddenly stood upright and floated off into the west. That son, in order not to be arrested, came to Thessaloniki and then to Mount Athos. No one knows where the Icon was for 170 years, from 829 AD when it fell into the sea to 1004 AD when it came out of Iviron.

The old holy Elders of Iviron were sitting and talking about the salvation of the soul, when suddenly they see a glow in the sea. All the Monks of the Mount were gathered together, and with boats they wanted to go to the strange and wondrous spot. They could only make out that it was an icon of the Virgin Mary, because the closer they got, the more the icon moved away. So the Fathers gathered in the Church and fervently begged the Most High to allow them to take the holy icon. Indeed God heard their supplication and answered as follows.

Outside the monastery there was a monk Gabriel from Iberia. He was a simple, retreating man, constantly saying “Lord Jesus Christ, have mercy on me a sinner and may God have mercy on me a sinner”. His food was mountain herbs and his drink was water, and day and night he studied the law of the Lord. While he was praying, he was a little sleepy, closed his eyes and saw the Holy Virgin with great splendour and said to him “go to your Monastery and tell the abbot that I have come to give them my icon” and then he walked to the sea, so that all may know the love and care I have in your Monastery. As soon as the Virgin Mary said this, she disappeared from Gabriel’s sight.

Then he went to the Monastery, told the news and the Fathers with a procession and Theomatorium hymns went to the beach. Old Gabriel walked a little in the sea and immediately the icon came into his arms. The Fathers received her with great reverence and joy and held overnight vigils and prayers and Masses for three days and nights to give thanks to God and the Virgin Mary. They put her in the temple of the monastery, but she was leaving and standing over the gate of the monastery. This was repeated many times until the Virgin Mary reappeared to Elder Gabriel and said to him:

“Tell the abbot to stop teasing me, because I did not come to the monastery for you to guard me, but I came to be your guardian and watchman both in this life and in the life to come, and those who will live in reverence and fear of God and who will not be negligent in the acquisition of virtues, and end their temporal life in this place, let them have courage and fear not hell, for this grace I have asked of God and my Son and have received it. As a confirmation of my words I give you this sign, as long as you see my image in your monastery, this Mount will not lack the grace and mercy of my Son and God.”

When he heard this, the ascetic and godly Father Gabriel came to the Monastery in a hurry and reported it to the abbot who was very happy, gathered the brotherhood and ordered a special chapel to be built at the entrance of the Monastery for the guardian of the miraculous Icon.

It is even said that if the icon is lost from its place, then the countdown to the second coming of our Lord will begin. This holy icon bears a scar from a pirate’s knife on the bottom of the Virgin’s jaw. Blood flowed from this scar, which is still visible on the icon today.

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