Most Holy Theotokos

Orthodox icon of  the Most Holy and Ever Virgin Theotokos by the Cross (1). Fresco of 11 cent. Athens, Greece.

This is the figure of the Theotokos from the intensely classicist representation of the Crucifixion. The psychic passion of the Theotokos is declared by the expression of the deep melancholy and the kind gesture. The harmonious physique and the attitude of the Theotokos are from the standards of the classical antiquity.

Orthodox icon of Theotokos and the Child, tempera and gold on wood and canvas, St. Catherine's Monastery Sinai,13 century.

In this icon the Virgin Mary appears with Her hands raised in the act of prayer. She is dressed in a dark robes covered and wrapped in red mantle bordered in gold. The Child is presented in a large gilt medallion surrounded by pearls that recall the maternity of Virgin Mary; His is blessing with one hand while holding a scroll in the other.

The gilt background of the composition is decorated with circular motifs that reflects light and illuminate the scene.in the two upper corners to the side of Virgin Mary's head are the figures of the two Archangels Michael to the left and Gabriel to the right, their heads surrounded by thin red halos decorated with pearls.

The very miraculous icon of the Most Holy Theotokos and Virgin Maria, the "Axion Esti". This is a copy from the original icon that the miracle happened.

According to tradition, an elder and his disciple lived in in a cell on Mount Athos. One Saturday night the elder left to attend the All-Night Vigil in the Protaton of Karyes. He told his disciple to chant the service alone. That evening an unknown monk who called himself Gabriel, came to the cell, and they began the Vigil together. During the ninth ode of the canon (the Magnificat), the disciple began to sing "My soul magnifies the Lord..." with the Irmos of St. Cosmas the Hymnographer (October 14), "More honorable than the Cherubim..."

The stranger sang the next verse, "For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden..." Then he chanted something the disciple had never heard before, "It is truly meet to bless Thee, O Theotokos, ever-blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God." Then he continued with, "More honorable than the Cherubim..." When the disciple asked the visiting monk to write the words of the new hymn down, he took a roof tile and wrote on it with his finger, as though the tile were made of wax. The disciple knew then that this was no ordinary monk, but the Archangel Gabriel.

At that moment the angel disappeared, but the icon of the Mother of God continued to radiate light for some time afterward. The Eleousa ("merciful") icon of the Virgin Mary, before which the hymn "It Is Truly Meet" was first chanted, was transferred to the katholikon (main church) at Karyes, known as the Protaton. The tile, with the hymn written on it, was taken to Constantinople when St. Nicholas II Chrysoberges was Patriarch (984-996). Since that time the icon has been considered the protector of the Holy Mountain and its holiest icon.

Orthodox icon of The Most Holy Theotokos of "Harou) of the "Death" (2).

In this icon Theotokos in this icon is holding in Her hands the body of crucified Christ. The story about the original icon is unknown. The only thing that we know is that, around 1600, Monks from the Monastery of St John the Theologian in Patmos arrived at the island of Leipsoi in Greece and founded a new Monastery, they built the Church and they placed there this very unusual icon of Theotokos.

The tradition is not giving us any information about the icon, so we do not know if the Monks brought with them the icon or the icon was made there or the reason why they painted this icon. Very soon the icon became one of the most miraculous icons in Greece