Virgin Mary Glykophilousa – Silkscreen on Naturally Aged Wood – Mount Athos

Description

Silkscreen of Virgin Mary Glykophilousa on Naturally Aged Wood

A beautiful icon of Virgin Mary Glykophilousa, named for the tender depiction of her touching her cheek lovingly to the cheek of the infant Christ, almost ready to kiss him.

According to Orthodox tradition, Virgin Mary Glykophilousa, like the Portaitissa, is among the icons saved from the Iconoclasm and miraculously transported to Mount Athos.

This icon originally belonged to Victoria, the wife of a senator, who, in an effort to save it from confiscation, cast it into the sea. Floating upright on the waves, the icon reached the harbor of Philotheou Monastery. The original icon is double-sided, featuring the Crucifixion on the reverse, and is located on the pillar of the left choir in the monastery’s Katholikon.

This specific icon is handcrafted on naturally aged wood from Mount Athos. It is a unique work of art by a monk-iconographer who selected a piece of wood from a restored Athonite cell as the base for this icon.

The wood was preserved and repurposed as an icon, carrying beyond the borders of Mount Athos a small piece of the sacred history of this holy place. The aging of the wood and the cracks that run through much of its surface bear witness to its everyday use in an Athonite cell.

Today, this icon is part of a unique collection offered by “Athonite Heritage.”

Since the icon is handmade and the wood is manually processed, there may be slight variations in the wood but not in the depiction.

The icon is available upon order.

Origin: Mount Athos

Dimensions: 29 x 24 x 2 cm