Virgin Mary Odigitria – Silk Print on Naturally Aged Wood – Mount Athos

Description

Icon of the Virgin Mary Odigitria on Naturally Aged Wood

A beautiful icon in which the iconographer has created the depiction of the Virgin Mary Odigitria.

According to one version, the Virgin Mary Odigitria was originally located in the Holy Monastery of Vatopedi, but it disappeared twice during 1730. In both cases, the icon was eventually found in the Holy Monastery of Xenofontos. After this miraculous disappearance of the icon, the fathers of the Vatopedi Monastery did not wish to oppose the decision of the Theotokos.

Since then, the icon of the Virgin Mary Odigitria has been located in the katholikon of the Holy Monastery of Xenofontos. According to Christian tradition, the icon of the Virgin Mary Odigitria is historically the first icon of the Church, which was painted by the Evangelist Luke himself, and is attributed with many miracles. One of these occurred in 717 AD when Constantinople was saved from the Arabs.

In Mount Athos, this piece of wood had been kept for many years as part of a cell. The monks saw its future use, after the renovation of the cell, as an icon. They carefully cut and preserved the wood using techniques known on Mount Athos from the restoration of wooden iconostasis.

Since the icon is handmade and the wood processing is done by hand, there may be slight variations in the wood, but not in the depiction.

The icon is available upon order.

Dimensions: 19×28
Weight: 560gr