Monthly Archives: Μάιος 2020

Even the icon of the Prioress is a copy of an older and especially well-known icon of the Virgin, the Αγιοσορίτισσα, which depicts the Virgin as reaching out to her son. This icon is today found in Konstantinople, in the great 5th century church of the Virgin in Chalkoprateia, only 100 metres west of Agia Sofia. A chapel in the church is dedicated exclusively to a precious relic: the belt of the Virgin, which is safeguarded in a priceless chest known as the Αγία Σορό, which lends its name to the chapel and to the icon. Thus, the name of the icon does not refer to a characteristic or role of the Virgin, but rather to one of her relics.
Other copies of the Αγιοσορίτισσα have also survived. Among the oldest, perhaps dating to the 7th or 8th century, and possibly the closest to the original, is the icon safeguarded in Rome, in the church of Santa Maria del Rosario.
These iconographical relationships contribute to the confirmation of the tradition that the Prioress was originally brought from the centre of the empire by the two founders.

Other more recent miracles by the Virgin acting through her icon have been recorded. On 2 December 1948, a fire broke out in the guest house, which became out of control and threatened the entire monastery. The monks quickly placed a small copy of the icon in front of the flaming wing and prayed to the Virgin. Suddenly, the wind blew in the opposite direction, driving the fire into the already burnt structures, thereby extinguishing it. The monks gave the epithet ‘The Saviour from fire’ to this small copy of the Prioress icon, and since that time, celebrate this miraculous intervention every year on 2 December. In Orthodox monasticism, the relationship with the saints is direct, practical, and natural, a part of everyday life.

According to tradition, the icon had been thrown into a nearby well during an attack by Saracen pirates, but was later recovered with the help of relatives of the offender. As the incident is remembered, the unfortunate barbarian, motivated by foolish contempt for this sacred object of the Christians, wanted to split the icon into pieces in order to light his pipe. At that moment, however, he lost his sight as a punishment for his brashness, and the icon was thrown into a well, where it remained lost for 80 years. Hoping to find some comfort and relief at the end of his life, the barbarian, who had agonized over his actions and repented of them, ordered his relatives to go to Mt Athos after his death without fail, and to reveal the location where the icon had been hidden by him and his companions. His relatives fulfilled his request: They went to the Monastery and led the monks to the hidden icon, which was recovered and treated with great honour.
These types of traditions relating to the miraculous icon are still maintained by the Monastery.

In the contemporary, silver-embossed facing of the icon, a pithos [a two-handled, cone-shaped clay storage vessel] is depicted as a reminder of the day when all the empty olive oil jars in the Monastery were miraculously filled after the Prior had prayed in front of the icon: The Virgin Mary the Prioress provided for her monks, simply and practically. The pithos which overflowed with oil has been preserved as an object of veneration until today, and indicates that the lower area of the wing with the cells of the monks was originally an olive oil production and storage area, with characteristic two-handled clay amphorae held upright by being partially embedded in sand.

... [the icon] was inside the sanctuary. There was once an virtuous, elderly Prior at the Monastery who was ill; shortly before his time had come, the exact hour of his death was revealed to him. He greatly desired to cleanse himself of any sins before he left this world for the eternal life through the life-giving Mystery of our Lord, and therefore begged the priest who was saying the Mass to finish as quickly as possible. The priest paid no attention to the Prior’s request, and continued at a slow pace. Suddenly, the icon of the Virgin Mary, which as we have said was inside the sanctuary, was heard to order the priest to grant the Abbott’s request. Because of this, the blessed sacred icon was given the epithet ‘Prioress’.

The miraculous icon is associated with numerous narratives and references about its interventions to protect and care for the brotherhood, both in the recent and older history of the Monastery. The body of oral tradition relating to the icon was recorded in the book, An Authoritative Overview of Mt Athos, published in Konstantinople in 1861, which explains this unusual epithet of the Virgin. A contemporary edition of the work states, ‘This sacred icon earlier...