In the gilded, wood-carved shrine at the left column of the central nave of the new cathedral is the miraculous icon of Panagia Hodigitria (‘The Virgin Mary, the Guide’), dated to the 14th century. This icon had been in the Vatopedios Monastery until 1730, when ‘despite locked doors’, the icon miraculously ‘left’ and went to the cathedral of the Xenofontos Monastery. The icon was retrieved by the Vatopedion fathers and secured in their Monastery, but the same miracle was repeated two more times; the fathers of both monasteries agreed that the Virgin Mary had in effect offered her icon to the Xenofontos Monastery.
The wondrous arrival of the icon is celebrated with a festival on the first Sunday of October, and the protection of the Virgin is made evident by the the fragrance of myrrh which it miraculously emits periodically, and by the many miracles attributed to it.
