Disclaimer and Endorsement:
The Icons posted on this web site are for spiritual inspiration only. There are no claims for ownership of the Icons listed. This Icon Directory is intended as an Orthodox Christian medium for Spiritual education.
If an Icon listed is an infringement of copywright, I will gladly remove it.
For those authors who kindly allow the spiritual, educational, and memorial display of their beautiful work, thank you for your blessed ministry.
Many Miracle-Working Icons can be found on the Orthodox Church in America web site.
For purchasing information please visit the web site of The Icon Studio of the Convent of St. Elizabeth which produce Icons in all sizes of Jesus, the Theotokos, traditional Saints and Festal Ocasions.
They are in strict Byzantine or traditional Russian style.
For full or partial Church Iconography, large Icons can be produced on canvas by the studio and permanently applied to Church walls and ceilings.
Their Icon studio has a well-known reputation for the beauty and refined artistic quality of its work, and has the lowest prices available.
They also provide Icon prints of all Icon productions.
It is a pleasure to list and give the appropiate credit for all authorship listed.
Gilbert-Joseph
GGallant2@Tampabay.rr.com
Synaxarion or Legend:
Icons of Mary holding her Son Jesus have been popular since the Council of Ephesus which in 431 solemnly declared Mary to be the Theotokos or Mother of God.
St. Luke was the first one who painted the "Theotokos", "Mother of God", while she was still alive. He is credited with three icons of the "Panagia", in one case using the wooden table where Mary and St. John ate their meals.
Throughout history, many Icons of the Most Holy Mother of God have had miracles attributed to them.
In addition, there are those Icons which may not have been miracle working, but still been venerated with the hope of intercession from the Mother of God.
The Icons posted on this web site are for spiritual inspiration only. There are no claims for ownership of the Icons listed. This Icon Directory is intended as an Orthodox Christian medium for Spiritual education.
If an Icon listed is an infringement of copywright, I will gladly remove it.
For those authors who kindly allow the spiritual, educational, and memorial display of their beautiful work, thank you for your blessed ministry.
Many Miracle-Working Icons can be found on the Orthodox Church in America web site.
For purchasing information please visit the web site of The Icon Studio of the Convent of St. Elizabeth which produce Icons in all sizes of Jesus, the Theotokos, traditional Saints and Festal Ocasions.
They are in strict Byzantine or traditional Russian style.
For full or partial Church Iconography, large Icons can be produced on canvas by the studio and permanently applied to Church walls and ceilings.
Their Icon studio has a well-known reputation for the beauty and refined artistic quality of its work, and has the lowest prices available.
They also provide Icon prints of all Icon productions.
It is a pleasure to list and give the appropiate credit for all authorship listed.
Gilbert-Joseph
GGallant2@Tampabay.rr.com
Synaxarion or Legend:
Icons of Mary holding her Son Jesus have been popular since the Council of Ephesus which in 431 solemnly declared Mary to be the Theotokos or Mother of God.
St. Luke was the first one who painted the "Theotokos", "Mother of God", while she was still alive. He is credited with three icons of the "Panagia", in one case using the wooden table where Mary and St. John ate their meals.
Throughout history, many Icons of the Most Holy Mother of God have had miracles attributed to them.
In addition, there are those Icons which may not have been miracle working, but still been venerated with the hope of intercession from the Mother of God.
Arrival of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God in Georgia
The Iveron Icon of the Mother of God (which is preserved on Mt. Athos) was kept in the home of a certain pious widow, who lived near Nicea. During the reign of the emperor Theophilus, the Iconoclasts came to the house of this Christian, and one of the soldiers struck the image of the Mother of God with a spear. Blood flowed from the place where it was struck.
The widow, fearing its destruction, promised the imperial soldiers money and implored them not to touch the icon until morning. When the soldiers departed, the woman and her son (later an Athonite monk), sent the holy icon away upon the sea to preserve it. The icon, standing upright upon the water, floated to Athos.
For several days, the Athonite monks had seen a fiery pillar on the sea rising up to the heavens. They came down to the shore and found the holy image, standing upon the waters. After a Molieben of thanksgiving, a pious monk of the Iveron monastery, St Gabriel (July 12), had a dream in which the Mother of God appeared to him and gave him instructions. So he walked across the water, and taking up the holy icon, he placed it in the church.
On the following day, however, the icon was found not within the church, but on the gates of the monastery. This was repeated several times, until the Most Holy Theotokos revealed to St Gabriel Her will, saying that She did not want the icon to be guarded by the monks, but rather She intended to be their Protectress. After this, the icon was installed on the monastery gates. Therefore this icon came to be called "Portaitissa" or "Gate-Keeper" (October 13). This comes from the Akathist to the Mother of God: "Rejoice, O Blessed Gate-Keeper who opens the gates of Paradise to the righteous."
There is a tradition that the Mother of God promised St Gabriel that the grace and mercy of Her Son toward the monks would continue as long as the Icon remained at the monastery. It is also believed that the disappearance of the Iveron Icon from Mt. Athos would be a sign of the end of the world.
The Iveron Icon is also commemorated on February 12, March 31, October 13 (Its arrival in Moscow in 1648), and Bright Tuesday (Commemorating the appearance of the Icon in a pillar of fire at Mt. Athos and its recovery by St Gabriel).
On September 26, 1989, a copy of this famous icon arrived in Tbilisi, Georgia from the Iveron Monastery on mt. Athos. This copy had been painted by the monks on Mt. Athos as a symbol of love and gratitude to the Georgian people.