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.
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.
Mother of God with the Royal Martyrs
Few figures in history have been so misunderstood and maligned as the Tsar-Martyr Nicholas II, the last emperor of Orthodox Holy Russia.
The modern Western mind tends to view history in a strictly political way. But with an Orthodox world view, history must be seen as the unfolding of the story of mans redemption through the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, His death on the cross for our sakes, and His Holy Resurrection. The rising and falling of nations, the development of culture — in short, all of history — can only be correctly analyzed in this context.
With the murder of Tsar Nicholas, the Byzantine form of government, which places Christ at its head, ended, ushering in the present age of lawlessness, apostasy and confusion. His was a government in the tradition begun sixteen centuries earlier by St. Constantine the Great.
That such an unthinkable tragedy as the Russian Revolution could take place attests to the truth of the scriptural warning that Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold (Matt. 24:12).
This pious Christian emperor was surrounded by people, even among his own relatives, whose self-centeredness and petty worldliness had obscured the love of God in their hearts to the point that they failed to unite around their sovereign in his time of need. They thereby cleared the way for the revolutionary element — the enemies of God — to despoil the Holy Russian Empire and place instead a satanocracy whose aim was the annihilation of the remembrance of God from the face of the earth.
Much has been written through the years about the tragedy of the Royal Martyrs — some well-meaning, some disappointingly critical, some outright slanderous — but almost none from the viewpoint of the Orthodox Christian measuring stick.
"Memory Eternal"
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