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
time 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, Saint
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 Saint 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 “Rejoice, O Blessed Gate-Keeper who opens the gates of Paradise to the
righteous.”
There is a tradition
that the Mother of God promised Saint 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, 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 Saint Gabriel).
Source: https://oca.org/saints/lives/2001/03/31/100962-appearance-of-the-iveron-icon-of-the-mother-of-god
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