Apparition of the Image of the Most Holy Theotokos Painted-by-Light on Mt. Athos
September 3, 2013,
marked the 110th anniversary of an apparition of the Mother of
God in St. Panteleimon Monastery on Mt. Athos. The celebration in
honor of the Painted-by-Light image was established by the Synod of the Elders
of that monastery on the 100th anniversary of this miraculous
event.
The Holy Synod of the
Russian Orthodox Church decided (Decision No. 97, July 27, 2013) to
include the commemoration of the apparition of the image of the Most Holy
Theotokos Painted-by-Light, which happened in the Russian St. Panteleimon
Monastery on Mt. Athos in 1903, in the menologion of the Russian Orthodox
Church.
Monk Gabriel who was
distributing alms to needy monks near the Great Monastery Gate of
St. Panteleimon Monastery took a picture of this process. When he
developed the photo, he was shocked to see an image of the Mother of God who
had humbly received a blessed loaf of bread.
Monastery archives
testify that the Russian monks organized weekly distribution of alms to the
needy in the late 19th and early 20th century.
Big and small ships from Odessa and Taganrog, where there were metochia of
St. Panteleimon Monastery, dispatched foodstuffs and other basic supplies
to Mt. Athos every week. The supplies were used by three thousand monks of the
monastery and four thousand Russian-speaking brethren who stayed in numerous
sketes, cells, and kalivas on the Holy Mountain.
A multitude of poor
mendicant monks and pious pilgrims would gather at the Great Gate of the
monastery every week. It is estimated that 600–800 people received loaves of
bread from the monks. However, idle and unruly drunkards also started to
frequent the weekly distribution of bread. A letter from the Koinotita
declaring that the tradition was becoming “useless and even harmful” was
received in the monastery on August 14, 1903. The governing body of the Holy
Mountain demanded that the administrative board of St. Panteleimon
Monastery stop the bread distribution and find a more appropriate and less
tempting way to help the poor. The letter read, in particular, that, “The
almsgiving required by the Gospel is God-pleasing only when it is
performed in a reasonable manner, i.e., to the needy people worth giving alms
to. By giving alms to the people who fake real need and don’t really deserve
them—to those who count on it and live here for that reason—you inflict harm
rather than do good.”
A week later, on
August 21, 1903, the monks of the Russian monastery decided to observe their
tradition and distribute the bread one last time before finally
reading the letter aloud to the crowd. By that time, hundreds were standing in
line to receive their usual loaves of bread. It was at that moment that
Hieromonk Gabriel took a photo, which was later developed with an image of the
Mother of God receiving her blessed loaf humbly together with others. Looking
at the unusual photo, the monks recalled what they had been told by Monk
Sebastian, who heard from the gatekeepers that “a hermit saw a woman during the
distribution of bread.” Some ascetics, who had also seen the Blessed Virgin in
the midst of poor monks and travelers, had also wanted to tell a gatekeeper
about it but this time, no one saw the Theotokos.
The Theotokos has
invariably supported those who dwell in her earthly domain. It was by the order
of the Queen of Heaven that the monastery continued to cater to the needs of
the poor brethren: the monastery provided meals to the poor after the monastery
meals, and the cellarer gave them foodstuffs from the monastery storehouse.
When the monastery
was being restored in the late 1980s, the miraculous photo was copied multiple
times and distributed to pilgrims along with a brief description of the event.
The new generation of Russians who had been traumatized by atheist propaganda regarded
this photo as a confirmation of the reality of the spiritual world, according
to many pilgrims.
The text of the
worship rite was approved by the Synodal Liturgical Commission.
A chapel with a water
fountain was erected on the place of the apparition of the Mother of God in
2011. The water from that fountain has allegedly brought alleviation of
physical and mental illnesses.
A church in honor of
the Icon Painted-by-Light was founded and consecrated on the ground floor of
the Holy Protection Dormitory in the same year.
Translated by The Catalog of Good Deeds
