What Do We Know about "the Roman" Icon of the Mother of God?
This
week’s icon has a very special distinction compared to most of the icons we
have previously spotlighted: this icon was not written (that is, made) by human
hands.
Tradition
tells us that when the Apostles Peter and John were preaching in the city of
Lydda, near Jerusalem, they built a church in honor of the Theotokos. When they
returned to Jerusalem and asked the Most Holy Mother to come sanctify the
church, she told them to go before her, and that she would be there with them.
When the
Apostles returned to the church in Lydda they were amazed to see that an icon
of Mary with the Christ Child was imprinted onto the wall (some say, a pillar)
of the church.
The
striking appearance of this icon, in full-color no less, had already begun to
attract many pilgrims. And when the Theotokos herself honored the church with
her presence, she was so pleased at the number of the faithful, that she
granted the icon the ability to work miracles.
In the
4th century, when Julian the Apostate heard of the icon, he sent stone masons
to eradicate it. However, the more the tools chipped away, the more lines of
the image seemed to drive themselves deeper into the stone. When news of the
indestructible icon spread, millions came to venerate it.
In the
8th century, St. Germanus (the future Patriarch of Constantinople), had a copy
of the icon produced when he passed through Lydda. During the Iconoclastic
Period this copy was sent to Rome (from whence it receives its alternate name)
and placed in the church of St. Peter, where it was responsible for many
healings.
The Roman
icon was returned to Constantinople on June 26 842. The whereabouts of the icon
were still known as late as the 9th century.
Source: http://www.familylifeministry.atlanta.goarch.org/icons-of-the-theotokos-the-lydda-or-the-roman/
