Mount Athos is known as the "Garden of Virgin Mary". As the place where the Most Holy Theotokos is honored, as the place where she appears, acts and rests, as "the conceivable and most beautiful Paradise of Theotokos". According to the tradition, Mount Athos was given as a heritage to the Virgin Mary by the Lord himself: "Let this place be a heritage and its surroundings be Paradise, and a port of salvation for those who want to be saved".
Tradition says that the icon of Virgin Mary of Kazan was a gift from the Patriarch of Constantinople Germanus II to the inhabitants of Kazan city in the 13th century. The Patriarch donated the image as a sign of support, consolation and hope to the inhabitants against the frequent raids they were suffering from. When the city was eventually captured by the Tatars in 1438 AD, something amazing have happened. The icon of Virgin Mary mysteriously disappeared. Later, in 1579 when the Kremlin of the city was completely destroyed by fire. The Muslims attributed the destruction to the wrath of the prophet Muhammad. At that time, there was hate among the inhabitants of the city that led to a civil conflict. The Virgin Mary, however, did not leave them helpless. She appeared to a young lady, Matrona, and pointed to her where the holy icon was buried.
The name of Virgin Mary comes from the anthem of the compline, the Night Prayer, \"Spotless, Uncorrupted, Untainted...\" composed by the monk Pavlos of the monastery of Evergetos. The Virgin the Immaculated in Orthodox iconography also bears the name Virgin of the Passion, because Christ contemplates at the two angels depicted on both sides of the Virgin Mary and holding in their hands the symbols of passion, namely the Cross, the Spear and the Sponge. The original template of the icon is attributed to the Icon painter of the 15th century, Andreas Ritzos, whose works are presented in Italy and Patmos. The icon is displayed in the Byzantine Museum of Athens.
The Virgin of the Lilies is called also Panagia Gravelotissa, because of the way in which the miraculous icon of Panagia (Virgin Mary) was found in Pastra of Kefalonia. The icon was found in a miraculous way. It was early August and the preparations for the new crop had begun. The local ruler of the time, Konte Lianou, ordered all the farmers to begin cleaning their vineyards. So, while clearing the dried grass with their rakes, something extraordinary happened. In the rake of a servant who worked under Conte\'s services, a wood was trapped. Trying to pull it, he found that the wood, which he persistently wanted to get rid of, was matching to an icon of Virgin Mary.
The Lady Theotokos was first revealed in Athos, to Saint Peter (655-681) and after four to five centuries, to the abbot of the Great Lavra, Nikolaos. On both hermits he said the following words: \"Your inhabitation and resting to God should be nowhere else other than Mount Athos, where I received it from my Son and God, for all of those who want to leave the cosmic confusion, in order to come to work in this garden, to cultivate their virtue, their purity of their heart and the purity of their soul and from now on everyone should called it \"Mount Athos\".
The history of the icon of Virgin Mary \"Rose Amaranth\" begins around the year 1890 AD, according to the testimonies of the old inhabitants of Piraeus. Specifically, a fisherman discovered an old image among the rocks of the beach of Piraeus, which portrayed Virgin Mary to hold Jesus Christ, while she is holding a rose in her hand at the same time. This fact was immediately reported to the region. A devotional family, called Katsarou, had the desire to house the icon of the Virgin Mary and, on their own will, they built a private chapel to which they gave the name Virgin Mary \"Rose Amaranth\", which means the rose that does not wither. This old image was housed and was worshiped by the locals.
On Mount Mela of Trebizond, at an altitude of 1.063 meters, inside a cave was founded the monastery of Virgin Mary of Sumela in 386 AD. The monastery was built by two Athenian monks, Barnabas and Sophronios, and this particular name was given to Virgin Mary, because of an expression, which Pontic Greeks were using when they were climbing the Mount Mela. The miraculous image, which, according to tradition, was drawn by the Evangelist Luke on wood, along with the Holy water with the healing abilities, were the reference points of the monastery.
The image of \'\'Joy of all\'\' was miraculously found in the village of Klotsky near St Petersburg, Russia, inside a small church. In the early 19th century the temple was destroyed by lightning, while the icon was miraculously saved. Then, in paradoxical way, the coins of the charity\'s broken box were stuck on the icon. Since then the icon has been doing miracles and benefiting the Russian people.
In the Roman Cloister of the Holy Prodromos of Mount Athos there is the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary Precursor (Prodromitissa). It is one of the rarest icons of the Orthodox Church because it was not painted by a human hand. This miracle of the acheiropoieton hagiography of the image occurred as follows: In the year 1863 the owners of the Cloister, fathers Nephilos and Nektarios, wished to acquire a beautiful icon of the Virgin Mary, as all the monasteries of Mount Athos. Thus, they sought and found in Iasi, Romania, a pious hagiographer called Iordakin Nikolaou, and begged him to paint with prayer and fast the image they wished. The hagiographer agreed and very devoutly began to work.
The holy and miracle-working icon of the Virgin Mary was brought to the Vatopedi monastery by the blessed elder Joseph from Nea Skete. The first record of the icon\'s miraculous powers is from the witness of Elder Joseph. One day a young man from Cyprus went to visit and entered into the church. At that point, the elder witnessed a glowing light radiating from the face of the Theotokos and an invisible power pushed the young man down to the ground. When the young man had recovered from his fall, he began to repent and weep and confessed that he did not believe and was a participant in the black arts. He changed his life and became an Orthodox Christian.
This miracle-working icon, which is today kept on the synthronon of the church of the Protaton in Karyes, was in the late 10th century in a kelli near Karyes which today bears the same name of “Axion Estin” because of the following miracle: while the Elder of the kelli was absent at a vigil in the Protaton, his hypotaktikos happened to be providing hospitality to some passing monk, unknown to him, with whom he was signing the service of Sunday Matins.
The most famous and most revered miraculus icon of the Theotokos which the Holy Mountain possesse was, in the 9th century in the reign of Theophilus the Eikonomachos (Iconoclast), the personal property of a devout widow from Nicaea in Asia Minor, who kept it and honoured it in her private chapel. The Emperor\\\'s men who got to hear of this decided not to carry out immediately the order about icons, but to start by trying to blackmail its rich owner. In the time which they gave her to collect the money they demanded, the widow took the icon and her dearly loved son and, after fervent prayer, took it to the sea and left it on the surface of the waves, so that it should not be defied by the iconolasts. The icon stood upright on the water and began to head towards the west, while the widow\'s son, following her advice, also fled towards the west to escape persecution. Later he became a monk and died on the north-east coast of Athos near or in the Monastery of Clement, and so the anchorites round about heard from him the story of the icon.
When on one occasion the Arabs raided the Monastery, the deacon-Monk and vematares (the monk in charge of the sanctuary – vema – and, consequently, responsible fro the sacred relics and other treasures kept there) managed to hide in the shaft below the altar (an ancient sacrarium) a priceless icon of the Theotokos and a cross, placing before them a burning candle. The Monastery was looted and the monks taken prisoners to Crete. After 70 years, the deacon-monk, who was still alive, was released, and returned to the Monastery.
