Holy Monastery of Agiou Pavlou

In the holy step of the katholikon, church of the Monastery, is the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary, called Kathreptis (mirror). Around the icon are pieces of holy relics. According to tradition, this icon belonged to empress Theodora, wife of the iconoclast Theophilos 829-842. The empress kept this icon in her private room, behind her mirror, which is why it was called (Mirror). She was thrown by the iconoclasts into the pyre, but was saved by keeping the traces of the pyre on her back. Saint Paul, builder of the Monastery, moved it there from Constantinople.