Holy Monastery of Dionisiou

This icon, made of wax mastic, is according to tradition the work of the Apostle Luke and is the one that Patriarch Sergius held in his hands while walking around the walls of Constantinople during the siege of the Avars (624 AD), while the emperor Heraclius was on a campaign against the Persians.

The enemy's fleet was destroyed by rough seas, the city was saved and in front of the icon the Patriarch sang the Akathistos hymn. The icon was donated to the builder of the Dionysiou monastery by Alexios III Komnenos during their meeting in Trebizond in 1374. This icon is also called Myrovlytissa, because from time to time it gushes out myrrh, traces of which can be seen on its surface. In 1592 pirates stole it from the monastery.

But a terrible storm arose, while the Virgin Mary appeared to the captain and declared that she wanted to remain in the monastery. At the same time the icon began to smell myrrh, so that the box in which it was kept got wet. Frightened, the pirates returned her to the monastery, while two of them stayed there as monks. In 1758, the eminent Schoolmaster of the Athonia Academy and teacher of Genus, Archimandrite Evgenios Voulgaris, was cured of a fatal abscess by invoking her mercy.

Finally in 1767 it was stolen for the second time by non-religious people, but Christians took it from them and moved it to Skopelos island. Its inhabitants did not want to hand it over to representatives of the monastery who went there to receive it, but finally an "infectious disease" that afflicted the island forced them to accept its return.

The icon is kept in the feronymous chapel of Akathistos, which is integrated to the left of the liti of the katholikon (main church). On major holidays and on the day of Akathisto (Saturday of the 5th week of Lent) the icon is placed for worship in the katholikon.