Theotokos Fovera Prostasia

Holy Monastery of koutloumousiou

In the chapel located to the left of the monastery's katholicon, the miraculous icon of the Virgin Mary, which bears the name Fovera Prostasia "Holy Protection", is kept. In this icon, the Virgin Mary is surrounded by the Prophets of the Old Testament and has Christ in her arms.

῎Fearful, Christ gazes at the angel who is above and to the right presenting the Cross and the other instruments of passion, while with his two hands he clasps the right hand of the Virgin Mary. It is called so, because it protected the monastery from certain and great disasters.

῞When pirates wanted to loot the monastery, the Holy Virgin Mary made her invisible to them. ῎Thus, while the fathers were inside and heard the noise of the pirates outside the walls, they were surprised to realize that the pirates had left without doing anything, having hanged a passer-by outside the gate, because he too could not show them the monastery.