Theotokos Pyrovolithisa

Holy Monastery of Vatopedi

This Virgin Mary is depicted on the lintel of the outer gate of the monastery. In April 1822, when a group of Turkish soldiers came to the monastery, one of them shot the icon and a bullet pierced the right hand of the Holy Virgin Mary.

The soldier who shot disobeyed and hanged himself on an olive tree in front of the monastery, while the rest of the detachment got scared and left the monastery. Moreover, the leader of the detachment, when he was informed of the act of the soldier, who was his nephew, ordered that he not be buried, but left unburied as a criminal.