Theotokos Tricherousa

Holy Monastery of Hilandar

This icon is connected with the miracle of the restoration of the right hand of Saint John of Damascus by the Holy Virgin Mary. ῞When the saint was working as a first adviser in Damascus, he was slandered by the iconoclast Emperor Leon III the ῎Isaurus as a traitor and was punished by the Caliph by cutting off his right hand.

But he came to the icon of the Virgin Mary and placed his severed hand in its place, asking for healing. Praying, he fell asleep and saw the Virgin Mary telling him with hilarity and compassion that his hand was healed.

Then out of gratitude he made a silver hand effigy and placed it under the right hand of the icon of the Virgin Mary. ῎Thus this icon seems to have three hands and hence it is called Tricherousa - three handed.

Then the Caliph understood the injustice he committed and wanted to restore John to his old position. But he preferred to become a monk and retired to the monastery of Saint Savvas, taking with him his family heirloom. From there, Saint Savvas, the founder of the Hilandar monastery, took the icon as a blessing and took it to Serbia.

῞When raiders destroyed the temples and monasteries there, the son and successor of Stefanos Dousan Uros V took the icon with a mule to his camp.

Then, in a miraculous way, the mule arrived loaded with the holy icon at Mount Athos and stopped a short distance from the Hilandar monastery.

The monks received the holy icon with a great procession and placed it in the holy Vima of the katholikon (main church) of the monastery. In the place where the icon stood, they built a shrine.

῞When later quarrels arose among the monks over the election of a new abbot, the icon was moved from the holy Step to the abbot's pew, in the right choir of the katholikon. Because this was considered the work of the temple servants, the monks returned the icon to its place.

But this phenomenon was repeated for a second and a third time, while at the same time the monks were informed that the Virgin Mary herself wants to remain in this position, in order to rule the Monastery. Tradition states that the icon is the work of Saint Luke. Recently, a copy of Tricheroussa icon was also placed in the abbot's position of the monastery trapeza.