Icon of the Mother of God of Iberia, one of the most revered in Orthodoxy, hasa few other names related to its history - "Hodegetria", or "Guidebook", "Goalkeeper", "Gateway" or in Greek "Portaitis", "Merciful".
The icon of Iberian Mother of God is fanned by legends.According to legend, the first mention of it refers to the 9th century, the time of hard iconoclasm. On the territory of modern Turkey, near the town of Nicaea, in the house of the Orthodox widow and her son was kept and venerated the shrine, which later received the name "Icon of the Mother of God Iverskaya." In order to destroy it, soldiers came to the house. Bribed widow, they left the icon until the morning. But when one soldier hit the holy face with a spear at the exit, blood flowed from the icon abundantly (therefore the Mother of God on the icon is sometimes depicted with a wound on her cheek, sometimes without). Frightened soldiers fled, and the widow, in order to preserve the holy face, carried him to the sea. But the icon did not go to the bottom, and, being upright, began to move away from the coast.
For two centuries it was not heard of.According to legend, after this time the icon approached Mount Athos where the Iver Monastery was located. Gabriel, one of the holy elders, brought the icon from the sea and installed it in the temple, outside the gate which they found in the morning. After repeated repetition of this action, the monks realized that the face of the Virgin does not want to be protected by anyone, but wants to serve as the guardian of the monastery. For her, outside the church's gates, a church was built, into which an icon was placed (hence the names "The Goalkeeper", "The Gatekeeper"). There she is now.
The icon of the Mother of God Iverskaya is revered asmiraculous. Under her tutelage, the monastery escaped the invasion of the barbarians, its reserves were not scarce, the sick recovered. Her fame spread throughout the entire Orthodox world, providing an inexhaustible influx of pilgrims.
In the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov, who, because of his piety, was nicknamed “The Quietest”, the icon of the Mother of God of Iverskaya became directly related to Russia.
Under Patriarch Nikon, on his initiative and underwith the support of the “Quietest” Romanov in the likeness of Athos began to build a monastery in Valdai, later called “Valdai Iversky Mother of God Svyatozersky Monastery.
By order of the king on Athos was written a copyThe Iberian Virgin Mary, which at the end of the work was taken to a new monastery and placed in the gatehouse church. There were several more lists of icons, also made on Athos and brought to Russia. One of them was in the church at the Resurrection Gate of the Kremlin, the other traveled in a special carriage around Russia. It has survived to the present day and is located in the temple in Sokolniki. The Kremlin Kremlin church, destroyed in 1928, is now restored, but the icon stored in it has disappeared without a trace.
Prayer Iveron Icon of the Mother of God existsnot in the singular. The icon saves in case of fire, heals mental and physical wounds, helps farmers, preserves the crop, increases the fertility of the land. In addition, it relieves grief and sorrow, heals ailments. That is why the number of prayers, voices and kondaks, pronounced in front of this bright face, the shrine of the entire Orthodox world, is so great.
