Panagia Portaitissa painted icon

The Panagia Portaitissa or the Iviron Theotokos is an Eastern Orthodox icon of the Virgin Mary which was painted by Luke the Evangelist, according to the Sacred Tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The icon is referred to as “Wonderworking” meaning that numerous miracles have been attributed to the intercession of theTheotokos (Mother of God) by persons praying before it. The original of this image is found in the Georgian Iviron monastery on Mount Athosin Greece, where it is believed to have been since the year 999. The synaxis (feast day) for this icon is on February 12, as well as onBright Tuesday, and also on October 13 for the translation to Moscow of the Iveron icon.

The icon belongs to a family of images of the Theotokos known as Hodegetria (Greek: Όδηγήτρια, “she who shows the way”) after the prototype from Constantinople. In these icons, the Christ Child sits on his mother’s left arm and she is depicted pointing to Christ with her right hand. Another famous icon based upon Hodegetria is Our Lady of Częstochowa.

A unique characteristic of this icon is what appears to be a scar on the Virgin Mary’s right cheek or her chin. A number of different traditions exist to explain this, but the one most commonly held by Orthodox Christians is that the icon was stabbed by a soldier in Nicaea during the period of Byzantine iconoclasm under the Emperor Theophilus (829–842). According to tradition, when the icon was stabbed, blood miraculously flowed out of the wound.