Seriograph icon crafted in canvas with gold background on carved wood.

With this icon you will receive a free stand.

Virgin Mary Portaitissa

At the left side of the central gate in the chapel of the Holy Monastery of Iviron, the Portaitissa (Keeper of the Gate), is the icon of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus in her arms, with impressive and calm glance, a drop of blood dripping from her right jowl, that arrived there in order to guard the Monastery and the Mount Athos Monasticism; the icon that represents the surety to the monks and the confirmation of Her protection.

The Christian tradition says that the icon of the Virgin Mary Portaitissa reached the Monastery of Iviron 170 years after its disappearance in 829 A.D. when at that time, the holder of the icon, a godly woman from Nikea cast the icon at sea in her effort to save it. In 1004 A.D. the icon emerged as a source of light floating on the water near the Monastery of Iviron. The Virgin Mary became visible to the ascetic monk Gabriel and requested him to pick up the icon from the water and hand it to the abbot of the Monastery who, in his turn placed it in the temple. The icon however left from the temple and was found at the gate of the Monastery so the Virgin Mary appeared once more before the monk Gabriel and requested to position the icon at the gate of the Monastery to guard and protect it; for this purpose, a special chapel was built in order to host the guardian of the Monastery, the icon of the Virgin Mary Keeper of the Gate (Portaitissa).

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