RELIGIOUS ART - Icons from the Bible, Jerusalem Mother of God Icon comes from about the middle of the 19th century

This Jerusalem Mother of God Icon comes from about the middle of the 19th century and, according to people who have seen the Holy Virgin, including elder Paisios the Athonite, it resembles more than any other icon the Holy Mother of God. A comparison with the Cappadocian Icon, next, is very interesting for the similarity of the two, with the Byzantine being, as always, more spiritual and symbolical, and the Jerusalem icon, influenced by the western type of painting, tending to seem rather like a photo. Yet it is obvious that both hagiographers refer to the same person, young, with big eyes and eyebrows, long nose, intense lips.. More

According to Holy Tradition this miraculous icon was painted through the revelation of the Holy Theotokos to a nun named Tatiana from the Holy Monastery of St. Mary Magdalene, around 1870 AD. In 1870, there lived a monastic iconographer called Tatiana. One night, a lady appeared to her in a vision saying, "Sister Tatiana, I have come so that you can paint me." Tatiana replied, "Let it be, Blessed Sister; however, I am an iconographer and not a painter." The lady replied, "... well then, you should paint me using your iconographic style." Sister Tatiana was furious with the boldness of this lady's response and said, "I do not have any plank of wood to use." The lady then gave her the plank of wood the sister would need and told her to "paint." In obedience to her guest, the sister started her iconography. Sister Tatiana glanced at her guest, and she noticed the guest's appearance transfigure in front of her. The lady's mantle started to turn into gold and her face was glowing intensely. This change in the appearance of the lady worried Tatiana but the lady spoke to her, saying: "O Blessed Tatiana, you are the only person, after the Apostles and the Evangelist Luke, to have this opportunity to write an icon of me again." Sister Tatiana then realised that she was in the presence of our Holy Mother the Theotokos. In shock she awoke from her vision. She immediately went and informed her Mother Superior of the vision in detail. The abbess did not believe in the story but told her to go to sleep and the following day she could paint an icon of the Panagia with her blessing. Tatiana returned to her cell and before entering she noticed a bright light shining through the door. She hastened to the abbess, once again, to bring her to her cell to witness this light and understand that she was not lying about the visions. Together they returned to Tatiana's cell. Inside, they could smell a beautiful and heavenly fragrance and the light was so bright that only then did they realise that the aroma and the light were coming from an icon of the Virgin Mary. The mysterious and miraculous appearance of the icon had the sisters in shock but our Holy Mother the Theotokos appeared once more to Tatiana and said, "Now take me from here down to my home in Gethsemane of Jerusalem." This is what the abbess and the sister did. In iconography, this is termed "acheiropoieto" (Gr. an image not painted by hands) and is now located exactly where the Panagia wanted it to be, in her "home," her final resting place at her holy tomb in Gethsemane. The name "Ierosolymitissa" has since been adopted since it means the Most Holy Lady from Jerusalem and is extremely miraculous. More