Everlasting Rose beeswax icon

The beeswax icon is hand-carved with great attention to details. The image is framed by lines of the Akathist hymn.

Amaranton Rodon (Αμάραντον Ρόδον) - the Everlasting Rose, or the Unfading Flower - is one of the names of the Theotokos. She is the woman whose fragrance was appreciated by the Lord and preserved immaculate, making her the Mother of Jesus Christ. But Christ Himself is also the Unfading Flower, for He is immaculate, and is the source of salvation for all Christians. The believers seek in Him the source of fragrance that revives and grants eternal life.

The history of the "Unfading Flower" begins around 1890, when a fisherman recovered this ancient icon of the Mother of God from the rocks of Piraeus. The news of this event immediately spread around the area. The icon was initially housed in a private chapel; but so many people wanted to see it that eventually a parish church was built on a plot of land donated by the Greek family of Koutsodontis.

In 1986, His Eminence Metropolitan Kallinikos of Piraeus performed the inauguration and consecration of the new church of the Mother of God "Rodon Amaranton", an event that is annually commemorated with the Akathist Hymn ever since.