Theotokos Triherousa

An exact copy of the icon of the Theotokos Triherousa from the Holy Monastery of Hilandar on Mount Athos. This miracle-working icon was a family heirloom of Saint John of Damascus. Saint John, who was the chief administrator in Damascus, was slandered by the iconoclast emperor Leo III Isaurus as a traitor to the Caliph, who had his right hand cut off as punishment. The Saint prayed to the Mother of God all night to heal him so that he could continue his struggle on behalf of Orthodoxy. Exhausted, he saw the Theotokos in a vision. She told him that he would be healed, and he was. Out of gratitude, he built a silver likeness of his hand below the left part of the icon of the Theotokos. From this occurrence the icon acquired its name “Triherousa” (“woman with three hands” in Greek). Saint Sabbas, the first archbishop of Serbia and founder of the Monastery of Hilandar, brought this icon to the Monastery as a blessing upon his Orthodox fatherland.