Mother of God with three hands | Gold foiled icon on wood | Size: 5 1/4"x4 1/2"

The icon of the Mother of God with three hands that we celebrate tomorrow bears a great significance not just for us Serbs but for the Orthodox world in general. The icon itself is located at Hilandar Monastery at the Holy Mountain in Greece but copies of this icon exist everywhere including in our Church here at St. Nicholas.

The icon was given to St. Sava of Serbia together with many other valuable icons from the Holy Land when he visited those areas and was eventually brought to Serbia where it was preserved for a while. However, after some internal turmoil in Serbia the icon was sent to the Holy Mountain on a donkey. The donkey traveled all the way to Greece, to the Holy Mountain, and when it come in front of Hilandar monastery it fell down dead and the monks took the icon. We find out about this from the records of the monastery.

Icon inscriptions in Church Slavonic.

Blessed by the clergy at  Saviour Cathedral in Moscow.