Esoterica in painting

[Konstantin]

Icon of the Mother of God, which in her life, wrote the Apostle Luke


"Sacred and Imperial Monastery of the Virgin Stavropigiyska Kykkos. Tsarskoe it is because,

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that was founded through the personal involvement of the Byzantine emperor Alexis Comnenus (1081-1118). Stavropigiyska - because at the cornerstone of the structure was laid cross ( "Stavros"). The origin of the toponym Kykkos unknown.

A history of the monastery is really beautiful. According to legend, here in a cave lived a virtuous hermit named Isaiah. Once the Byzantine ruler Manuel Vutomitis island, resting in the hot summer in the local village, went hunting in the forest and got lost. Dodger in the woods, he met Isaiah, and asked him to show the road. Monk, in-depth in their thinking and avoided all worldly things, nothing. The governor not only swore, but hit Isaiah.

After a short time, and Vutomitis, returning to Nicosia, became ill with an incurable disease. Writhing in pain, he remembered how he behaved rudely with a hermit. Wanting to go to the monk to personally apologize to him, the governor asked God to heal him, that once happened. However, God appeared and before the hermit, telling him that everything happened for him, God, freedom, and persuaded Isaiah require Vutomitisa bring to Cyprus icon of the Mother of God, which in her life, wrote the Apostle Luke, and which was kept in the imperial palace in Constantinople. Vutomitis shuddered with fear when he heard the request of Isaiah, since it seemed impossible governor. Then the monk had persuaded him that it was the will of God, after which they agreed to go to Constantinople together. There they found the Byzantine emperor Alexis Comnenus in great sorrow, because his only daughter was seriously ill, with the same disease that struck earlier Vutomitisa. Then they were brought before the emperor. Isaiah prayed, and the daughter of the emperor recovered. Then they explained Alexis Comnenus, that God's will requires to carry a sacred icon in the Troodos mountains. The Emperor was not easy to part with the icon. Only when he himself was struck by the same disease, which hurt Vutomitis and his daughter, he realized that he could not resist the will of God. Yet he decided to cheat - asked to write a copy of the icon painter and exhibited at the appointed hour before the Cypriot visitors two icons, similar to each other to such an extent that it was impossible to determine where the original, and where a copy. Saved by a bee - she pointed out original. And now this tireless hard worker especially venerated in the monastery. Figure bees laid mosaics on the floor of the monastery and made a coat Kikkskogo Abbot.

Together with the icon of the Emperor has allocated the funds needed to build a temple in which it should have been placed. Isaiah with great joy brought the icon to Cyprus, where the people gave him a rapturous reception and went along with the icon all the way from the coast to Troodos. In front of them tended trees, the legend. Indeed, on the slopes of the Troodos we have seen a lot of bent pines.

At the same time, arrived on the island and Vutomitis. He gave Isaiah imperial edict with a gold seal, which proclaimed the monastery Stavropigiyska and sign over on its maintenance revenue from several villages. And now more than nine centuries, an icon is stored here in Kikkskom monastery. It is called the queen of all the icons, not only because the apostle Luke wrote it during the life of the Virgin, but also because this was God's will - to put an icon in Cyprus.