ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD „CONSOLATION“

On February 3 (January 21), the Orthodox Church celebrates in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Consolation and Comfort”. According to its place of origin from the famous ancient monastery of the same name on Mount Athos, the icon is also called “Vatopaidi”.

According to legend, on this very day in 807, the abbot of the Vatopedi Monastery was honored with a vision of the Holy Mother of God. Then, in prayer, he heard Her voice, warning him three times about the invasion of robbers and their intention to attack the monastery. At the same time, the image of Her face changed. The Infant Jesus, depicted on the icon, extended His hand to the lips of the Mother, turned His face to Her, and then commanded not to warn about the danger that awaited the monastery and the brethren, so that they would be justly punished for their sind. The brethren obeyed the abbot’s instructions, and thus the monastery was saved from robbery and possible destruction.

The liturgical commemoration in honor of this icon combines the history of the monastery, icon veneration in general, as well as an understanding of the special intercession of the Mother of God in the circumstances of the life of the Orthodox Church and believers.

The history of Orthodoxy in that era, the 8th-9th centuries, was a difficult time of iconoclasm. Despite the policy of the heretic emperors who prohibited the veneration of icons, monks continued to venerate icons in monasteries and saved them from destruction by the powers that be. Taking advantage of the circumstances that were favorable for them but disastrous for the Church, all sorts of pirates, robbers and bandits, under the pretext of fulfilling imperial decrees against the veneration of icons, robbed monasteries and plundered church wealth. In a similar way, many centuries later, the Bolsheviks in Russia after 1917, under the pretext of fighting hunger, executed priests, destroyed holy places and robbed churches.

The sign from the icon “Consolation and Comfort” occurred at a historical moment between the first and second periods of iconoclasm, 775-813, when the veneration of icons was restored at the Seventh Ecumenical Council in 787 and became a church dogma. Warning the monks about the upcoming attack of robbers on the monastery, the Mother of God, mysteriously, also indicated that soon the persecution of holy icons would be renewed with new force. Just six years later, a new period of iconoclasm began, as a result of which many confessors and martyrs suffered for the veneration of icons, many monasteries and icons were devastated and destroyed.

The celebration in honor of the icon of the Mother of God “Consolation and Comfort” teaches us to remember the important events of church history associated with the veneration of this image. In everyday circumstances, believers are called to seek not only the intercession of the saints and the Mother of God in relation to themselves, but also to ask God to reveal to His faithful an understanding of His ways in history. After all, in difficult moments of history, the suffering of ordinary believers and the fate of the entire Church are often mysteriously and salvifically intertwined.