Virgin Mary the Sweetheart

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The Glykofilousa is one of those icons that survived the iconoclasm and were miraculously transported to Athos. It was the property of Victoria, the pious wife of the iconoclastic senator Simeon, who, in order not to surrender it, threw it into the sea. The icon, floating upright on the waves, reached the arsana of the Monastery of Filotheos, where it was received with great honour and joy by the abbot and the fathers of the monastery, who had been alerted by a revelation of the Virgin Mary.

The Virgin Mary Glykophilousa (The Sweet-Kissing Mother of God)

The icon of the Virgin Mary Glykophilousa is one of the sacred icons that survived the period of Iconoclasm and were miraculously brought to Mount Athos.

It originally belonged to Victoria, the devout wife of Simeon, an iconoclast senator. In order to protect the icon from being confiscated, she cast it into the sea.

According to tradition, the icon floated upright upon the waves until it reached the harbor of the Holy Monastery of Philotheou. There, the abbot and the monks, having been informed of its arrival through a revelation from the Virgin Mary, received it with great honor and joy.

At the spot on the shore where the icon was placed, a spring of holy water miraculously appeared. Every year, on Bright Monday (the Monday following Easter Sunday), a religious procession and a blessing of the waters take place at this sacred site.

Numerous miracles have been attributed to the Virgin Mary Glykophilousa. In 1713, she answered the prayers of the devout monk Ioannikios, who was responsible for the monastery's church and had expressed concern over its financial difficulties. The Virgin Mary reassured him that she herself would provide for the monastery's material needs.

In 1800, she miraculously saved a pilgrim who fell from the third-floor guesthouse.

The icon is double-sided, depicting the Crucifixion of Christ on its reverse. Today, it is located on a pillar of the left choir area inside the monastery's main church (Katholikon).