The miracle-working icon of the Mother of God “Axion Estin” occupies a central place in the hearts of Athonite fathers and not only. Watch Father Pimen Vlad tell us the history of this icon, as well as a very small presentation of the capital of the Holy Mountain, Karyes.
Other miracles of the miracle-working icons of the Mother of God from the Holy Mountain are also remembered.
Enjoy!
My dear ones, we see each other again! I’m trying to show you a beautiful place. Look, behind me you can see the capital of Athos, called Karyes. Do not imagine a capital like big cities, here is a simple capital with cottages. Besides the shops in the center, which look like the ones in our old days – the village shops – there are only cells.
With tall towers, beyond Karyes, is the hermitage of Saint Andrew, which is also called Sarai, a name that comes from Turkish and means palace. It is said that when the Russians built it, years ago (Athos being under Turkish rule at that time), the Turks marveled at what a miracle the Russians did and asked each other what they were doing. “Hey, I think [it’s a] Saray” that’s how imposing it was then.
In the capital of Athos is the central church, the Protaton church, which was built by Emperor Constantine the Great. Right next to the church is the leadership of Athos, a slightly larger building, where there are representatives of all the monasteries, who meet twice a week and discuss any problem of Athos. It is composed of monks and the protos, who is a kind of president, also a monk from a monastery, and he and two others are permanently in Karyes every day. Here, in the Protaton church, is the icon “Axion Estin”, meaning “You are truly worthy!”, “It is truly meet!”, in our understanding.
I’m going to tell you a little bit about this icon, because it’s old and important. This icon was not in Kapsala from the beginning. I told you about St. Andrew’s hermitage, on the other side it descends into a valley, and there is a cell called the Axion Estin cell. There lived an elder and a disciple. The elder, on the big feasts – here, in Karyes, there would always be a vigil at the big church whenever there were feasts – he would take the disciple and they would come to the vigil. But once, at a vigil, he told the disciple to stay home and pray, and he would go alone.
His disciple stayed at home. And he prayed in the little church as best he could. And… the elder went to the vigil.
The disciple went into the church in due time and began to pray, and at one point someone knocked on the door. When he opened, on the threshold was a young monk, very beautiful, imposing, with a bright face, who asked permission to enter to pray together. He was invited in, they read something at the chart stand, saying one thing then another, and now, when they reach the canons somewhere, towards the end, at the ninth chant, they sing “More honorable than…” and when they reached the canons, the stranger began a different chant. It was Axion Estin, that is:
“It is truly meet to bless you, O Theotokos, ever-blessed and most pure, and the Mother of our God. More honorable than the Cherubim, and more glorious beyond compare than the Seraphim, without defilement you gave birth to God the Word. True Theotokos we magnify you!”
So this full chant. Until then, this complete chant was not known in the church, it was only known from halfway, from “More honorable than…”.
The disciple was astonished because he had never heard such a thing. “I want to have this too; it is so beautiful!” And the foreign monk had sung it so beautifully!
“Well, give me something to write it down for you,” said the foreign monk.
“I don’t have anything, he says, I don’t have anything here” (you imagine, hundreds of years ago, who had writing conditions?).
“It’s nothing” says the foreign monk. There was a marble slab they had there. The foreign monk says:
“Let me write on this”. And the monk from that cell wondered how he’s going to write on the slab… And he sees him put his finger on the slab and begin to write: the finger went in as if through soft wax and so he wrote this complete chant.
The disciple marveled when he saw such a thing, and the stranger said to him: “I am the Archangel Gabriel, and this is how we sing this chant in heaven in honor of the Mother of God. I have been commanded to come and give it to you, here on earth, to sing it in church from now on.” The chant in honor of the Mother of God.
As we see in the Iconostasis, on the right, as we look at the altar, is the Savior, and on the left, the Mother of God. At that moment, when the Archangel Axion Estin sang, the icons came out of the Iconostasis and changed: The Savior went to the place of the Mother of God and the Mother of God on the right, that is, the Savior showed that He also honored the Mother of God and let Her be on the right side. It is the only church where we find this, where the Savior is on the left side and the Mother of God on the other side. After telling him everything, the Archangel made himself invisible.
The disciple was so glad that he kept singing this chant all night. When the elder came, he heard him singing something unknown in the church. After learning the whole story, and seeing the marble written, the monk did not wait any longer. He went to the leadership of Athos, where he told everyone the miracle that happened. Then they all went to see, marveled and decided to take the marble and the icon to the Protaton, so that as many people as possible could worship the icon of the Mother of God, where the Archangel Gabriel first sang the song “It is truly meet!” And the marble and the icon were brought here to Protaton to keep it here.
After a while, it is said that the marble was taken to Constantinople and now nothing is known about it, it is not known where it is, but the icon is here, at Protaton. Do you see how the Mother of God always makes her presence known here, on the Holy Mountain, and not only that?!
This chant, which is now heard throughout the world, throughout the Orthodox Church, was given here by Archangel Gabriel for the Mother of God, so that we may honor her in this way, because in heaven this is how all archangels and angels honor her.
That’s what I wanted to tell you about the Axion Estin icon. On the Holy Mountain there are many miraculous icons: The Panagia Portaitissa from Iviron, which miraculously came on the water (and it is said that she will leave again on the water at the very end, when the hard times come), at Vatopedi there are seven miraculous icons of the Mother of God. All monasteries in Athos have miraculous icons.
If we have faith and pray, the Mother of God never leaves us. Let us ask for Her help and She will always hear us! Perhaps, those who are not of the Orthodox faith, those who do not believe in the Mother of God, should question themselves, think about so many miraculous icons; if they do not believe in the Mother of God, what answer will they give in the end?
We see Her presence here, on the Holy Mountain, through Her miraculous icons, healings of cancer, of many other diseases, the Mother of God always appears to many fathers, as we saw to Elder Paisios the Athonite and others. She cares for the monks here, on the Holy Mountain, in different ways: as we see at Iviron where, besides the many miracles worked there by the Mother of God, through Her icon; there is also the poor man who went and asked for bread from the doorman there, and he would not give him any; and as the poor man went up a path above, and stood under a tree, and wept because he was hungry, the Mother of God appeared to him as a pious woman, with a babe in her arms, and asked him why he was weeping. The man told Her that he was hungry, that he had gone to Iviron and at the gate they did not want to give him bread. The woman offered him some money and told him to go to the doorman and tell him to give him bread and that if he continuous like that and does not help the poor, she would not give them anything, she would take back her blessing.
The poor man went to the doorman and gladly paid him for a loaf of bread, because he did not even know the value of the money (it was a large gold coin). When the doorman saw the coin, he asked where he got the coin from, and marveled when he heard that he had received it from a woman, because there are no women in the Holy Mountain, and then he quickly called the abbot.
When they all went to the icon of the Mother of God, they saw that a gold coin was missing from Her necklace. [The icon] was all closed, sealed, but the coin was missing. Then they understood the miracle: The Mother of God gave the poor man a gold coin from her necklace.
Asked what else the Mother of God told him, the man told what he had been told: if they did not give to the poor, the monks would not receive from the Mother of God either. They were frightened and since then, at Iviron they always have a chest at the gate of the monastery where they put bread, they put fruit, for those who pass by and are hungry. That’s why I say: The Mother of God makes her presence known permanently here, on the Holy Mountain, but not only here.
Someone once asked if it was only on the Holy Mountain that the Mother of God protects. No, She protects the entire world! If those who have faith, no matter where they are, pray to the Mother of God, She helps them, covers them and works miracles.
And now, in these times, with all this madness that goes on from one day to another, from one month to another, from one year to another, always some other madness, other diseases, other wars, with some people doing things… [You should] know that salvation is with the Mother of God, not with the great of the world, as the psalmist says: “Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.”
[You should] know that people are not the solution, no matter what high ranks they have and how much money they have. The solution is with God and the Mother of God! If we have faith and ask, much can be done from a little. Like St. Elijah: a handful of flour and a few drops of oil never ran out while the famine lasted! They multiplied. The same can happen to us.
But let us have faith, pray and do the right thing: attending church, at the Holy Liturgy, as only there do we receive grace, [go to] confession, [receive] Communion and [do] good works, be merciful and everything we can and we will see how the Mother of God holds us in her arms!
Yes, my dear ones, this is what I wanted to tell you about the Mother of God. You’ve seen, I always speak of her with great fondness, because she is my lady, she is my love. This is why I came here, to the Holy Mountain, for the Mother of God, and then I love to speak of the Mother of God, because I have always felt her help and She is my mother, who took me into her care. If you have the Mother of God like this, you will see how good it will always be for you!
May the Mother of God help us, and keep us safe! May God help us! Enjoy the beauty of the capital of Athos!
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