It once happened at the Vatopedi Monastery on Mt. Athos, that a deacon, occupied with his assigned tasks of getting everything in the church in the necessary order, was delayed, and came into the refectory after everyone else. When he asked for his dinner, the refectoror expressed his dissatisfaction with him, noting that one should come in at the appointed time. Hurt by this refusal, the deacon became so angry that he went back into the church, and standing before the Icon of the Mother of God, said “How long am I to serve you, O Theotokos? I work and work, and yet I have nothing to show for any of it, not even a piece of bread to bolster my flagging strength. ” With these words, he seized the knife with which he had been cleaning the wax from the lamps, and stabbed it through Her cheek. This Icon had been written on canvas. Blood splashed out of the wound, and the holy image turned pale. The terrified murder fell before the Icon, blind, becoming as one mad, with limbs paralyzed, and quaking like the murderer Cain.
The abbot prayed earnestly for the evildoer, and three years later, learned that he had been forgiven. The Theotokos appeared to the guilty one before his death, and gave him the joy of her forgiveness, but said that his audacious hand would have to come to judgment at the Second Coming of Christ. When, following the custom of Mt. Athos, the bones of the guilty one were exhumed three years after his death, the brethren witnessed an awesome sight. While all of the repentant criminal’s bones remained light, and bore the mark of God’s mercy, the hand which had been so daring remained whole and blackened. It remains so to this day, and is shown to visiting pilgrims. The sacrificed Icon is in the southeast corner of the outer gallery of the chapel of St. Demetrius of Thessalonica.