"Merciful" (Kikkos) Icon

12/25 November

According to tradition, this Icon was written by the Holy Evangelist Luke. It received its name, the “Kikkiotisa,” from Mt. Kikkos, on the island of Cyprus, where it lies in an Imperial monastery, in a church erected in its honor. By the will of God, the Miraculous Icon of the Theotokos traveled for a long time before arriving in Cyprus. At first it was in one of the first Christian communities in Egypt, then was taken to Constantinople, where it remained until the reign of Alexius Comninus (late eleventh to early twelfth century). It was during this period that, in a miraculous vision, the Elder and Anchorite Isaiah learned that through his efforts, the Miraculous Image written by the Holy Evangelist Luke would come to the island of Cyprus. The Elder expended great efforts to accomplish what had been shown him in the divine vision. Miracles began to flow from the Icon of the Mother of God once it arrived on the island. From ancient time and up to the present day, multitudes of people fettered by every ill imaginable have come from all over the world to the Icon, where they receive healing according to their faith. It is not only Christians that believe in the miracle-working power of the Holy Icon. People of other faiths run to it in their time of sorrows and illnesses. The mercy of the Most-pure Theotokos, intercessor for all those who suffer, is limitless, and it is truly appropriate that her Icon is known as the “Merciful One.” The Miraculous Kikkos Icon of the Mother of God has a remarkable feature: Since some time long in the past, a veil draped from the upper left corner to the right lower corner has covered one-half of the Icon, so that no one may see, or dare to try to see, the faces of the Mother of God or the Divine Infant. The depiction of the Mother of God is of the Hodigitria type, similar to that on the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. The Theotokos wears a crown.

Currently, there is a much-revered copy of this Icon in the women’s monastery of St. Nicholas in the city of Mukachev.