This Icon belonged to the famous Queen Tamara, who was most renowned for her efforts to spread the Christian Faith among the peoples of the Caucasus Mountains. After a multitude of pagan Circassians adopted Christianity, she sent them an Icon of the Iveron Mother of God. From the days of Tamara (1184-1207) until 1768, the Icon remained in the mountains and became renowned as the source of many miracles. In two fires which destroyed the church housing the Icon, the Icon remained unharmed. In 1768, at the direction of Empress Catherine II, the inhabitants of Ossetia, moved away from the mountains and settled along the Terek border; with them, they brought the Miraculous Iveron Icon. The bishop of Mozdok organized a Procession of the Cross, greeted the Icon of the Mother of God, and after serving a moleben before it, expressed the intention to have it installed in his cathedral. However, the oxen harnessed to the cart containing the Icon refused to move from the spot. Crowds of people gathered to venerate the Miraculous Icon. Overjoyed at such a sign of God’s mercy, the residents of the area hurried to build a chapel to house the Iveron Icon. Later, in 1796, they erected a church on the site, and in it installed the grace-filled Icon. In times of sickness and misfortune, everyone would turn to the Queen of Heaven for help; Orthodox Georgians, Armenians, Circassians, and Ossetians all glorified her for working great miracles. According to folk tradition, in 1840, when Shamil was in Mozdok, a woman dressed in white appeared to him and his army, and forbade them from attacking the city.