The "Koukouzelissa" Icon
1/14 October

 The Icon of the Mother of God known as the Koukozelissa, or Koukouzel Icon takes its name from John Koukouzel, who was born in the 12th century in Dirrachia ( Bulgaria ).  Orphaned in his youth, he enrolled in the palace school in Constantinople .  There his extremely sweet and delicate voice, attractive appearance, and outstanding talents brought him to the attention of Emperor Comnenos, ultimately resulting in his becoming the court chanter. However, despite the favors extended to the young chanter, and despite all the attractions of life at court, his heart was burdened by an inexpressible sense of mystical sadness and indifference to all the pleasures of life.

Feelings of sadness and dissatisfaction intensified within him even more after he learned that the emperor was planning to have him marry. John decided to flee the capital and hide in some remote desert.  At the time, the abbot of the St. Athanasios Lavra on Mt. Athos had come to the capital on monastery business.  John chanced to meet him, make his acquaintance, and to reveal to him his predicament and his intention [to leave the court].  The Elder approved of and blessed John’s plans. After the Abbot had left, John followed him out of the capital and to Mt. Athos , and in the guise of a pilgrim approached the Lavra gates. In response to the porter’s request to identify where he was from and why he was there, John answered that he was a simple commoner, a shepherd, and that he wanted to become a monk. The porter remarked that he was still young.  John humbly answered, “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth…” (Lamentations 3:27).

He was admitted to the Monastery, tonsured, and given the obedience of tending the monastery flock in the pastures far up the mountain.  Thus, John’s new responsibility made it possible for him to delve without impediment into prayer and contemplation of God.

Meanwhile, the emperor, saddened by his favorite’s flight, dispatched a delegation to look for him.  However, under God’s protection John remained unrecognized.  It so happened that while sitting deep in thought near his flock, and thinking that there was no one else in the desert, that no one could hear him, the shepherd/chanter began to sing familiar divine hymns, and his angelic voice poured forth and echoed far across the heights of Mt. Athos.  For a long time John, emotionally caught up [in the hymns] sweetly sang, was unaware that near him was a certain desert-dweller hiding in a wild cleft in the hill. The melodist’s marvelous chanting had a profound effect on the strict anchorite’s heart, moving him to tears, warming his soul and having a beneficial effect upon it. All the while John was singing, the desert-dweller never took his eyes off him; he could not imagine how such an angelic voice, such an amazing singer, could happen to be in the wilderness. He set off for the Lavra and told the abbot about the marvelous shepherd with the touching voice. Summoned out of the hidden wilderness and made to swear before God [to tell the truth], he revealed to the abbot that he was the John, the court melodist.

Heeding John’s humble and tearful plea, the rector allowed him to return to his obedience as a shepherd, but also felt constrained to go to Constantinople and tell the emperor of this unexpected discovery.

The emperor listened attentively to the abbot’s detailed account regarding John.  He wept, and with considerable emotion, said, “I regret losing my only chanter!  I regret losing my John! Yet, if he has already been tonsured, there is nothing to be done.  Salvation of the soul is what is most precious.  Let him pray for my salvation and for my kingdom.”  On receiving such pleasant news, John built himself a kellion with a church dedicated to the Holy Archangels.  He would remain there in isolation six days each week, and on Sundays and Feast Days would come to the Cathedral, where he would stand on the right kliros and touchingly join the others in song.

Once, after singing the Akathist on the Saturday of the Akathist, and after the Vigil, he was resting on the forma, the monastic seat, across from the Icon of the Mother of God before which the Akathist had been chanted, when he fell exhausted into a light and restful sleep.

Suddenly a meek voice said to him, “Rejoice, John!”  John looked, and saw standing before him the Mother of God, radiant with divine light.  “Sing, and don’t stop…” she continued, “…that is why I have always been with you.” After saying that, the Mother of God put a chervonets [a gold piece] in John’s hand, and disappeared.

Seized with inexpressible joy, John awoke and found himself holding a chervonets in his right hand. With tears of thanksgiving he blessed the mercy shown him by the Queen of Heaven.  The chervonets was suspended from the icon of the Mother of God before which John had sung and before which he had been made worthy of a heavenly vision.

That icon, and the gold piece itself, became sources of amazing miracles.

The Koukouzelissa (also known as the Economissa) is in the Lavra of St. Athanasios on Mount Athos and is the principal icon in the Chapel of the Most-holy Theotokos’ Entry into the Temple; three never-extinguished vigil lamps burn constantly before the Icon.