The veneration of the miraculous image of the Blessed Virgin Mary, now called Iveron, dates back to the 9th century. According to legend, during the reign of the iconoclast emperor Theophilus, in the vicinity of the city of Nicaea in Asia Minor, there lived a pious widow, in whose house the revered icon of the Most Holy Theotokos was kept. One of the royal overseers, seeing the icon, pierced it. Blood flowed from his right cheek, as if from the wound of a living person, and the villain, horrified, fell to his knees and with tears asked the Mother of God for forgiveness. Realizing that the miraculous image could be found and destroyed, the repentant iconoclast advised the widow to hide it. The widow went to the seashore at night and, after praying, set the icon on the sea - to the will of God.
After some time, the icon sailed to the shores of Athos. The monks of the Iversky Monastery noticed at night that a radiance was emanating from an object floating on the waters of the sea, similar to a pillar of fire rising to the sky. This wondrous phenomenon continued for several nights in a row. Swimming closer in a boat, the monks saw the icon of the Mother of God, but were unable to remove it from the water: as they approached, the image moved away. The monks gathered in the church for joint prayer, asking the Mother of God Herself for help in finding the icon. The Mother of God appeared in a vision to one of the monks, the monk Gabriel, saying that she wanted to bestow Her image on the Iveron monastery. After fervent prayers, the monks went out in procession to the seashore, the icon approached the shore, Gabriel entered the sea waters and reverently accepted it.
The image was brought into the monastery church, but the next morning it disappeared: the monks found it on the wall above the gates of the monastery. He was returned to the church, but the next morning history repeated itself. The Mother of God again appeared in a vision to the monk Gabriel and revealed Her will: the icon should be located above the gates of the monastery, guarding it. The monks fulfilled the will of the Most Pure Virgin: a small church was built above the gate, and the miraculously found icon of the Mother of God was named Portatissa or Goalkeeper.
The origin of the icon became known a few years later, when the son of a widow, the previous owner of the icon, came to the Iveron monastery; he took monastic vows here.
The history of the veneration of the Iveron Icon in Rus' begins in the first years of the reign of Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov (1645–1676), when the abbot of the Athos Iveron Monastery, Archimandrite Pachomius, arrived in Moscow to collect donations for the monastery of the Holy Mountain.
Having heard about the miraculous Iveron Icon, called the Goalkeeper, Archimandrite Nikon of the Moscow Novospassky Monastery, the future All-Russian Patriarch, turned to the Holy Mountain with a request to donate the shrine to the Moscow kingdom. Knowing that the Goalkeeper would not leave her monastery without the will of the Queen of Heaven, the guest promised to make an accurate list of her for the Russian sovereign.
According to the testimony of Archimandrite Pachomius, during the entire period of work, the icon painter Hieromonk Iamblichus Romanov strictly fasted, eating food on Saturdays and Sundays, and all the brethren of the Iveron monastery celebrated all-night vigils and Liturgies twice a week. The list is completely identical to the ancient miraculous image, not differing from it either in size or image. The icon contains the master’s autograph in Greek: “Iamblichus Romanov, who lived in the Iveron cells, wrote this with care. Leta 7156 (1648)”, as well as another Greek inscription: “Through the efforts and support of Pachomius, Archimandrite of Iveron. Summer 1648". Above the head of the Mother of God between the images of two angels there is the inscription “Goalkeeper of Iveron”, above Her right shoulder - “Merciful”, on the right cheek of the Most Pure One there is a wound inflicted on the image by the hand of an iconoclast. On the margins of the icon are images of the 12 apostles.
On October 13, 1648, a copy of the Iveron Icon was delivered to Moscow by three Svyatogorsk monks: Ecclesiarch Pachomius, Hierodeacon Damascus and cellarer Ignatius. A solemn procession headed by Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich and Patriarch Joseph, clergy, boyars and a multitude of people came out to meet the image of the Mother of God at the Resurrection Gate of Kitay-Gorod. In memory of the bringing of the Iveron Icon to Moscow, an annual celebration was established on October 13/26.
Initially, the Goalkeeper was installed in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin, then in the house church of Tsarina Maria Ilyinichna Miloslavskaya. In 1654, the image was taken by the sovereign on a military campaign, which ended with the defeat of the Poles near Vyazma. Upon returning to Moscow, Alexey Mikhailovich, in gratitude for the victory, placed the Athonite Iveron Icon in the Smolensk Cathedral of the Novodevichy Convent, which in the 16th-17th centuries was called the house of the Most Pure Mother of God and had the status of a “royal pilgrimage.”
The veneration of the Iveron Icon quickly spread throughout Rus'. In 1656, through the efforts of Patriarch Nikon, the second list of the Goalkeeper was delivered from Athos - for the Valdai Iveron Monastery. In 1669, in Moscow, at the Resurrection Gate of Kitay-Gorod, the Iverskaya Chapel appeared, where, by royal command, the third copy of the Goalkeeper, made in Moscow from the Athos image from the Novodevichy Convent, but of a larger size, was placed. Now it is located in the Church of the Resurrection in Sokolniki. The Tretyakov Gallery contains another copy of the Iveron Icon - it was located in the Iveron Chapel and was intended for prayer services at the homes of the seriously ill; At the bottom of this icon there are special loops for easy transportation.
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St. Hilarion the Georgian Svyatogorets
The collection of information about the life and exploits of the Georgian elder, Hieroschemamonk Hilarion, began immediately after his death († 1864). The Russian monk Fr. worked especially hard in this matter. Panteleimon, who later, in the rank of archimandrite, was the rector of the Trinity-Kirensky Monastery, Irkutsk diocese in Siberia, he died in 1888.
Father Panteleimon used the memories of many people who had close spiritual communication with the elder. Among them were: the Georgian monk Gabriel, who, at the request of his confessor Rusik, Fr. Jerome, Fr. Hilarion spoke in detail about his life before becoming a monk; also a disciple of the elder, confessor Fr. Savva, the Zograf hermit Vasily and the cave dweller Khariton, the elder Hadji-George, the Georgian monk Vissarion, the cave dweller Daniel, the elder Theophylact, confessor Fr. Daniel, elders Nicodemus the Bulgarian and Theophilos “Agia Psychi”. Much later, the Russian monk Denasius worked in this matter.
Father Panteleimon began compiling a biography, which he completed before Elder Hilarion left the world. The rest remained in separate records for more than a hundred years, and only now the time has come, having collected all this, to offer it to the pious reader.
If during his lifetime Fr. Hilarion admired and edified many with his high example of Orthodox asceticism, we believe that it will be useful for us, who live in a time when zeal for exploits has weakened, to get to know him.
In the 2nd half of the 20th century. Hierarch became interested in the personality of the famous Athonite elder. Anthony Svyatogorets, who, based on the records of Hierom. Panteleimon, scattered information and documents compiled an extensive work “Essays on the life and exploits of the elder Hieroschim. Hilarion the Georgian" (Jordanville, 1985).
The Monk Hilarion was born into the family of Khakhulia and Maria Kanchaveli, who belonged to a noble family. The firstborn, at the insistence of Mary's brother Hierodeacon Stefan, a well-known elder at that time who labored in a cell near the Tabakini monastery, was dedicated to God: Hierodeacon Stefan predicted that otherwise the boy would die and Mary would become barren. After much hesitation, the parents gave 6-year-old Jesse to his uncle, who taught the boy to read the Holy Scripture. Scripture and brought up in silence, abstinence and prayer.
After 12 years, Jesse, with the blessing of the late Hierodeacon Stefan, moved to the Tabakini monastery. Here the young man heard that there was a “theological school” in Tbilisi and decided to go there. On the way, he stopped by to receive the bishop's blessing. Nikozsky Athanasius, who, having asked Jesse about his life and heard him read St. Scripture and reasons, said: “You will not learn anything in school that you learned in the desert” - and advised him to return home.