The Holy Wonder Making Icon of the Mother of God “Abbess of the Holy Mount Athos” or “Gherontissa”, of Pantokrator Monastery, will be available for veneration at Ciuflea Monastery in Chisinau on April 30. On its official website, the Metropolitan Church of Chisinau and All Moldova says the icon will be brought at 5pm. The vespers with a Te Deum will be held afterward, IPN reports.

In the morning of May 1, a service will be held in the Monastery’s cathedral. The Icon of the Mother of God “Gherontissa” is the most precious possession of Pantokrator Monastery. It was donated by Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos in the 11th century, being a copy of the mosaic icon of the Mother of God “Swiftly Helping” of Pantokrator Monastery of Constantinople, which he patronized.

The icon represents the standing Virgin Mary praying to God. On the silver background of the icon, there is a vessel full with holy oil, reminding about a miracle worked by the Mother of God at the insistence of elderly people (gherontas), who remained with the containers empty.