Wonderworking Virgin Mary Icon arrives in Chisinau

Believers from Chisinau as well as from all the corners of Moldova will be able to admire and pray before the Wonderworking Icon of the Mother of Good Panagia Portaitissa (The Gate Keeper), from Mount Athos, which will be displayed to the general public starting on Friday, May 2, at the Ciuflea Monastery in Chisinau, Info-Prim Neo reports. According to father Mitrofor Teodor Rosca, administrator priest at Ciuflea, the icon, which is due to arrive at Leuseni customs checkpoint at 15:00 on Friday, has been painted by the monks of the Georgian Iviron Monastery on the Holy Mountain, on the special order of the Chisinau-based St. Teodor Tiron Monastery, with the blessing of Metropolitan Bishop of Chisinau and all Moldova Vladimir. The icon will be expected at the customs by a group of priests, headed by Bishop of Comrat and Cahul Anatolie, and members of the Board of Ciuflea’s Charity Foundation. The Wonderworking Icon of the Mother of Good (Theotokos Iverskaya) is an Eastern Orthodox icon of Virgin Mary. The original of this image is found in the Georgian Iviron Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece, where it is believed to have been since the year 999. According to Eastern Orthodox Church tradition, this icon was painted by Luke the Evangelist.[2] The icon is referred to as "Wonderworking" meaning that numerous miracles have been attributed to the intercession of the Theotokos (Mother of God) by persons praying before this icon.