Handmade Byzantine Icon of Virgin Mary of Soumela.
After the presentation of Virgin Mary, in 386 AD. to the monks Barnabas and Sophronios, they rushed to Mount Mela (from which the Icon takes its name) of Trebizond to build the monastery where the icon of Panagia, which according to tradition was created by Luke the Evangelist, would be placed.
The miraculous Icon was found inside a cave at an altitude of 1063 meters where the Holy Spirit gushes.
During the Asia Minor Disaster in 1922, the Monastery was destroyed by the Turks and a few years later, in 1930, a delegation was sent to receive the Icon and other holy relics.
For twenty years the Icon of Virgin Mary of Soumela was exhibited in the Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens until in 1951, when it was transferred to the new church built in her honor in Kastanies of Veria on the slopes of Vermio.
The Icon of Virgin Mary of Soumela is an exact copy of Byzantine art and is created by experienced craftsmen using the method of gold printing where hagiographic leaves of 22 karat gold are applied in detail to decorate the background.
During the final processing, the icon is painted with dark red color around the perimeter and polished with a special varnish to maintain its shine.
It is offered in level or recessed wooden surface and is suitable for wall mounting.
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