The Mother of God Who Came to a Child

Our Third Pilgrimage in the Footsteps of the Theotokos — Panagia Eleousa, Xyniada

The third and last pilgrimage of our weekend in the footsteps of the Theotokos brought us to the Monastery of Panagia Eleousa in Xyniada, near Domokos, Central Greece

Standing before her miraculous icon, we all fell silent, motionless, almost breathless. No one spoke. No one moved. There was only silence — and the overwhelming sense of her presence.

We heard the extraordinary story of the miraculous discovery of the icon, and of the many miracles that followed. Yet all these accounts seemed to fade into the background before two things that touched every one of us: the presence of the Mother of God, which we all felt so deeply, and the extraordinary childlike spirit of Gerondas Archimandrite Athanasios.

Now around eighty and in fragile health following major surgery, he astonished us with his simplicity, his eyes, his smile, the way he spoke, his joy — everything about him! None of us had ever encountered an Abbot quite like him. He was, in the most beautiful sense of the word, a child!

But the story of this monastery goes back more than seventy years.

The Miraculous Discovery of the Icon

In 1954, the Mother of God appeared in a vision to an eight-year-old child and revealed the location of her hidden icon, buried approximately 1.5 metres beneath the ground.

The icon bears the inscription “Mother of God, Eleousa” (Mother of Mercy). It is believed to date back to the period of Byzantine Iconoclasm and has survived in remarkably good condition.

A small church was erected on the site of the discovery in 1962. As pilgrims began arriving in increasing numbers, a larger church was built with the generous support of the faithful and completed in August 1966. Monastic cells and other buildings followed.

A glimpse of the monastery and its surrounding:

The monastery was formally consecrated in 1972 and soon became a well-known pilgrimage destination. The renowned Athonite hymnographer Gerasimos Mikragiannanitis composed a special liturgical service commemorating the Finding of the Holy Icon, celebrated each year on 21 June, the anniversary of its discovery.

The monastery also houses a museum with sacred treasures, including the epitrachelion (priestly stole) of Saint Nektarios, as well as a home providing care for elderly people in need.

And now, a glimpse into the heart of the monastery, where the Mother of God welcomes her pilgrims:

That eight-year-old child to whom the Mother of God appeared in 1954 was none other than Archimandrite Athanasios (Syros) himself — the Abbot who had welcomed us, and the monastery’s Gerondas. (The other monk in the monastery, no more than 35 or so years old, always smiling with love and ready to serve is Hieromonk Chrysanthos, his spiritual son and disciple.)

More than seventy years later, the little boy was still there, serving the Mother of God who had once appeared to him.

And somehow, in the presence of the Theotokos and the childlike joy of this elderly monk, we all felt as though we had been drawn into that very miracle ourselves, as though the years had fallen away and we were standing there with the little boy when the Mother of God first came to him.

Perhaps, in some mysterious way, he had never ceased to be that child.

And for a little while, neither had we.