VIRGIN MARY (THREE-HANDED)

Description A family heirloom of St. John of Damascus - officer of the Caliph of Syria Oualid (705 AD - 715 AD), the icon of Mary the Three-handed was kept in the chapel of his house. During the period of iconoclasm, the Emperor of Constantinople, Leo III the Isaurian, a polemicist of the icons, slandered St. John to Oualid. The caliph ordered St. John's hand be cut off. Afterwards St. John dreamed of Mary in his sleep, whose icon was in his house, who told him that his hand was healed and that he could keep on his work in favor of Orthodoxy. When St. John woke up and realized that his hand was truly healed, he decided to place a silver effigy of his hand under the left part of the Icon of Mary. Due to this fact, the icon was named Tricherousa (Three-handed) and is the protector of the Serbian Orthodox people to date.

Silver plated icon, locally gilded, made of aged natural wood. On dimensions (25x21, 32x25) the picture has been decorated with Swarovski crystals