The Holy Diasozousa Mother of God

THE MIRACULOUS ICONS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

The Holy DIASOZOUSA Mother of God

By HIEROMONK JEREMIAH VASTAS
Member of the Brotherhood of the Holy Monastery of Saint John the Theologian, Patmos, Greece, and Priest-in-charge of the Shrine of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God


The Original Diasozousa Icon in Patmos
Commemorated August 15

THE AKATHIST HYMN KONTAKIO;, ;;;; 8

TO THEE, CHOSEN GENERAL, O Mother of God,+ we Thy slaves, delivered from evils, sing hymns of victory and thanksgiving.+ But as One having invincible dominion,+ free us from all misfortunes, that we may cry to Thee:+ Rejoice, Unwedded Bride!+


AMONG THE SEVERAL centers of pilgrimage on the sacred and historic Dodecanese island of Patmos is the Church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God, in which is kept the Venerable and Miraculous Icon of the All-Holy Mother of God known as the "Holy Diasozousa," or simply as the Sozousa. This church, which was privately owned at one time, has now belonged to the Holy Royal Monastery of Saint John the Theologian of Patmos for more than fifty years.

Concerning this Icon and the numerous miracles which are attributed to the intercessions of the Virgin Mary, no one has written until now, despite the fact that the Icon and the miracles present a great deal of interest; for the Icon is very ancient and is known not only in Patmos, but also in the neighboring islands of Samos, Icaria, and Dodecanese, and in Athens, from whence we receive gifts and dedications. The Icon is also known in many parts of the United States of America and in Egypt, on account of the many Patmians who have settled there.

On the occasion of the Monastery's official proclamation of the Church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God as a Monastery Pilgrimage Shrine, we have decided to proceed with the publication of this work in glory and thanksgiving to the All-Holy Mother of God and in gratitude to the pious Patmian people, from far and near, who together with other fellow-countrymen have come to help the needs of this Holy Shrine in so many ways.

We implore the rich blessings of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God upon our people and publicly thank them for their continuous assistance in behalf of this church.

February 2, 1955


Translator's Prefase

On Sunday, March 20, 1966, the members of the Greek Orthodox parish of Tallahassee, Florida, named their newly-built church Panagia Diasozousa. There resulted a difficulty in fully interpreting this beautiful appellation of the Virgin Mary. Many names are used in Greek to designate the person of the Mother of God, for example, Panagia Odegstria, or "the All-Holy Guide," Panagia Portaitissa or "the All-Holy Lady of the Door," and various others which are difficult to interpret in English. The word Diasozousa comes from the Greek verb diasozein, which means "to preserve through," as in the case of an illness, or "to bring one well through" or "keep safe." Diasozousa, therefore, the present participle of this Greek verb, would mean "the one who preserves through," or "the one who brings one well through," or "the one who keeps safe." It would be awkward to use a whole sentence to translate the word into English. At any rate, our English-speaking readers should bear in mind that the word applied to the person of the All-Holy Mother of God refers to various miracles and favors granted by God throughout the ages through the intercessions of the Virgin Mary. Our Tallahassee Orthodox people settled for the simple name of "Holy Mother of God Greek Orthodox Church." We are happy to publish the following translation of Hieromonk Jeremiah Vastas' article on our sister church in Patmos, which is a shrine belonging to the well-known Holy Monastery of St. John the Theologian. We may remind our readers that within the premises of this world-famed Monastery is the cave where Saint John the Theologian wrote the Book of Revelation (Apocalypse), the last of the canonical books of the Christian New Testament.

Fr. James J. Laliberte
Tallahassee, Florida

THE MIRACULOUS ICON

NO TESTIMONY has been preserved concerning the origins of this holy and miraculous Icon. Oral tradition in Patmos mentions that the Icon belongs to the seventy Icons painted by St. Luke the Evangelist. There is no doubt that the Icon is very ancient and is the work of a great artist, who was a pious and virtuous man. The All-Holy Virgin allows miracles to take place through various holy Icons of Hers in different places for those who draw near with faith.

The Icon itself, about 33 x 26 inches in size, is unfortunately covered with gold-plated silver plaques on which the goldsmith impressed prints of some kind of money, most likely of his time; at the bottom of these he added two hands, artistically wrought of gold-plated silver, with which the pictured Mother of God holds the Infant Jesus.

The halo encircling the head of the All-Holy Mother of God bears four carved seals, on two of which the Virgin is shown, and on the other two St. George or St. Theodore and St. Luke the Evangelist. On the upper part near the top of the halo, the Holy Mother of God is represented full stature, Her hands raised. This halo and that of the Infant were decorated with eleven large red and green stones of great value, one of which has since disappeared. At the bottom is found the year of the gold-plating: 1732. The Icon is covered with votive tokens of all kinds, each of them commemorating a particular miracle.

The church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God is located on the south side of the Holy Monastery of St. John the Theologian on Patmos, from which it is separated only by several steps. It is small and artistically constructed in a simple Byzantine style, and it appears amidst a beautiful garden of fragrant flowering and fruit-bearing trees. The exact year of its foundation is unknown, but certain deeds of ownership indicate that it was before 1500. In 1911 the church was deeded to the Holy Monastery of St. John the Theologian and has been its property ever since. The miraculous Icon is located on a column opposite the Bishop's Throne.


Copy of the Diasozousa Icon in Tallahassee, Fla.


MIRACLES

The frequent miracles of the Most Holy Mother of God performed throughout the centuries through this Sacred Icon are very numerous and of many kinds, and it would take perhaps a whole series of volumes to include all of them. We shall cite here only a few of them for the benefit of pious people, with the belief that they will prove capable of strengthening faith in Almighty God and perpetuating the reverence and piety of new generations toward the All-glorious Mother of the Lord, the Mother of all Christians. Indeed, the Holy Virgin Herself, immediately after Her Annunciation by the Archangel Gabriel, prophesied, saying: Behold, from henceforth all generations shall call Me blessed (Luke 1: 48).

I

In 1732, when Algerian pirates were roaming the Mediterranean and the islands of the Egean Sea, a Patmian man by the name of Glyconiketas was robbed and captured by pirates on the shore of Patmos, where he had come to fish. He was taken to North Africa and imprisoned in a jail in Tripoli. The prisoner pleaded every hour for the help of God and for the intercessions of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God, Whose church was located near his home.

Three years later, when his unfortunate wife was holding the 3-year memorial service for her husband, whom she believed killed, a tall and reverent looking Woman appeared to Glykoniketas in his jail cell and asked him to follow Her. Being chained, he was unable to stand up and he asked Her Who She was. She replied that She was the One known to him as the Diasozousa. Before the Most Holy Mother of God had finished Her answer, Glyconiketas found himself suddenly delivered from bondage and in some incomprehensible way transported to that very port of Patmos where he had been fishing three years earlier. His wife, naturally disbelieving what had happened, refused at first to allow him into the house! He, however, mentioned things and events concerning his household and thus was able to persuade her. Then, in order to confer a token of thanksgiving to the Mother of God, who had saved him, he took his wife's silver utensils and covered the venerable Icon of the Diasozouza with silver plate. Returning from the goldsmith's with the already silver-plated Icon to place it in the church, he found some gold coins on the road, with which he then gold-plated the Holy Icon, trusting this to be the wish of the Most Holy Mother of God.

II

During November of 1888, as the result of great worries a woman of Patmos became ill with aphylaxy (a skin rash on the entire body) and suffered a great deal. The sick woman asked the Virgin to intercede for her. When one morning her mother returned from the church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God after the Divine Liturgy and gave her a piece of antidoron, she said that she had already had some, and that a Woman had visited her during sleep and blessed all her ailing members with a large cross in such a way that she felt real freshness on all her body. The unknown visitor had said to the sick woman: "For you especially I came out of My home, and I am also going to the home of the old woman N. To know Who I am, watch to see upon My return to My home where I shall establish Myself." Indeed, as the healed woman repeatedly narrated to us amidst her tears, the Woman Who had appeared to her was the very Mother of God, Who, upon returning to the church of the Diasozousa, entered the sanctuary and reclaimed Her habitual position on the iconostasion.

III

During August of 1905, a woman of Patmian descent who was residing in Ismaelia, Egypt, fell very ill. Her Arab physician confirmed a serious typhoid fever. The sick woman often pleaded to the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God for help, promising her finger-ring to the Icon. One night during sleep she saw a Lady dressed in black standing at the door of the church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God in Patmos, calling her by name. To the repeated questions of the Lady, the sick woman delayed answering and somehow feigned ignorance concerning the identity of her visitor, Who then told her: "You know Me well, because you often pray to Me; therefore, I inform you that from now on you will not see anything bad." And immediately she woke up completely recovered.

In the morning, the Arab physician visited his patient and was amazed to find her well, insisting strongly that she was not the same woman he had visited the day before, and construed her as being a fraud. The husband of the patient tried in vain to reassure the physician and was compelled by him to sign a written declaration that the woman who had been examined on the previous day in her illness as well as on the following day in the recovery of her health was his very own wife and not any other woman, as her non-Christian physician was wrongly insisting, not knowing the power of God.

IV

A woman in Egypt had three children, of whom two had died a few years after birth. When the third one became ill and was in danger of following the path of his two brothers, his mother and his grandmother in tears begged the Holy Virgin to save him. The child immediately recovered from the agony of death and began to speak to his mother, saying, "Mother, did you see Her?" "Whom, my child?" "That Woman Who came just now, and told me that I would become well as soon as She would put Her hand on my forehead. She is the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God from Patmos." He had indeed escaped from the danger of death and was completely healed by the miraculous intervention of the All-Holy Mother of God and by the deep faith in God of the members of his family. A characteristic incident connected with this miracle was this: a draft of air preceded the apparition of the Virgin Mary and was felt by the grandmother of the child as it was filling the room, without her knowing from where and why it was coming in.

After the recovery of the sick child, as was to be expected, there followed donations and votive takens to the Icon of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God as an indication of the gratitude of the parents to the Virgin Who had interceded for their child's healing.

V

In America a little girl, whose parents were natives of Patmos, became seriously ill. The physician confirmed an illness that would require immediate surgery Facing such a danger, the sick child's parents and relatives through fervent prayers asked the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God for the recovery of the child's health. Suddenly the little girl awoke from her deep sleep and said to her mother: "I see a Woman Who has come to make me well: now She is walking; She is going out; don't you see Her?" And the sick little girl was immediately healed and from that time did not return to the physician.

VI

A teacher in Patmos suffered from an ailment of the eyes and was cured by the intercessions of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God due to the following dream. There appeared to him a Woman Who, as She assured him of the quick healing of his eyes, guided him toward the gates of the Church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God. "I live here," She said: "try to come to meet Me. I heard your litanies and your prayers, which are the result of your great faith." The frightened teacher awoke completely well and in the morning narrated this lively dream to his colleagues and acquaintances. When he came to the church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God, he recognized the entrance of the church to which he had been guided during sleep by the Most Holy Mother of God, and he marvelled at the might of God and of His saints. For the entire duration of the Divine Liturgy the teacher was seen kneeling and praying before the Icon of the Virgin.

VII

In the middle of October, 1926, Mrs. S. P. of Patmos gave birth to a daughter under very inauspicious conditions, as she was stricken by a puerperal fever to such a degree that two physicians, despite intensive efforts, were unsuccessful in dissipating the danger. Realizing her hopeless situation, her relatives were compelled to call for another physician from a nearby island who was renowned for his scientific knowledge, but he was also unable to help in any way. Many days went by without any definite results, and the family of the stricken woman was in real despair. One day the woman, despite her fever and exhaustion, called her sister and with great difficulty told her that during sleep she had found herself in front of the outside doors of the church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God, without, however, being able to enter. With the approval of the sick woman, they immediately notified the priest of the church, who brought the Holy Diasozousa Icon and, after making the Sign of the Cross over the sick woman, read the Service of the Paracletic Canon of the Virgin Mary. He then left the Icon in the house for the entire day at the request of her people who fervently prayed to the AllHoly Mother of God to perform a miracle for the sick person. The Blessed Virgin Mary indeed performed a miracle on the same day, and the sick woman took a turn towards recovery. Unable to explain otherwise the sudden change in her condition, the physicians also confirmed the miracle, praising the Lord and His All-Holy Mother.

VIII

Some 25 years ago (1930), the husband of a woman in Piraeus suffered from rheumatism, which resulted in his lying motionless in bed. All the drugs then known were used without the slightest improvement in his condition. At the suggestion of a Patmian neighbor of theirs in Piraeus, they asked for some oil from the vigil lamp of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God, and after the first anointment the pains lessened and the man began to move a little, and gradually his health was completely restored. As a token of appreciation to the Holy Theotokos, healer of ailments, the healed man sent sacred objects to the church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God in Patmos.

IX

Several months after the military catastrophe of 1922 in Asia Minor, a woman arrived in Patmos, came to the church of the Holy Diasozousa Mother of God, and applied a dozen silver votive tokens to the Holy Icon, each representing a soldier. The woman hung these votive tokens on the Miraculous Icon with great respect and warm expressions of gratitude. She also donated a large quantity of silver brocade material. After the celebration of the Holy Unction on Passion Wednesday, people in attendance questioned the woman on her gift, and she replied that the twelve votive tokens represented men who, finding themselves before an impasse during the retreat of the Greek Army from Asia Minor, pleaded with the "Champion General" (as the Mother of God is called in the Akathist Hymn) with faith and that, appearing to them, She had encouraged them, delivered them from danger, and told them that She was named the Diasozousa. Because of this miracle, the soldiers paid all expenses to send the woman to Patmos in order to pray for them and offer their dedications.