MOTHER OF GOD READY TO LISTEN

Day 194: November 22

Icon of the Mother of God "She Who Is Ready to Listen",

Mount Athos, Greece



The Dochiariou Monastery is one of the twenty monasteries of the Orthodox Church that exist today on the Mount Athos peninsula in Greece. It is dedicated to the archangels Michael and Gabriel. In the church is kept the icon of the Mother of God "who is ready to listen".

Saint Neophytos, who wrote the rule for the Docheiriou Monastery on the west coast of the Mount Athos peninsula, is said to have had the image of the Mother of God painted on the monastery wall outside the refectory door around 1110. The image remained in silent darkness in the company of monks for over 500 years.

Then, in 1664, while Neilos walked with a lit torch back and forth through the refectory invading the soot ceiling. At one point he heard a voice saying: "Stop dirtying my icon with smoke." Neilos, thinking he had only imagined that voice, did not pay attention to it, he even thought it was a joke, so he continued to go back and forth to the corridor with the torch lit. But again, the mysterious voice made itself heard, and to reproach him a second time: "Monk, unworthy of the name! Will you go on for a long time carelessly and without shame, blackening my image?" At that point, Neilos realized that he had lost his sight.

The monks appointed a new head of the table and hung a votive lamp next to the painting, in front of which Neilos begged day and night for forgiveness for weeks, together with his brothers, with sincere tears of repentance, until the voice was heard again: "Monk, the prayer you addressed to me has been answered; you will be forgiven and you will receive the sight as before. … From now on, let the monks come to me for their every need, and I will immediately address them and all Orthodox Christians who approach with respect, because I am called "the one ready to listen.""

Following these words, Neilos regained eyesight, and the icon of the Mother ready to listen (Greek: Γοργοεπήκοο, Gorgoepikoos) soon became an object of veneration for monks from all over the Holy Mountain. The passage to the refectory was closed and after having decorously closed the place where the sacred icon was situated, which was placed, she or a copy of her, on her right in a beautiful church dedicated to the most holy Mother of God "who is ready to listen."

Every Tuesday and Thursday evening, after Vespers, a special service was celebrated in the main chapel of the monastery, a small procession sung with the miraculous icon in thanksgiving to the Mother of God, with the intention of praying for all Orthodox Christians and for peace throughout the world.

Since then, many miracles have been attributed to this sacred icon: the blind have received sight, the lame have walked, men have been saved from captivity and shipwreck. Thus the Most Holy Theotokos satisfies the supplications of all Orthodox Christians who turn to her with trust, reverence and contrite hearts.

The fame of the miraculous icon thus spread throughout Greece, where the feast of the All-Holy Ready to Listen is celebrated along with that of the Holy Protection of the Mother of God, on October 1 (or in the modern calendar equivalent, October 14, for Greek Orthodox churches in the United States).

In the 1800's, the devotion also extended to Russia, where the Mother of God ready to listen (Скоропослушница, Skoroposlushnitsa) is celebrated on the day of St Neophytos, or November 9, the old calendar date observed by many Orthodox churches (e.g. Antioch and Americans). Many other Russian Orthodox churches use the modern calendar of the date equivalent to November 22. Many of its copies in Russia have also been glorified by miracles. In particular, there have been cases of healing from the plague and demonic possession.


St Justin Russolillo Writes...

"Glory to the Most Holy Trinity in you, O Mary! Glory to you, O Mary, in the Blessed Trinity! Queen of martyrs, Queen of the Holy Innocents, Queen of penitents, Queen of miracle-workers, Queen of holy children, Queen of holy priests, Queen of the Holy Founders, Queen of holy hermits, Queen of holy cenobites."

(Ascension, trans. Louis Caputo, Vocationist Father, New Jersey, 1997, pp. 404-405)

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