Feast Day: Bright Monday & Sunday of Saint Thomas
About the Holy Icon of Panagia Glykophilousa: After a few years, the Icon appeared on the shores of Mount Athos near the Monastery of Philotheou, where it was received with great honour and rejoicing by the Abbot and Fathers of the Monastery, who had been informed of its impending arrival through a revelation of the Theotokos…
Prayers
Apolytikion: Your Holy Icon we praise as a very precious boast of Philotheou Monastery, for in it we behold you, O Pure One, kissing Christ as a babe, and we behold your great Glory, O Virgin, and we cry out: Glory to your great deeds, O Pure one, Glory to your sympathy, Glory to your providence for us, O Spotless one.
Kontakion: The most-precious Icon of Glykophilousa, which came to us from Byzantium, let us who have gathered venerate it, crying out: I behold you as a Mother of the Pantocrator, sympathetic, grant the gifts of your compassions to those who cry out: Rejoice, O Queen of All.
Megalynarion: Rejoice, O Divine Monastery of Philotheou, for you possess the Sacred Icon of the Virgin, where she sweetly-kisses the Lord as an infant, and grants to all, Grace and mercy.
Doxastikon: Who can rightly tell of your goodness towards us, the saving appearances and gifts, O Virgin Theotokos? For your Holy Icon wondrously passed over the waves and was granted to us as a Divine treasure, and a pledge of Salvation. Through your invisible presence, you care for us, and you drove back the foreign army that had troubled your Mountain. Therefore, we celebrate a dual feast: the receiving of your Wonderworking Icon, which we praise, and the deliverance from the tyrranical siege. We cry out to you: ever protect and keep us, as you are our protection and defender, as I call you the Most-blessed one.
Doxastikon: As the servant of the awesome Mystery of the Incarnation of the Word, O Ever-Virgin Theotokos, strange and paradoxical things were worked for our Salvation within your womb, through your incomparable Motherly goodness. For in your Divine Icon, you appear full of sympathy, kissing as a mother, Him Who was Incarnate through you, the Son and Word of God. This was given to us as a Heavenly treasure, and was thus named “Glykophilousa”. As we celebrate its arrival, we cry out to you: Rejoice, O Full-of-grace, the Lord is with you, granting to us through you, the great mercy.
