Panagia Portaitissa

Marian devotion of the Monastery of Iveron (Athos) (Mount Athos)

La Panagia Portaitissa is an orthodox Marian icon venerated in the Monastery of Iveronon Mount Athos (Greece). His name means, in an approximate way, "the one by the door" o "La Portera", in reference to the symbolic custody of the icon at the entrance of the monastery.

Main data

Origin and history

La Panagia Portaitissa is an orthodox Marian icon venerated in the Monastery of Iveronon Mount Athos (Greece). His name means, in an approximate way, "the one by the door" o "La Portera", in reference to the symbolic custody of the icon at the entrance of the monastery.

According to the tradition athonita, the icon would have been thrown into the sea during the iconoclasia and then came miraculously through the waters, standing upright on the waves, until being welcomed by the monks of Iveron. The same tradition tells that, once received, the icon was placed next to the monastery door and since then remains associated with the protection of the enclosure.

En la documented history, it is certainly an image of great antiquity and veneration in the Byzantine and monastic field of Athos, although the details of the primitive episode belong to the legendary-devotional sphere and cannot be verified with full historical certainty from the sources consulted.

The image and the sanctuary

The imagen representa a la Theotokos con el Child Jesus in arms, within the iconographic type Hodegétria: Mary holds the Child and points it out as a way of salvation. Devotional descriptions present it as an icon of oriental tradition, with the language of Byzantine iconography; it does not contain in the sources consulted a complete and secure technical sheet on material, measurements or authorship.

Se venera en el Monastery of Iveron Mount Athos, one of the great monastic communities of the Athonite monastic republic. It is not established, in the sources provided, that the monastery has the condition of minor basilica, National sanctuary o diocesan sanctuary in the Latin canonical sense; its institutional reality is that of an Orthodox monastery of Athos.

Sponsorship and coronation

The invocation is particularly associated with the Monastery of Iveron and with the spirituality of Monte Mateo. There is no civil or diocesan patronage specific to the city or municipality in the sources consulted.

Canon coronation: there is no documented canonical coronation.

Party and devotion

The sources consulted do not offer a unique and universally fixed date for a feast of this vocation in the Latin calendar; therefore, no consta a secure own date on this dossier. His intense connection with monastic piety and liturgical celebrations in the Orthodox field, where the icons of the Theotokos receive special veneration, is noted.

The devotion to the Portaitissa is marked by its fame of protect of the monastery and for the tradition of wonders and aid attributed to its intercession. It is also related to prayer practices and supplication of the Orthodox world, especially in the context of preparation for sleep.

Link to the Rosary

There is no direct and specific historical relationship between the Panagia Portaitissa and the prayer of Rosary Latin. As it is an advocation and icon of tradition orthodoxHis devotion is expressed above all through the veneration of icons, liturgical prayer and the Eastern Marian supplica.

From a general Marian perspective, the Rosary accompanies this devotion well because it leads to contemplating, with Mary, the mystery of Christ; in that sense, the Portaitissa can be presented in a place of Rosary spirituality as a testimony of the Church's love for the Mother of God and of the ancient unity of Marian faith in East and West.