Shown above is an icon of Panaghia Myrtidiotissa (“Panaghia of the Myrtle”), so named because the icon was found in the condition shown, i.e. with a darkened or black face, among the myrtle trees, on the island of Kythera. The icon shown was painstakingly executed in mosaic by Jim Leonis, whose family hailed from Kythera. It is on permanent display in the vestibule of the Cathedral’s Bishop Anthony Hall and Chapel. The Cathedral’s Kytherian Room, the gift of the late Calliope Calokerinos, was named after this southernmost of Greek islands, where the Panaghia Myrtidiotissa icon was found, and where a monastery by this name was built over the site of discovery.

Reprinted from the Annunciation Cathedral, Herald

November 2007