The icon of Theotokos Tricherousa is closely connected with the spiritual life of the Serbian Orthodox Church. St. Sava, the first Archbishop of Serbia and founder of the Hilandar Monastery, brought it from Jerusalem to his Orthodox homeland as a blessing.
This miracle-working icon is also associated with the miracle of the healing and restoration of the right hand of St. John Damascene by the Mother of God. When the saint served as the first counselor in Damascus, he was condemned by the iconoclast Emperor Leo III as a traitor, and as a measure of punishment, the Caliph ordered his right hand to be cut off. John fell on his knees before the icon of the Mother of God and placed his severed hand to the place where it was cut off, asking for healing. While praying, he fell asleep. In his dream, he saw the Mother of God telling him that he was healed; And so, he was.
As a sign of gratitude, John made a hand out of silver and placed it under the right hand of the Mother of God. Thus, we see three hands on the icon, as a result of which it was named "Tricherousa" (Τριχερούσα means Three-handed). When Caliph saw the miracle, he realized the injustice of the punishment and wanted to restore John to his position. However, the latter preferred to become a monk and withdrew to the Lavra of St. Savva in Jerusalem, taking with him the icon, as it was his family heirloom. It was from there that St. Sava took the icon and transported it to Serbia, where it remained till the fourteenth century, up until the reign of Stefan Dusan's successor, King Stefan Uroš V (1355-1371).
During a military campaign, King Uroš sent this icon to his soldiers on the battlefield. However, it has disappeared to miraculously appear on the Holy Mountain Athos, outside the walls of the monastery of Hilandar. All the monks welcomed the holy icon and with great honors placed it in the altar part of the main temple of the monastery. Here, a separate proskinitarion was created for the icon. Once, when the monastery was holding the election of the hegumen, the icon of the Mother of God moved from the altar to the hegumen's stasidia (from Greek στασίδι — pew). The monks decided that someone from the brethren did it, and returned the icon to its place in the altar section. This happened for a second, and then a third time; It was then that everyone realized that it was the will of the Mother of God herself, and that She wanted to remain in this place to rule the monastery.
Every year on the Feast of the Epiphany, the icon of the Mother of God is transferred to the narthex of the main church. On July 12, an all-night vigil is celebrated annually in honor of the holy icon as a remembrance of its arrival at the monastery.
Tricherousa is a double-sided icon, with an image of St. Nicholas on the reverse side. Our Lady is depicted holding Christ on her right hand, according to the Hodegetria type of iconography. The silver setting with gilding, created in 1862 and decorated with precious stones, leaves only the faces and hands of the figures uncovered. The icon itself is decorated with numerous offerings, among which there are also ancient coins.
According to tradition, the icon was created by the Evangelist Luke himself. In the lower part of the icon there is an inscription in Old Slavonic: "On health of Praskovia, Michael, Helen, John and their children. Of Nadezhda, Nicholas and their children. Of Maria, Olga, Natalia and their relatives".
The miracle-working icon of the Mother of God Tricherousa was especially widespread in the Slavic Orthodox world. There are many copies of this icon, most of which faithfully follow this type of iconography, expressing their reverent attitude to the original.
The oldest image of the Mother of God Tricherousa outside of the Holy Mount Athos was created by order of a nun in 1340 in the village of Karan. In the monastery of Hodegetria on the island of Crete there is a fresco of the Tricherousa, dating back to the XIV century. The only difference from the original is that in the fresco Our Lady holds the baby on her left hand.
In the proskinitarion built on the site where the miracle-working icon appeared, outside the walls of the monastery of Hilandar, there is a fresco of the Theotokos Tricherousa from 1809, accompanied by inscriptions in Greek and Old Slavonic telling the legends about the icon. On the right of the fresco is St. Simeon and on the left is St. Sava, as well as scenes from the life of St. John Damascene, including the cutting off of his hand, and scenes of the monks of the monastery greeting the icon.
During Turkish rule, the Tricherousa icon was especially venerated. This is confirmed by the large number of portable icons, preserved from the XVII, XVIII and XIX centuries on the Holy Mountain Athos, as well as in the rest of Greece, medieval Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania, Russia, and in private collections.
The reverse side of the icon of the Mother of God depicts St. Nicholas in full-face. He is dressed in a chestnut-colored vestment and an omophorion with letter symbols meaning "The Light of Christ enlightens all". On both sides of the halo, on a golden background, the inscription reads: "St. Nicholas".
In terms of iconography, the image follows the established type of depiction of the Saint, with the slight difference that the icon does not depict Christ and the Mother of God, who are usually depicted on either side of the head of the saint, holding the Gospel and the omophorion in their hands.
