Icons attributed to St. Luke

Sacred Tradition holds that the icons known as Eleusa "Virgin of Tenderness" and Hodigitra "She who Shows the Way" are patterned after icons that came originally from the hand of the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke. St. Luke is believed to have been the first iconographer, and the original images from which the patterns follow are believed to have been made during the life of the Blessed Virgin.

Vladimir Mother of God
The icon belongs to a family of images of the Theotokos known as Eleusa (Virgin of Tenderness) 
Pattern attributed to the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke.

 
Virgin of Carmel
The icon belongs to a family of images of the Theotokos known as Eleusa (Virgin of Tenderness) 
Pattern attributed to the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke.
The first Image of the Virgin venerated by the Carmelite Order. The Virgin of Tenderness, or Eleousa in Greek, is the prototype said to have come from the hand of the Evangelist, St. Luke, who, according to tradition, was also an iconographer. Forced by the Islamic invasion of the Holy Land in the 13th century to leave their beautiful homeland, the Carmelites traveled for safety from Mt. Carmel to Europe, carrying with them the precious icon.
It was enshrined above the high altar of their church in Naples, and there, because of the dark skin tone of the Mother and Child, it came to be known as La Bruna.  It remained in this place of honor for over 100 years, and many miracles took place until the icon was removed to a side altar by a royal decree. In the jubilee year of 1500, pious citizens of Naples carried the icon in procession to Rome. During the pilgrimage, people were again miraculously cured. Skeptical of these miracles, “King Frederic II of Naples conceived a plan to test the power of the Heavenly Mother. He ordered that all the sick and infirm [of the city] assemble before the image with written documentation of their maladies. High Mass was celebrated and special hymns were sung, and when the miraculous picture was unveiled, a ray of light fell upon the face of the Madonna, reflecting its brilliance on the assembled sick. The instantaneous healing of each person was authenticated” Summary and quotation from ~Joan Carroll Cruz Miraculous Images of Our Lady. Rockford: TAN, 1993. 
Note: The power of the Holy Spirit, fully present in the Virgin and flowing from her through her icon was, I believe, the source of the healing.  In this manifestation as in so many other times when the Holy Spirit acts, songs of prayer seem to be act as an invocation and form a vital part of the process.

The icon belongs to a family of icons known as Hodegetria (She Who Shows the Way) 
Pattern attributed to the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke 
 Iveron Mother of God

Panagia Portatissa (Keeper of the Gates)
 THE MYRRH-STREAMING ICON
OF THE IVERON MOTHER OF GOD
(Celebrated November 24 )
small paper reproduction of the Montreal icon 
The original of this image is found in the Iveron Monastery on Mount Athos in Greece where because of it's miraculous appearance on the shores of Mt. Athos it is called Panagia Portatissa,

A copy of the icon brought by a pilgrim from Mt. Athos to Montreal Canada began to weep fragrant myrrh in 1982.  It was taken to churches around the world, and from time to time when the faithful touched their small paper copies to the glass that covered the the icon, their own little paper copies became beaded with myrrh.  This was so for some Catholics who venerated the icon when it visited Holy Virgin Cathedral in San Francisco in 1994. The small copy retains the heavenly fragrance to this day.   The Catholics to whom the fragrance had come took the image to share with an Orthodox priest whose icons were all streaming oil in his home.  They had no fragrance. On that day all of his icons became fragrant, and the fragrance was identical.  The priest said he had caught the same unmistakable fragrance in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.  It was, he believed, the sweet fragrance of Jesus Christ graciously offered through the icon to all persons.
The Montreal copy of the icon was tragically destroyed in 1997, but in 2007 a new copy began once again to stream myrrh in a small Russian Orthodox church in Hawaii. Orthodox, Catholics, Protestants, persons of all faiths and none come to venerate the icon.  To breath the fragrance, which is like no other on earth, is to experience profound gratitude and to know, in a way that is inexplicable, that the Gospel is true, that Jesus is real, and that He loves us.

More Variations of the Hodegetria
"Mary holding Christ and pointing toward Him. The prototype is said to have been written by St. Luke. (The Polish depiction of Our Lady of Czestochowa, the famous "Black Madonna," is a variation of the Hodegetria style icon, as are St. Luke's 'Salus Populi Romani' icon kept at St. Mary Major Basilica , the icon of 'Our Lady of Perpetual Help,' the 'Virgin of the Three Hands,' and 'Our Lady of Kazan'..." from Sacred Images 



Our Lady of Czestochova
small wooden reproduction from Poland
The icon belongs to a family of icons known as Hodegetria (She Who Shows the Way) 
Pattern attributed to the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke. 


 
Our Lady of Kazan
 Our Lady of Soufeniah
Damascus, Syria 
Through this miraculous icon of Our Lady of Kazan
flow tears that plead for Christian unity.The icon belongs to a family of icons known as Hodegetria (She Who Shows the Way) 
Pattern attributed to the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke


 

Icon Of Three Hands
Tricherousa, or Panagia "Of Three Hands"


The Icon of Three Hands
St. John Damascene was the great defender of icons. Because of his defense of the holy images and because of his great ability as a writer, the order was given by the iconoclasts that his right hand be cut off at the wrist. St. John asked for the severed hand and prayed before the icon known as the Hodegetria or She Who Shows the Way. Asking fervently that his hand might be restored, he fell asleep exhausted.  Virgin Mary came to him in a dream; when awoke his hand was miraculously restored with only a red line showing.  In gratitude, St. John composed the hymn "In thee, O Full of Grace, all creation rejoices" The icon before which St. John prayed exists to this day on Mount Athos in the Hilander Monastery. It is called Tricherousa, or Panagia "Of  Three Hands" due to the silver hand which St. John placed on the icon as a testament to the above miracle.  See: The Icon of the Three Hands Additional links: small album ~ Doctors of the Church




Salus Populi Romani


Salus Populi Romani
St. Mary Major Basilica
The icon belongs to a family of icons known as Hodegetria (She Who Shows the Way) 
Pattern attributed to the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke

"St. Luke is said to have written the famous "Salus Populi Romani" ('Protector of the Roman People') Hodegetria-style icon, shown at right, which was brought from the Holy Land to Rome by Helena, Constantine's mother. It is Salus Populi Romani by St. Lukehoused in St. Mary Major Basilica in Rome, a Basilica which was built in response to a miracle: in A.D.. 358., Our Lady appeared to Pope Liberius and a couple and told them to build a church at a place she would mark out with snow on Esquiline Hill. On an August night, she did just that -- a church-sized, church-shaped area of snow fell on the hill. The people staked out the area "Our Lady of the Snows" indicated, the Basilica was built, and Pope Liberius consecrated it. It has been rebuilt over the years, lastly by Pope Paul V (1605-1621). The Feast of the dedication of the (original) Basilica is August 5, and in commemoration of the miraculous snowfall, white rose petals are sprinkled down from the dome during the Mass that day.

During St. Gregory the Great's pontificate (A.D. 590-604), in the year A.D. 597, this icon was carried in procession to Hadrian's tomb during a time of a great plague. Upon arrival at the destination, a choir of angels was heard singing
:

Regina coeli, laetare, alleluia;
Quia quem meruisti portare, alleluia;
Resurrexit sicut dixit, alleluia.

(Queen of Heaven, rejoice, alleluia;
For He Whom you did merit to bear, alleluia;
Has risen as He said, alleluia.)
To which St. Gregory replied:
Ora pro nobis Deum, alleluia.
(Pray for us to God, alleluia.)
Then St. Michael appeared over the tomb, with sword drawn -- and put his sword back in its sheath as a sign of the end of the pestilence. This appearance of the Archangel is the reason why Hadrian's tomb is now known as Castel Sant'Angelo.
In this icon, Mary, dressed in a red tunic and a dark blue mantle with gold trim, holds Jesus in her left arm. Jesus gazes as His mother as He holds a book and raises His hand in blessing. Unlike most Hodegetria type icons, Mary does not point to Christ." from: Sacred Images 

 

Our Lady of Perpetual Help

is venerated around the world both in the 
Byzantine and the Latin rite churches.
The icon belongs to a family of icons known as Hodegetria (She Who Shows the Way) 
Pattern attributed to the Apostle and Evangelist St. Luke