Description
This icon was painted by the master Cretan iconographer Georgios Klotzas in 1550-1600. It shows in visual form the contents of the famous hymn written to the Virgin Mary by St. John Damascene in the 8th century, “All of Creation rejoices in thee, O full of grace, the assembly of angels and the race of man. O sanctified Temple and spiritual Paradise, the glory of virgins, from whom God was incarnate and became a child. Our God before the Ages! He made thy body into a throne, and thy womb He made more spacious than the Heavens. All of Creation rejoices in thee, O full of grace glory to thee.”
The Virgin here is seated upon a throne of flaming Seraphim, and around her are hosts of angels and a choir of virgins, and the constellations, followed by a circle of different scenes from Christ’s life and Great Feasts of the Church, and then Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the Virgin helping the ill, and Joachim and Anna. Lower are depicted the Old Testament Faithful, the Holy Apostles, the buildings of the New Heavenly Jerusalem, and many Saints, Monastics, Hierarchs, both young and old. Let us rejoice!