On February 12 (25) the Orthodox Church celebrates the day of the Icon of Our Lady of Iver.

Icon of Our Lady of Iver is one of the Athos’ relics. According to the legend, at the iconoclastic period the icon of the Holy Mother, which belonged to a pious widow, was subjected to destruction. At night the widow with her son brought the icon to the sea to set it swimming and thus save it from abuse. Afterwards the widow’s son became a coenobite of the Iver Cloister and told the Athos hermits about his mother’s icon. After almost one hundred years, in 980, monks found the image of the Holy Virgin. It was the very icon of the widow, as at the right cheek of Holy Virgin Mary there was a scar from the iconoclast’s sword.