Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help
This wooden panel is an icon modeled after the “Mother of Perpetual Help,” created most likely in 14th-century Crete and widely propagated from 1867 onward.
Icons follow enduring artistic traditions and are highly venerated especially in Orthodox churches. Their golden backgrounds and idealized, non-naturalistic forms emphasize the distinction between the visible world and the spiritual realm.
This icon, already part of the previous church, shows Mary holding the Christ Child on her left arm, looking directly at the viewer. The Child places his hands in those of his mother and looks toward the archangel Gabriel, who presents the cross as a sign of Christ’s future passion. Opposite, the archangel Michael displays the lance and the reed with sponge. Greek inscriptions identify the figures.
