Her story
The Pantanassa is an icon of the Mother of God at Vatopedi Monastery on Mount Athos, and its name is Greek for “Queen of All”.
The icon is small, painted in the 1600s, and stands in the monastery’s main church. It shows the Mother of God in a purple robe on a royal throne, holding the Christ Child, with two angels sheltering her with their wings. Elder Joseph, the spiritual father of the brotherhood that restored Vatopedi, brought the icon there about 1990. He told of a young man who had been practising magic and came to venerate it. Her face flashed like lightning, an unseen force threw him to the floor, and when he came to he confessed in tears and gave up magic. A Moscow charity gave the icon its Russian name, Vsetsaritsa, in 1995.
Nun Elizaveta (Goncharova), “How the Greek Pantanassa became the Russian Queen of All icon”, OrthoChristian, 2024; “Παναγία Παντάνασσα”, Orthodoxia News Agency, 2022
Her feast day
31 August: The icon’s feast in the Russian Church (18 August by their count).
Why people ask The Pantanassa
Cancer
Greek Orthodox accounts tell of many people healed of cancer after the Paraklesis, a service of prayer to the Mother of God, was sung before this icon. In Russia people with cancer pray before copies of it, one of them in a Moscow children’s cancer centre since 1995.
“Ιστορία και θαύματα της Παναγίας Παντάνασσας”, Orthodoxia News Agency, 2021; “Икона Божьей Матери Всецарица (Пантанасса)”, Azbyka
Where it comes from
Who wrote it
The Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church approved this prayer with the icon’s service on 26 December 2019. No one knows for certain who wrote it.
In Church Slavonic
О, Пречистая Богомати, Всецарице!Услыши многоболезненное воздыхание наше пред чудотворною иконою Твоею,из удела Афонскаго в Россию пренесенною,
призри на чада Твоя, неисцельными недуги страждущияи ко святому образу Твоему с верою припадающия!
Якоже птица крилома покрывает птенцы своя,тако и Ты ныне покрый нас многоцелебным Твоим омофором.
Тамо, идеже надежда исчезает, несумненною Надеждою буди.Тамо, идеже лютыя скорби превозмогают, Терпением и Ослабою явися.Тамо, идеже мрак отчаяния в души вселися,неизреченным светом Твоим возсияй!
Малодушныя утеши, немощныя укрепи,ожесточенным сердцам умягчение и просвещение даруй.
О, Всемилостивая Царице!Исцели болящия люди Твоя, устави раковыя язвы стужениеи благослови врачующих нас,да послужат орудием Всемощнаго Врача, Христа Спаса нашего.
О, Владычице, Радосте скорбящих и печальных Утешение!Простри руце Твои, исполненныя исцеления и врачбы,да, чудотворную помощь скоро получивше,прославим Живоначальную и Нераздельную Троицу,Отца и Сына и Святаго Духа во веки веков.Аминь.
