Our Lady of Philermos
Our Lady of Philermos (also Phileremos, Philerme, Filerimos;
The icon is tempera on wood, 44 by 36 cm. It depicts just the head of the Virgin Mary. Her face is seen in three-quarters profile, slightly inclined towards her left shoulder. The face is oval with a long nose in the Byzantine style.
The icon was kept at Phileremos Monastery,
When the Order was given possession of
In Russia, the icon was again covered in a riza of gold and precious stones. The riza includes a horseshoe-shaped diadem with rubies and diamonds, two necklaces of sapphire and diamond, and a halo in the form of the Maltese cross, the eight points shown as protruding from behind the head of the Virgin. Tsar Nicholas I ordered a copy to be made, to be carried in processions due to the fragile state of the original. This copy is now kept in the Papal Basilica of Saint Mary of the Angels in Assisi.
The relics survived the
In 1951, a detachment of Yugoslav special forces captured the relics, and they were secretly placed in the vault of the museum at Cetinje. Their presence there was publicly revealed only in 1993, on the occasion of the visit of Russian patriarch
References
- ISBN 9789993271710.
- Jean-Bernard de Vaivre, Laurent Vissière, "Afin que vous entendez mon intencion des ystoires que je vueil, et des lieux où seront", Société de l'histoire et du patrimoine de l'ordre de Malte 27 (2012), 4–106.
- Giovannella Ferraris di Celle, La Madonna del Filermo, Verona, 1988.
- Giovannella Ferraris di Celle, La Panaghia tes Phileremou, Rome, 2001.