THE FEAST OF THE ICON OF OUR LADY NURSING THE CHRIST CHILD

January 12

From the Prologue

This is the name of the icon of the All-Holy Mother of God which the Serbian Saint Sava [Sabas] brought from the Monastery of St. Sabas the Sanctified, near Jerusalem. And so, the prophecy spoken of by St. Sabas the Sanctified, some eight-hundred years earlier, that a certain Serbian priest by the name of Sava [Sabas] will come and that this icon and his crozier (staff) be given to him, was fulfilled. When St. Sava the Serbian visited the Monastery of St. Sabas the Sanctified, the monks recalled the prophecy of the founder of their monastery and gave to Sava the Serbian this icon and crozier. This icon [Mlekopitatelnica] was placed on the right side of the Royal Doors on the iconastasis, in Sava's hermitage [Isposnica-House of Silence] in Karayes [Mt. Athos] and the crosier placed in an adjacent cell known as the "Paterica".