Assorted souvenir spoon with a woman’s name

Short description

In the 9th century, during the time of the iconoclasm heresy, near the city of Nicaea (modern Turkey) there lived a pious widow and her son, in whose house there was a miraculous icon of the Mother of God. When the soldiers sent to seek out and destroy the holy icons entered the widow’s house, she, in the hope of preserving the shrine, begged the soldiers to leave the icon until the morning, promising them a reward for this. The selfish warriors agreed, but at the same time one of them, leaving, hit the face of the Mother of God with a spear, and blood immediately flowed from the pierced icon. The amazed warriors left. Wanting to save the miraculous icon from desecration, the widow took it to the sea and lowered it into the water.