Иконата на Богородица Хрисомангуртиотиса
The Virgin Chrysomangourtiotissa

Summary/Abstract: The Sofia Archaeological Museum is holding in storage an icon of the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child and saints, whose origins are unknown. The icon is signed ηχρισομαγγούρτιοτισα, an unusual epithet – this text is dedicated to deciphering this signature. In the upper portion of the visual field, the Virgin is presented to the waist, holding the Christ Child in her left hand. The lower por- tion shows St. George on a horse, St. Char- alampos and St. Stylianos, who is holding an infant, and St. Demetrius on a horse. The icon’s relatively small dimensions and the choice of images indicate that it was likely created for a domestic iconostasis. The icon painter’s name is not known, but his icons are known along the southern Black Sea coast – from Nessebar to Tsarevo and in some of the towns in Strandzha – and date from the final years of the 18th century to the second decade of the 19th century. The icon in question should be dated roughly to the beginning of the 19th century. Its origins can be ex- plained by the existence in Sozopol of a Chapel of the Virgin Mary Chrysomagriotissa. An analysis of the epithet – Our Lady of the Golden Coin – indicates the possibility that the icon from the Archaeological Museum could be a reproduction of a miracle-working original. The text notes examples of miracles in which the Virgin gave someone a coin or helped him discover a treasure, which was usually used to build a chapel in her honor. The chapel in Sozopol was built in the 20th century on older foundations and does not contain old icons. In the city the legend of the Virgin’s miracle has been completely forgot- ten, but a series of circumstances confirms the likelihood that the chapel had contained a miracle-working icon.

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