A wonderful lithography with a varnish layer and high quality gold paint depicting Virgin Mary / Panagia Sumela (Soumela). An icon aesthetically upgraded with collective value due to the handmade artificial ageing it has undergone. This is an exact copy of a Byzantine hagiography. The Virgin Mary is the Theotokos, the mother of Jesus Christ, the Son and Word of God. She conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit. She was cared for by her betrothed husband, Joseph, who took the child and his mother into his home as his own. One very strong tradition in the Orthodox Church holds that the birth of Jesus was also miraculous and left Mary's virginity intact as a sign; it is also the tradition of the Church that Joseph and Mary did not have relations after the birth of Jesus.