Summary
In the Art Gallery “Dimitar Dobrovich” in Sliven an icon of the Virgin Gorgoepikoos (Skoroposlushnica), painted in 1818, is kept. The central representation, according to its inscription and iconography, is a copy of the homonymous miracle-working icon of the Docheiariou monastery on Mount Athos. The Virgin with Christ is surrounded by six medallions with depictions of the miracles, made by the Virgin and her miraculous icon. In two of these scenes there are represented also the archangels Michael and Gabriel. In the lower part of the icon there is a depiction with the ktetors of the Docheiariou monastery - the monks Euthymios and Neophytos, as well as a dedicatory inscription of 1818, which is not wellpreserved. All the inscriptions of the icon are in Greek. To date there are no other known depictions of the miracles of the Sliven’s icon. It seems that they are related to an unpublished manuscript of the Docheiariou monastery, which was used by Nikodemus the Hagiorite in his book Synaxarion. Among the settlements, where the fame of the Virgin Gorgoepikoos was spread, Nikodemus the Hagiorite refers also to the town of Sliven. The icon is related with the metochion of the Docheiariou monastery in Sliven, established at the end of the 18th century. The mentioned in its dedicatory inscription person, named Ioannikios, is probably the same name monk of the Docheiariou monastery, who was oikonomos of the metochion at the beginning of the 19th century.
