Imagine walking the same dark corridor every night for years, a smoking torch in your hand, past an icon you have stopped noticing. Then one night, the icon speaks.
That is exactly what happened to a monk named Nilus in 1664, at the Monastery of Dochiariou on Mount Athos. What he heard that night gave the world one of its most beloved icons of the Mother of God — the Gorgoepikoos, "She Who Is Quick to Hear."
Nilus was the monastery's trapezar — the brother in charge of the refectory. His duties took him late at night past an icon of the Theotokos painted on the wall near the dining hall. He carried a pine torch, and without thinking he held it close to the icon each time he passed, until soot began to darken the holy image.
One evening he heard a voice: "Do not blacken my image." Nilus shrugged it off as his imagination and went on as before. Soon after, the voice came again — and this time the careless monk lost his sight.
Blind and humbled, Nilus did the only thing left to him. He came back to the same icon he had ignored, and he prayed there with tears, day after day, asking forgiveness. And the Mother of God answered. Nilus heard her voice a third time, telling him that his prayer had been heard, that his sight was restored — and that from now on she would be called Quick to Hear, because she would answer swiftly all who came to her with faith.
It is easy to read this as a warning, and it is one. But look at the shape of it. The same icon that exposed Nilus's carelessness became the place of his healing. The Mother of God did not send him away; she waited for him to turn around.
Most of us are more like Nilus than we would like to admit. We walk past our icon corner in a hurry. We say our prayers with half our mind on the day ahead. The Quick to Hear icon is a gentle reminder of two things at once:
You need nothing elaborate. Place the icon in your icon corner, ideally on an eastern wall, with a lampada or candle before it. Then:
Many families keep this icon near the entrance or by a bedside, precisely because it is the image people reach for when help is needed now.
$45.00 CAD
Shop this icon →It is Greek for "quick to hear" or "swift to hearken" — the name the Mother of God herself gave the icon after healing the monk Nilus.
The original wall icon is still at the Monastery of Dochiariou on Mount Athos, where pilgrims venerate it to this day.
The Quick to Hear icon is commemorated on November 9 (November 22 on the Old Calendar).
Nilus learned the hard way that the Mother of God is listening. The good news is that we can learn it the gentle way — by stopping, lighting a candle, and speaking to her. If you would like this icon in your own home, the Mother of God Quick to Hear icon is in stock and ships from Canada.
