Mother of God, Trojeručica (Three-handed)

A distinctive feature of the icon of the Mother of God, known as the Trojeručica (Three-handed) is the additional third hand painted within Mary's robes. The origins of this type of depiction can be traced back to the eighth century, when the ban on icon worship introduced in Byzantium was opposed by one of the Fathers of the Church, John of Damascus. At the time, he was the administrator in the Islamic Caliphate. In an act of revenge, Emperor Leo III sent a letter to the caliph charging the Saint with suspected treason. Believing the false accusation, the caliph ordered the Saint's hand to be cut off at the wrist and put on public display. When the Saint recovered his severed hand, he pressed it to his hand, praying in front of the icon of the Mother of God - he fell asleep, and upon waking saw that his wrist had miraculously grown together with his hand. John had a votive offering made from silver in the shape of a hand and attached it to the icon. He then joined the Holy Lavra of Saint Sabbas in the Judaean Desert and took with him an image of the Mother of God with a silver votive offering. The icon, given to the Serbian Archbishop Sava II in the 13th century,

was taken to the Hilandar Monastery on the Athos peninsula in the 14th century after the Turks occupied Serbia. A copy of the icon was offered to the Patriarch Nikon in 1661 and placed in the New Jerusalem Monastery near Moscow, helping to spread the image. However, the legend of the miraculous healing of the hand of John of Damascus was not popularised in Russia. Therefore, the hand-shaped votive offering on the original began to be painted as a third hand belonging to the Mother of God. The Most Holy Governing Synod in 1722 forbade the creation of an image of the Three-Handed Mother of God, which did not conform to the canon. However, it enjoyed great veneration and the ban was not strictly enforced.

Teresa Bagińska-Żurawska https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9243-3967