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About the icon Gerontissa:
An elderly hegumen at the Pantokrator Monastery on Athos felt that his end was quickly nearing. He wanted to receive communion before he died, but the priest performing the liturgy was going too slowly for the old man; he worried he might die before he received the bread and wine. So he asked the priest to hurry it up a bit.
The priest, not surprisingly, did not feel like rushing things, so he kept on at the same pace. But suddenly, the tale relates, a stern voice came from the icon of Mary telling the priest in no uncertain terms to do as the old hegumen had requested. Hearing this, the priest quickened the pace, and the old fellow was given communion before he died. Because of its association with the welfare of old people, the icon was given the title Gerondissa, which means "Eldress" or more loosely "Abbess." In Slavic it would be Старица/Staritsa, the feminine form of Starets or elder, but Russian icons of the type keep the Greek form of the name as Герондисса.
As you see, the icon depicts Mary standing, with hands outstretched. But notice the jug on the floor at left. It is an important part of the Gerondissa type, even though it has nothing at all to do with the story just told.
The jug appears to be overflowing with water, but it is not water -- it is olive oil. The "overflowing jug" element of this icon type is derived from another legend associated with the Gerondissa icon. It relates that in the 1600s there was a famine. The oil jugs kept in the monastery pantry were empty. The hegumen asked all the monks to pray fervently to Mary for aid.
Then a stream of oil was noticed, flowing from the pantry. When the monks looked inside, they saw that oil was continuously flowing from one of the jugs, pouring over its rim and out across the floor. That miracle story is the reason for the "overflowing jug" in icons of the Gerondissa.
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