THE elder raced over to the monastery, where he was amazed to find his icon, which he had left behind in his haste, hanging on the gatepost. He took it gratefully, and went in.
He repeated his lesson, and Abbot Thomas and twenty-five others decided to stay, while the rest hid in the woods. The emissaries of Patriarch Bekkos and the Pope duly arrived with their conciliar documents, and began a joint worship service; but Thomas’s monks refused to participate, locking themselves in the tower and giving the delegation a piece of their mind through the door. So the soldiers lit torches, and soon the tower burst into greedy flame. When at last their brethren crept back from the woods, nothing remained among the ashes but the icon of Mary, quite unharmed.*
After Emperor Michael died in 1282, his son Andronikos immediately recalled Bekkos’s predecessor, Joseph, who had resigned in protest over the planned Union. It was officially revoked by the Council of Blachernae in 1285.
The icon survives there to this day, named ‘Of the Akathist’ after the hymn the elder was singing when the Virgin appeared. The martyrs are commemorated every year on October 10th.