On October 26, 2025, the 20th Sunday after Pentecost, the feast day of the Holy Fathers of the Seventh Ecumenical Council and the feast day of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, a festive Divine Liturgy was celebrated at the Iveron Church in Manila, Philippines.
On this day, the parish prayerfully celebrated the church’s patronal feast.
This feast day of the Iveron Icon of the Mother of God commemorates a historic event in 1648, when the first copy of the icon, created on Mount Athos, was greeted with great honor in Moscow. Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich himself, Patriarch Joseph, along with archpastors, clergy, and a great multitude of the capital’s residents, attended the solemn ceremony.
The Iveron Icon of the Mother of God, also called the Portaissa, or the Gatekeeper, occupies a special place among the miraculous icons of the Mother of God and is deeply venerated by the faithful. The original image is kept in the Iveron Monastery, located on Mount Athos in Greece.
