Tea at Trianon: Icon of the Mother of God Nicopeia

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Friday, November 21, 2025

Icon of the Mother of God Nicopeia

From The Liturgical Arts Journal:

This precious and important icon is thought to have been originally located either in the Monastery of Saint John the Forerunner -- sometimes simply called the Stoudios monastery -- or perhaps the Monastery of Christ Pantokrator. Whatever the case, it is, as it was then, considered an important and prestigious icon of Byzantium.
The sixteenth century Italian travel writer, Giovanni Battista Ramusia, lends his own account of the icon's taking:
The barons and the Venetians battered the walls and towers day and night without with various machines, and redoubled the War, conducting many great skirmishes from one area to another; it was in one of these that they valorously acquired the banner of the Tyrant, but with much greater joy a panel on which was painted the image of Our Lady, which the Greek Emperors had continuously carried in their exploits, since all their hopes for the health and salvation of the Empire rested in it. The Venetians held this image dear above all other riches and jewels that they took, and today it is venerated with great reverence and devotion here in the church of San Marco, and it is one that is carried in procession during times of War and plaque, and to pray for rain and good weather.
[...]

The icon itself is really quite beautiful and falls into the "Nicopeia" type which means "Bringer of Victory." Arguably the most famous examples of this type of Theotokos icon are those which can still be found gracing the wall of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople. The title reflects the idea of the Virgin as a protector of Byzantium and icons such as this were frequently employed as a kind of standard, carried in battle by the Eastern Roman emperors. (Read more.)