An image of the Mother of God breast-feeding the Infant Christ has been known in Eastern Christian art since the 3rd century. The earliest surviving image of the Theotokos Galaktotrofusa is a 3rd century fresco in the Priscilla catacomb in Rome. The image was particularly popular in post-Byzantine Italo-Greek art. During the 14th – 15th centuries there developed different iconographic types of the Mother of God the Milk-Feeder. Unlike the Western art tradition treating this scene as something natural, Eastern iconographers considered this scene indiscreet. In Rus, such depictions of the Mother of God have been known since the 14th – 15th centuries, but especially widespread they have become since the 17th century.

The Mother of God is portrayed ankle-length, the Infant Christ is shown to the right or left of the Mother of God. She holds him with one hand and touches his feet with the other. Her head is inclined towards Christ whom she is breast-feeding. The Child is shown half-lying on the Holy Virgin’s knees. The Mother of God’s hair is not hidden under a hood but falls down her neck in locks.

The Russian Orthodox tradition considers miraculous two icons of the Mother of God Galaktotrofusa. One of them is located in the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos, at the Karyes Cell. This wonderworking icon was originally located in the Monastery of St. Sabbas the Sanctified (died in 532), 18 km away from Jerusalem. On the deathbed, St. Sabbas foretold that one day a Serbian pilgrim would visit the monastery. The monks would give him the icon of the Mother of God the Milk-Feeder and bless him. In the 13th century Sabbas of Serbia visited the monastery and was handed over the two icons of the Mother of God – “The Milk-Feeder” and “The Three-Handed.” St. Sabbas later passed the icon of the Mother of God Galaktotrofusa to the Hilandar Monastery on Mount Athos. The icon is commemorated on January 25 (January 12, O.S.).

Another wonderworking icon of the Mother of God the Milk-Feeder was discovered in 1650 near Minsk, in the village of Krestogorsk, on a high tree. The icon is commemorated on August 28 (August 15, O.S.).

Zhanna G. Belik,

Ph.D. in Art history, senior research fellow at the Andrei Rublyov Museum, custodian of the tempera painting collection.

Olga E. Savchenko,

research fellow at the Andrei Rublyov Museum.

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