On December 4, the day of the Feast of the Entrance of the Most Holy Theotokos into the Temple, the Ukrainian icon of the Most Holy Theotokos "Spring of Mercy" was placed at the Papal audience in the Cathedral of St. Dionysius the Areopagite in Athens.
On the evening of December 3, the icon was delivered to the cathedral by Fr. Ihor Posolenyk, pastor for Ukrainian Greek Catholics in Greece, and Fr. Peter Fucio from Slovakia together with his sister Christofora CHSVV, where the icon stayed all night. The next day, December 4, it was placed near Pope Francis during his audience, becoming the decoration of the apostolic visit. This is reported by the UGCC Information Department.
On December 19, the feast day of St. Nicholas, the Wonderworker of Myra in Lycia, the icon "Spring of Mercy" will be solemnly introduced and consecrated in the Cathedral of the Most Holy Trinity by Bishop Manuel Nina and displayed for public veneration. By that time, the icon will be located in the chapel of the Apostolic Exarchate for Greek Catholics.
The peculiarity of the icon is that it will become the patroness of emigrants who will pray before it, begging for the help of the Holy Theotokos in their needs.
On December 4-6, Pope Francis was making a visit to the Hellenic Republic, which was extensively supported by the Ukrainian community. The icon of the Theotokos "Spring of Mercy" is the first copy to arrive in Athens. The original icon is located in the missionary congregation of St. Andrew the Apostle in Ivano-Frankivsk.