Nun Thavoria has lived the monastic life atop Mount Tabor in the Holy Land at the Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior. She is originally from Crete. Her work at the Monastery is as an Iconographer, which are sold not only in the Holy Land but throughout Greece and Cyprus. She has painted around 270 icons for the Patriarchate of Jerusalem alone.
In 2012 Nun Thavoria came down with an eye ailment that was making her lose her sight. She couldn't see the food she was eating or the ground she was walking on. Despite this, she continued to paint icons.
Shortly before she began to lose her sight, Nun Thavoria was painting an icon the Panagia Paramythia (of Consolation). She had to stop working on it when her sight began to fade too much.
Since no one was interested in purchasing the Panagia Paramythia icon, Nun Thavoria requested that it be taken to a church in Nazareth. There the icon became a source of many miracles over the course of six months, not only for Christians but also for Muslims. This made the icon famous throughout the world, with many pilgrims coming from all over to venerate it.
In August 2012 the icon was taken to Thessaloniki by request so the people could venerate it. Before it departed, however, Nun Thavoria was also healed of her eye ailment through the grace of the Panagia Paramythia, and she was able to see after praying before the icon she herself painted. After this miracle, she wrote a song to the Panagia Paramythia (which can be heard towards the end of the video below).
It was brought to Thessaloniki by a woman named Katerina. There it was taken from house to house as a blessing and for those in need it became a source of healing various physical ailments.
Eldress Ioanna at the Hesychasterion of Saint George in Anydros of Giannitsa heard of the miraculous icon, and requested that it be brought to their Monastery on the feast of the icon for a few days, and it was indeed brought there for the feast on January 21, 2013.
A few days later, as preparations were being made for the icon to return to the Holy Land, and it was taken from the cells of the nuns to the katholikon, a countless number of birds came and flew over the Monastery and perched all over, chirping joyfully. There were so many birds that you could not even walk in the area of the Monastery without hardly stepping on one. Not only had this never happened before, but especially not in the middle of the winter. It was as if they came to offer their veneration to the Mother of God.
Because of this miracle, it was realized that the icon had found its home, and it remained at the Hesychasterion. Shortly after a church was built to house the icon which is dedicated to the Panagia Paramythia, and today the full name of the Monastery is the Hesychasterion of Saint George and the Panagia Paramythia.
