Blachernitissa

[1] The Theotokos was considered to be the intercessory protectress par excellence of Constantinople and, indeed, of the entire Eastern Roman Empire (called "Byzantium" by some modern Western scholars).

[3] He was met by the Tsar in person,[4] and Alexis had the icon enshrined in Moscow's main church, the Dormition Cathedral, opposite Russia's protectress, the Theotokos of Vladimir.

The 1650s were a time when the Russian Church, steered by Patriarch Nikon, began to place great store on renewing its ties with the older members of the Pentarchy.

Nikodim Kondakov was unable to determine the icon's age due to this and later restorations, which involved some amount of overpainting, but felt reasonably certain that "the composition was of ancient date".

An original Greek inscription recently discovered under the coat of wax paints has a parallel in a lead seal from a Trapezunt monastery, also datable to the 13th century.