Here's another question I have - why is her cheek bleeding?
) icon, named after the Athonite monastery, also known as Portaitissa
(of the Portal) has quite a colorful history. During the ninth century, Emperor Theophilus, who was an iconoclast, ordered the wholesale destruction of icons, wherever they were. His troops would raid churches, houses, and anywhere they thought icons could be found. A soldier saw this icon of the Mother of God at a woman's house, and stabbed it with his sword. The Virgin's face immediately began to bleed, and the soldier fled in fright.
How this woman's icon found its way to Mt Athos is another, and wonderful, story.
There are other icons of the Mother of God which have bled after being attacked. The Cypriot Makhairas
(Of the Dagger
) icon is one, where, IIRC, a Saracen attacked the icon, which bled. This miracle not only led him to repent of his act, but he was also later baptized into the Christian faith.