The Nicaea Icon of the Mother of God first appeared in the city of Nicaea in Anatolia (Asia Minor) sometime in the year 304, which is to say, prior to St Constantine's Edict of Milan which legalized the Christian religion in the Roman Empire. Details are scarce but this is what has been handed down to us by Holy Tradition:
At this time the city was under siege by a certain Hamir. One of the assailing soldiers, whose name was Constantine, caught sight of this Icon of the Theotokos and threw a stone at it and began to trample it underfoot. The Mother of God appeared in a dream that very night to the soldier who had committed this sacrilege upon her holy image and said: "You have insulted me most grievously, and it shall lead to your perishing."
Punishment followed forthwith: during the ensuing battle the solder was struck in the head by a rock and fell down, dead.
This event was recorded by the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council in 325. They decreed that the following hymn should be sung before the holy icon by way of commemoration:
"Your womb has become a Holy Table, which held the Heavenly Bread. Those who partake of it shall not die, as the Nourisher of all has said, O Theotokos."
This is a reference to when he Son of the Most Holy Theotokos, during His earthly Incarnation, told the disbelieving Jewish Sanhedrin:
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me has everlasting life. I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven, that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world." (John 6:47-51)
This Theotokion is sung at Matins of Mid-Pentecost during Ode 5 of the Second Canon. In some Orthodox Prayer Books, it is presented as one of the Prayers After the Evening Meal.
The Nicaea Icon is of a similar design to the Icon of the "Inexhaustible Chalice" Icon.
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