According to Tradition, the Wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God of Kykkos was painted by the holy Evangelist Luke. It received its name “Kykkiotisa” from Mount Kykkos, on the island of Cyprus. Here it was placed in the imperial monastery, in a church named for it. Before coming to the island of Cyprus, the wonderworking icon of the Mother of God was brought throughout the region by the will of God. At first, it was in one the earliest Christian communities in Egypt, and then it was taken to Constantinople in 980, where it remained in the time of Emperor Alexius Comnenos (end of the eleventh to early twelfth century).
During these years it was revealed to the Elder Isaiah through a miraculous sign, that by his efforts the wonderworking image painted by the Evangelist Luke would be transferred to Cyprus. The Elder exerted much effort to fulfill the divine revelation.
When the icon of the Mother of God arrived on the island, many miracles were performed. The Elder Isaiah was instrumental in building a church dedicated to the Theotokos, and placing the Kykkos Icon in it. From ancient times up to the present day, those afflicted by every sort of infirmity flock to the monastery of the Mother of God the Merciful, and they receive healing according to their faith. The Orthodox are not the only ones who believe in the miraculous power of the holy icon, but those of other faiths also pray before it in misfortune and illness.
The habitants of Attalia venerated the Mother of God “Attaliotissa”, also known as “Tzikko-Panagia”, a deformation of Kykkos Panagia. According to an oral historical tradition, the Holy Evangelist Luke would have given the icon of the Mother of God Attaleiotissa to the Holy Apostle Barnabas, who would have brought it to Antalya, where he stayed with the Holy Apostle Paul during his first missionary journey. According to another tradition, the icon is considered to be a faithful copy of the Icon of the Mother of God kept in the Holy, Royal and Stavropegic Monastery of Kykkos in Cyprus which used to have a metochion in Attalia, where this copy was being venerated by the faithful. This copy healed a paralytic on a Sunday of the Myrrh-bearing women. With the exchange of population following the events of 1922, the habitants of Attalia brought the wonderworking icon to Greece, where it is venerated today in the church of the Dormition of the Mother of God in Tavros, a southwestern part of the Athens agglomeration, where refugees from Asia Minor settled and brought from Antalya the icon of the Attaliotissa (Tzikko-Panagia) and placed it since 1929.
A copy was ordered by the late Metropolitan Sotirios of Pisidia for the church of Saint Alypios the Stylite in Antalya, where it is venerated nowadays by the faithful and solemnly celebrated every year on the Sunday of the Holy Myrrhbearers (third Sunday of Pascha).