According to legend, three monks miraculously found an icon of the Virgin Mary hanging from a myrtle branch on the island of Chios. The Nea Moni, or New Monastery, now stands on the site of this discovery, and it contains both centuries-old artwork and an ossuary filled with bones from the area’s greatest tragedy. Per the institution’s founding story, those three monks visited Constantine IX, then exiled on the nearby island of Lesbos. Told the story of the icon and a vision that he would become emperor, Constantine promised the monks that if he…
