Our Lady Of Saideneida
Country : Syria
Year :
Outside of Palestine the most famous sanctuary of the Mother of God in the Levant is at a convent of Orthodox nuns, –Dair as-Sagura, within the walls of an ancient fortress on a hill near Damascus.
The origins of this shrine are no longer known, but it goes back to before the separation of the Orthodox Church from Old Rome.
The tradition that associates the Emperor Justinian I (d. 565) is legend. The icon of Our Lady of Saideneida is said to have been brought to its present home in 870, from Constantinople or Jerusalem. The shrine was formerly well known in the West, where from about 1200 it was popularized by the stories of strange miracles that were related of the image; today it is much resorted to by Mohammedans as well as Christians.
