National Bank of the Republic of Belarus

500 belorussian rubles

500,0 g

90,00 х 135,00 mm

Silver 925°

600 pcs.

Proof

Svetlana Zaskevich (The Republic of Belarus)

BH Mayer Mint (Germany)

Obverse: in the center there is an ornament in the form of a grapevine symbolizing the Virgin Mary, inside – the fineness of the coin and the memorial cross fixed in a citadel in Zaslawye in honor of the celebration of 1000th anniversary of the Orthodox Church in Belarus. At the top – a relief image of the State Emblem of the Republic of Belarus and the inscription in two lines: «РЭСПУБЛІКА БЕЛАРУСЬ»; at the bottom – the face value «500 РУБЛЁЎ», on the right of the face value – the year of issue. Reverse: in the center there is an image of Iviron Theotokos; above it – images of angels and inscriptions in Greek; against the background of the stylized image of a grapevine with branches there are images of apostles and evangelists: Peter, John, Mark, Andrew, James, Thomas, Paul, Matthew, Luke, Simon, Bartholomew, Philip; the images of halos over the Savior, the Virgin, the apostles and evangelists as well as a star on the clothes of the Virgin are made of gold; at the bottom – the inscription: «ІВЕРСКАЯ».

According to the legend of Mount Athos the image of the God Mother, known as Iviron icon, first revealed its wonders in the reign of Byzantine Emperor Theophilos (IX century). In the IX century Iviron icon (which is now kept on Mount Athos) belonged to a pious widow, who lived near the city of Nicaea. During the reign of the Emperor Theophilus (829 – 842) iconoclasts came to the house of this Christian woman and destroy the holy icon with a spear shot. The affected area of the icon immediately started to bleed. The widow, fearing the destruction of the relic, promised the imperial soldiers money and asked them to not touch the icon till the next morning. When they left, the woman and her son (later an Athonite monk) put the holy icon into the sea to save it. Standing on the water the icon reached Athos.