It is with particular pleasure that we deliver the present volume to the public. This volume constitutes the first publication of the collection of icons of the Holy Monastery of Pantokrator - some of the most important and noteworthly treasures which our Monastery has in its possession today. We would like to ask our readers not to regard the icons in this book merely as a creation of art and not to scrutinise them only with the interest reserved for a museum piece which speaks to us of the realities of some other age. This would be less than just only to the spirit of the icon and its painter; but to them also as it would deprive themselves of the joy of a living, true and personal communication with the Saints, the friends of God, and the Theotokos, the Mother of the Lord and the Mother of us all, with the result that they will remain without the real and perceptible presence of Our Saviour Christ. [...] (από τον πρόλογο του βιβλίου)