The elderly Aghathon died on February 2, in the year 830. The monks, respecting his last wish, continued to keep the icon of Our Lady and the other relics in the monastery crypt. The monks feared the iconoclasts and pirates who ravaged the islands and coastal towns of Asia Minor. In 842, Orthodoxy triumphed and holy icons were raised all over the territory of the Byzantine Empire. From then on the hermitage of Agathon became a pilgrimage site. The icon of Panayia by Luke the Evangelist became renowned, not merely on the island, but all over facing Aeolis. Two pilgrimages to Agia Sion were equivalent to one pilgrimage to the Holy Land.