“Those who pray before your holy icon, O Lady, Are vouchsafed healing and receive the knowledge of the true faith”

Everyday we ask the Mother of God for intersection and for her help. Today’s post will focus on the Belorussian  the Icon of the Mother of God of Zhirovichi, through which there have been many miracles and in front of which many people who have prayed in front of the icon received and answer to their prayers. The icon itself is very small, only 5.6 by 4.4cm. The icon is oval shaped made from imperial jade with the image of the Most Holy Theotokos and Christ Child carved unto it. The icon is currently located in western Belarus in the Dormition cathedral in Zhirovichi Monastery. Here are just few miracles beginning with the miraculous appearance of the icon:

The Zhirovichi Icon of the Mother of God appeared in the 15^th century in the vicinity of Zhirovits on the Grodnensk frontier. In the forest, belonging to the Orthodox Lithuanian dignitary Alexander Solton, shepherds beheld an extraordinarily bright light, while peering through the branches of a pear tree that stood over a brook at the foot of a hill. The shepherds came closer and saw a radiant icon of the Mother of God on the tree. With reverence, the shepherds took the icon to Alexander Solton. Alexander Solton did not pay any attention to the report of the shepherds, but he took the icon and placed it in a chest.

On the following day, Solton had guests, and he wanted to show them what had been found. To his amazement, he did not find the icon in the chest, although he had seen it shortly before this. After a certain time the shepherds again found the icon in the same place, and again they brought it to Alexander Solton. This time, however, he received the icon with great reverence and vowed to build a church in honor of the Most Holy Theotokos at the place of the icon’s discovery. Around the wooden church a settlement soon gathered and a parish was formed. 

A woman who lived near the monastery where the Icon of the Mother of God of Zhirovichi was located, was suffering greatly during childbirth. Even the most experienced doctors could not ease her pain and the woman could have died. But when she was allowed to venerate the Holy Icon, she gave birth to healthy baby and was quickly healed herself.

3rd Miracle

A woman by the name of Anna Gerchingova was dying from tuberculosis. When her relatives came to visit her, they decided to stop at the monastery and pray in front of the icon and shortly after, Anna was miraculously healed.

4th Miracle

A boy by the name of Gennadi from the age of 9 had a growing and inoperable brain tumor. The doctors admitted that they was nothing they could do, while the boy suffered from pain and was in the intensive care unit five times. The child was slowly dying. With hope and faith, the mother took him to the Zhirovichi monastery and to the spring where the icon appeared. Later, when the doctors did another cranial CT  scan, they could not find the tumor! The family is now a constant visitor of the monastery and the icon as they continue to glorify God and thank the Mother of God for her interssession.

5th Miracle

Anna Meleshko, a resident of a village by the name of Belaia (white), lost the ability to speak. After suffering from the illness for two years she was healed after praying on front of the icon, confession (written on a paper) and partaking of the Holy Communion.

6th Miracle

A woman who’s leg had to be amputated due to a spreading illness, was miraculously healed after venerating a printed copy of the Zhirovits Icon of the Mother of God.

7th Miracle

A boy named Parfenii from a village called Orgodnik, was healed from his illnesses after paying in front of the icon.

8th Miracle

Osip Vernat, a rich landowner from the Sinchak village, was suffering from a horrible and unknown illness. He could not get any help from the various doctors. He decided then to pray in front of a copy of the holy icon and promised to go to the monastery for a pilgrimage. Before he could finish saying his promise, he was healed.