“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:
1st Miracle
The Zhirovichi Icon of
the Mother of God appeared in the 15th 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.
2nd Miracle
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.
Sources:
https://oca.org/saints/lives/2011/05/07/101325-icon-of-the-mother-of-god-of-zhirovits
http://zhirovichi-monastery.by/monastyr/obraz/2
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