On July 9 the
Orthodox Church celebrates the feast day of the Icon of the Mother of God of
Seven Lakes (also known as Sedmiezernaya). This icon was highly revered in the 17th century, when an outbreak of plague happened in the city
of Kazan.
The original
icon is kept today in St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in Kazan. This is one of the
greatest sacred images of Tatarstan, which is honored as much as the icon of
the Mother of God of Kazan. The feast of the icon is celebrated three times a
year: July 9 – the day the city of Kazan was saved from plague, August 10 – the
feast of the icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk, and October 26 – the day
the icon was moved from Kazan to Monastery of Seven Lakes.
The settlement surrounded by seven lakes
Schemamonk Evphimiy
presented the miraculous icon of the Mother of God to Monastery of Seven Lakes. He was born
in the end of the 16th century in the city of Veliky Ustyug. When his parents passed
away, he moved to Kazan together with his brother. As Evphimiy was a calm and
righteous man, he decided to find a quiet place to live. Thus he settled
down in a place surrounded by seven lakes, 11 miles far from the city.
When the
schemamonk came there and built a small hut, he saw a pillar of fire rising
over the it. Then Evphimiy understood that the place, where he had settled
down, was unusual and chosen by God Himself. He made a cross there and built a small room for himself.
A Family Icon
The talks about
pious Evphimiy and his life spread all over the area, and people began to visit
him. Monks and novices began to settle near his cell, and very soon the
monastery was officially organized there. At first it was called Ascension
Monastery. Elder Evphimiy was
called to Monastery of Transfiguration in Kazan (which does not exist now), where he asked the metropolitan to bless his patrimonial
miraculous icon, so that he could present it to the newly opened Monastery of
Seven Lakes. It was hard for him to leave the icon, which was handed down in their
family from generation to generation. But the monk loved people and the
monastery, and that is why he made a decision to present the miraculous icon, so that any one could come to venerate it or pray in front of it.
The brethren
were pleased with such a great gift. After that, people began to visit the
monastery to venerate the icon and to make donations towards the development of the
monastery. Later the wooden church was rebuilt from stone, the father superior of the monastery was chosen, and another one church was built – the church in honor of the icon
of the Mother of God of Smolensk, which remains until today.
Salvation from the plague
In 1654 plague
raged all over Russia. According to the scriptures, more than 40,000 people
died in Kazan. The city was dying and people did not know where to ask for
help. People decided to bring the icon from the Monastery of Seven Lakes to
Kazan.
The same night,
Saint Nicholas appeared to a pious nun by the name of Marfa in her dream. He
told her that the city would be saved and added: “Go to the authorities and say
that they should welcome the Mother of God with honor”. She did not take the
vision seriously and fell asleep again. Then the Saint appeared again and said:
“There is no time for rest. The Mother of God is standing behind the city wall.
Tell the authorities about this”.
Then the
citizens with the authorities and the clergy took the miraculous icon of the
Mother of God of Kazan and went toward the welcoming procession. On the place, where the two groups of people met, the Kizichesky Monastery
was built later. People venerated the miraculous icon and asked for salvation.
When people went around the city with the icon, it was placed in the Cathedral
of the Annunciation. According to the story, the plague went away after that.
How the icon protects Kazan
In two weeks
the monks from the Monastery of Seven Lakes came to the city to take the icon
back. The weather was sunny on that day. At the moment they tried to move the
icon out of the cathedral, the weather changed and the storm came to the city.
The clergy understood that it was not right time to move the icon back, and decided to leave it in the cathedral for a year.
Since that time
people have celebrated the salvation of Kazan on July 9. The icon of Seven Lakes performed
a real miracle. For several years people brought the icon to Kazan and left it there for several months to avoid another outbreak. During that time, the
monks held processions with the icon in the city during the day and at night. Thus the icon
protected the city. The Mother of God saved the city from the same outbreak for
the second time in 1956.
There is also a
story about miraculous healing. In the end of the 19th century,
Vyezdnoye village in Nizhniy Novgorod region was endangered by plague. The
monks learned that the miraculous icon of the Mother of God of Seven Lakes
is kept in Kazan. They ordered a copy of the miraculous icon and then the procession
with this copy went through the village. On the place, where the procession
stopped, the cathedral of the icon of the Mother of God of Smolensk was built.
Present day miracles
Even today, the
Icon of the Mother of God of Seven Lakes continues to heal dreadful and
incurable diseases. Archimandrite German (the abbot of Monastery of Seven
Lakes) says that once a woman came to the monastery after an evening service.
Her sad look and teary eyes did not leave priests indifferent. The pious woman told a priest that her granddaughter was dying. At that time, the
nine-year-old girl was in the Children's Republican Clinical Hospital. She had a high fever and the doctors could not bring the temperature down. They also could not diagnose
or help her. The woman who knew that the glorified copy of the Icon of
the Mother of God of Seven Lakes had helped people a lot of times came to ask
for help. That evening they all gathered and prayed together for the health of
her granddaughter. Finally, a miracle happened. The woman called the hospital
and found out that the temperature fell to 36.6 C.
The miracles were not limited to ordinary people, but also civil servants, politicians and famous people
venerated the icon in the monastery of Seven Lakes. So, once a minister came to
the monastery. He told that he had acute kidney failure. He was to have the surgery in Germany, but doctors said he would not survive the flight. Then he came to
the church and asked the Mother of God of Seven Lakes for help. When his
kidneys failed, he was operated in Russia and he got through the operation. The
relatives and doctors could not believe for a long time that the man who was
doomed to die actually recovered.
Translated from: http://www.tatarstan-mitropolia.ru/all_publications/publication/?id=47910
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