The
Surety of Sinners (Споручница грешных) Icon of the Theotokos is a Russian image
which was revealed as wonder-working during the middle of the 19th century. It
gets it name from the inscription found on the icon:
“I am the
Surety of sinners for My Son Who has entrusted me to hear them, and those who
bring me the joy of hearing them will receive eternal joy through me.”
The word
Sporuchnitsa (Споручница), translated as “surety”, can also be translated as
“pledge” or even as “intercession”. The pledge is not only shown in the
inscription but also in the way Jesus Christ holds His mother’s hand, a sign of
one giving a pledge for the other.
The
origins of the icon are unclear, but the style of the icon (both Mother and
Child are crowned; 12 stars around the Theotokos) suggest either the Ukraine or
Belarus, both places where Western religious art influenced iconographers.
Despite this, the basis for the icon is in a much more ancient source, the
Akathist to the Protection of the Theotokos, in which there is the line:
“Rejoice, You Who offer Your hands in surety for us to God.”
This icon
was first glorified by miracles in 1848 at the St Nicholas Odrino men’s
monastery. The icon was in an old chapel beyond the monastery gates, and stood
between two other ancient icons. Because it was so faded and covered with dust,
it was impossible to read the inscription. It was revealed to many of the
people in dreams that the icon was endowed with miraculous power. They solemnly
brought the icon into the church. Believers began to flock to it to pray for
the healing of their sorrows and sicknesses. The first to receive healing was a
crippled child, whose mother, wife of a merchant named Pochepyn, prayed
fervently before the icon in 1844. The icon was glorified during a cholera epidemic,
when many people fell deathly ill, and were restored to health after praying
before the icon.
With the
revelation of the icon as wonderworking, many copies of the Surety of Sinners
were made, some of which themselves were glorified by God with miracles. As
well as the Odrino monastery, there are miracle-working icons in Moscow and
Robensk.
Source: https://iconreader.wordpress.com/2011/03/19/surety-of-sinners-icon/
CONVERSATION