Three Icons of the Mother of God
On Wednesday
August 26, three miracle-working icons of The Mother of God are commemorated.
They are the icon of the Mother of God of the Passion, the icon of the Mother of God
of the Seven Arrows and the icon of the Mother of God of Minsk…
The icon of the Mother of God of
Minsk was originally brought to Kiev by Prince Vladimir. In 1500, during the
invasion of khan Mengli I Giray, one of the Tatar solders stripped away the
jewels and casing of the icon and threw the icon into the Dnieper River. After
some sometime, the icon ended up floating on the Svisloch River and finally
reached the shores surrounded by a miraculous bright light. The icon was then
carried into the church of Nativity of the Holy Theotokos, which was located in
the castles of the local rulers of Minsk.
Before the Revolution of 1917,
this miracle working icon was in the St. John the Theologian –
Bogolyubsk-Seven-Arrow Church, a small country church on the banks of the
Toshin River, not far from the town of Vologda. In 1830 when cholera was
rampant in Vologda the terrified residents ran for help to the Queen of Heaven,
and taking up her Seven-arrows and Seven-city icons, carried them about the
city in a solemn Procession of the Cross. The epidemic visibly abated, and soon
the cholera entirely disappeared. From that time on, the icon was glorified
through many miraculous healings of the sick.
In the first half of the 17th century, a married woman by the name of was Yekaterina suffering from violent lunacy and lived in the village of Palets, which was a Nizhni Novgorod estate of Prince Lykov-Obotensky. One day, having come to her senses, she began to pray to the Mother of God for a cure and vowed that she would take the veil should her prayers be answered. After she was healed, she broke her vow to become a monastic, and continued to live with her husband all over again, giving birth to several children. Subsequently she look to her bed. In the course of her illness, the Mother of God appeared to her three times, reproaching her for disobedience.
During Her last appearance, the Mother of God commanded Yekaterina to visit icon-painter Grigory in the city of Nizhni Novgorod and pray before the Icon of the Mother of God '"Hodegetria" at his place. The woman obeyed was healed. The holy image was then translated to Prince Lykov's village of Palets and installed in the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Later on, in 17th Century on Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich's orders the icon was brought to Moscow, Here on August 13 the icon was solemnly met at the Tver Gates, where a church was built for it and in 1654 the Monastery of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Passion" was founded.
During Her last appearance, the Mother of God commanded Yekaterina to visit icon-painter Grigory in the city of Nizhni Novgorod and pray before the Icon of the Mother of God '"Hodegetria" at his place. The woman obeyed was healed. The holy image was then translated to Prince Lykov's village of Palets and installed in the Church of Saints Cosmas and Damian. Later on, in 17th Century on Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich's orders the icon was brought to Moscow, Here on August 13 the icon was solemnly met at the Tver Gates, where a church was built for it and in 1654 the Monastery of the Icon of the Mother of God "The Passion" was founded.
