In the history of Christianity, a great many icon painters. And only a few of them managed to create miraculous images. More precisely, God made them miraculous, allowing them to be such in order to help people, to preserve and increase faith. The Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God is one of such icons. Her story is very interesting.
History of the Icon
In 1765, in the city of Trubchevsk, located in the Bryansk region (formerly the Oryol province), the hieromonk, whom everyone in the Cholny Monastery was called Euthymius, painted an icon. On the icon, he depicted the Virgin with the Savior in his arms. The monk decorated the head of the Prinevada with a crown. The fact of the writing of the icon by Hieromonk Euthymius is evidenced by the inscription on the very image of the Virgin - "1765 Euf". When donations were collected for the Trinity-Scanov Monastery, the monk had nothing more valuable than the Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God.
Trinity-Scanov Monastery - the refuge of the Trubchev Icon
The Trinity-Scanov Monastery was located in the city of Narovchat and belonged to the Penza Diocese.
The monastery is famous for its caves, which are longer in length than the caves of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra. The caves in the last stretch for more than five hundred meters, and in the Trinity-Scanov Monastery - for two kilometers. The monks settled in the caves, leading a hermit lifestyle with the blessing of the abbot of the monastery, carrying obedience, performing the feat of fasting and prayer, testing himself and his faith.
The Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God performed many miracles, and they did not keep themselves waiting. It is a pity that there was no documentary evidence of the phenomena emanating from the icon - the fire in the monastery took with it all the documents stored there.
Miraculous image
Mother of God Trubchevskaya, according to the testimony of old-timers, in the 19th century saved many people from cholera, an epidemic which twice overwhelmed Narovchat and its environs. People were in a panic. They came to the monks and asked for help. The monks and all local residents made a procession with the removal of the miraculous image of the Virgin from the walls of the monastery, around the city. Prayers were heard, the Mother of God saw the zeal of believers. After that, the epidemic stopped, and the monks since then have not known what diseases are. People believed in the miraculous power of the icon. The Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God stood in a number of especially revered, people stretched to her.
When the temple was built in honor of the icon
Not far from the burial place of those who died from the cholera invasion, people thankful for their salvation built a temple in honor of the Trubchevskaya Mother of God. The temple was consecrated on October 3 according to the old, October 16 according to the new style, 1853. Trubchevskaya icon has since been revered especially on this day. Believers, gathering in the church, remember how the Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God helps people. The Akathist is read in honor of her that day. Throughout its history, the image has experienced a lot. But according to God's will, the icon has survived to this day.
Hard trials
The power of the Bolsheviks was a test for many people, especially believers. The Red Army ruined and closed the temples, destroyed everything that was associated with religion.
This fate did not pass the Trinity-Scanov Monastery, and with it the miraculous image of the Virgin. In the 30s of the twentieth century, the new government closed the monastery, organizing a poultry farm in it. The caves in which the hermit monks once inhabited were blown up. Only 600 meters away from the two-kilometer caves. All the decoration was looted, and the Trubchevskaya icon of the Virgin was turned into a stand for museum exhibits in the regional museum of local lore of A.I. Kuprina. All precious decoration was removed from the icon. And, of course, no one cared about the safety of the miraculous canvas, even put potted flowers on a holy image. In 1975, another inventory was made at the museum and wrote that the Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God was lost. But after 18 years, thanks to the search for the missing museum values, the image of the Virgin, painted in Trubchevsk, was found in the storerooms of the same museum.
Miraculous return of the icon
When the Mother of God Trubchevskaya returned to the Trinity-Scanov Monastery (in 1993), three lists were made from her. Once they decided to photograph the miraculous image.
According to the memoirs of the journalist
V.A. Polyakov, who was in the temple at that time, turned out to be an extremely cloudy day. Clouds covered the whole sky, not leaving a single gap. The corner in which the icon hung was barely lit by a lamp. The visitor, taking a camera and pointing the lens at the icon, decided that, although it was unpromising to make high-quality pictures, she still needed to try. Suddenly, sunlight poured into the grating window, located under the very dome of the church, illuminating the image of the Virgin so that he began to sparkle with colors, and a
halo appeared
above the head of the Virgin. Only two or three pictures were taken before the sun again disappeared behind the impenetrable clouds. Everyone who was present at that moment unanimously decided that the icon was happy to return to the temple. By the way, it was Polyakov - not only a journalist, but also a local historian - who did everything possible to find the icon. Of course, after careless handling of it during the years of Soviet power, the icon suffered greatly, it was all covered with mold, the board and canvas were crumpled. But the miraculous icon was restored in the
Holy Trinity-Sergius Lavra. The restoration lasted a long nine months. But the image was brought back to life.
Virgin Trubchevskaya works wonders again
At first, the miracles emanating from the icon were just a legend. But faith, the Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God, prayer — fervent, with a broken heart — do their work.
Today, as many decades ago, many people are saved by the grace of the Queen of Heaven. Trubchevskaya icon helps to defeat disease and misfortune. The only difference is that before it was cholera, and now - no less terrible tuberculosis, cancer and many other diseases. There are no such queues for this icon as for Matrona of Moscow, but behind the glass on the chain there are so many gold jewelry brought in gratitude for extending the life or giving birth to a child, for saving from death or getting rid of dependence. Each item is a testimony of a miracle created by prayer to the Mother of God.
The first of modern miracles occurred in the early 2000s. The mother of a four-year-old girl told the abbot of the monastery that her daughter wasn’t talking, and she received advice to pray at the miraculous face of the Virgin. The woman prayed, then her daughter was anointed with oil from a lamp burning near the icon. A few days later, the girl’s mother reported that the baby started talking.
Modern evidence of the miraculous icon
The nuns of the Trinity-Skanov Monastery can recall a lot of stories of parishioners who were helped by the Trubchev icon. The prayer at the icon of a resident of Penza, who was discharged from the cancer center with the last stage of cancer, gave her the opportunity to come to the monastery for more than seven years, falling gratefully to the face of the Virgin and replenishing oil supplies, all from the same lamp that illuminates the Trubchev icon of the Mother of God .
What else do they pray when they face a miraculous face? For example, an aunt living in the city of Saransk came to a monastery to pray for a niece from America. Then a powerful hurricane struck the state in which the niece’s house was located, erasing, as it turned out later, an entire city from the face of the earth. But one house still survived - the house of the same niece on a piece of land with a radius of ten meters. What is it if not a miracle? This is a miracle that the Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God performed, prayer and faith.
And nuns can remember a story about a mother and a drug addict daughter from a Protestant sect. The exhortations of the abbess of the monastery to confess and be unified did not convince them. Women said that only when they see a miracle with their own eyes, then they will believe. After these words, her daughter’s legs were so swollen that she could not budge, and when the girl passed through the sacrament of unction, the tumor passed by itself. A few years later this girl returned to the monastery without her mother, but with her husband and beautiful daughter.
Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God: where is it located?
Having returned to the Trinity-Scanov Monastery, the icon still occupies a place of honor there. Not only the inhabitants of Russia come to the icon to pray, but also believers from other countries.
Mother of God Trubchevskaya is especially venerated by Catholics. The image of the Virgin in the crown is atypical for Orthodoxy, but common among Catholics. Due to the constant change of belonging to a particular state in the 14-18 centuries, Trubchevsk and other settlements of this area were exposed to Western Christian culture. Apparently, from here comes the crown of the Mother of God. In Trubchevsk itself and before the revolution there were several lists of the Trubchevskaya icon. Today, many pilgrims passed and pass through the monastery, where the icon is located. This shrine is revered in many countries of the world.
To believe in God or not to believe, of course, is everyone's business. But, regardless of the faith of each person, miracles sent in the form of healings, salvation from death, through prayers to certain icons, have occurred and will continue to happen. Faced with similar cases, which cannot be explained in any way, except for the help of higher powers - the Lord, the Blessed Virgin Mary and other saints - a person says that this is a miracle. Even atheists begin to think about the existence of God. The Trubchevskaya icon of the Mother of God, like other miraculous icons, helps people gain and strengthen faith.