The image of the Kazan Mother of God is miraculous, this icon is one of the most revered in the Orthodox world. Lists from it are present in almost every church, and Ivan the Terrible had one of the copies of the icon. Unusual and shrouded in mystery is not only the story of its acquisition, miraculously appeared many Orthodox icons. An interesting story is the veneration of the image. This icon has its own churches and even monasteries located in different parts of the country. Among them, Yaroslavl and Moscow stand out especially. Where is the icon of the Kazan Mother of God? A question to which there is no single answer since the century before last.
In addition to popular love, truly all-Russian veneration and many legends associated with miracles created before the image, the icon also has an official special status since the end of the 17th century. It was then that Alexei Mikhailovich Romanov ordered to honor the image on October 22 in all cities of the country every year. At the same time in Kolomenskoye the Romanovs' house church was laid in honor of this icon. Other representatives of the dynasty were also especially relevant to the image. And this gave rise to many historians, starting from the century before last, to wonder about where the icon of the Kazan Mother of God is actually located.
How was the image acquired?
At the end of the 16th century, fires raged in Kazan. One of them, which happened in 1579, destroyed part of the ancient city. Entire areas burned out, and of course, it became a big grief. An miracle was urgently needed that could unite and inspire people, give them faith in tomorrow and the strength to overcome difficulties in the present. And this miracle happened.
On the night after the fire was raging and only the smoking ashes remained from most of the city, the little girl had a wonderful dream. The child, who was only 10 years old, the next day told that she had appeared at night in the dream of the Virgin and indicated the place where her icon-painting image lies under a pile of ash. This turned out to be true: having examined the blockage, people found the face of the Mother of God untouched by the flame.
In this way, Kazan gained its famous miraculous image. Icon of the Kazan Mother of God, where is it now, according to the official version of the church? She is lost. But many believe that she is in the same place where she appeared before people for the first time. At the place of discovery, a monastery was laid without delay. The monastery is called the Bogoroditsky girl’s monastery. This is a monument of architecture and history, which is one of the most beautiful in Kazan and has a federal status, that is, it is protected by the state.
What is quite curious, the first nun in the monastery, where the icon of the Kazan Mother of God is located (or a copy of it), was the very girl who saw a prophetic dream. Parents called this girl from birth Matrona. Having taken monastic tonsure, she became the Moor.
When was the image acquired?
Not every famous and revered icon can be said that it is known for certain about all the facts associated with its acquisition. The described miraculous image is an exception. The history of the appearance was recorded in great detail by the priest of the Gostinodvorsky church of the city of Yermolai, the future patriarch Germogen.
Accordingly, there are no inaccuracies, reasons for doubt or other considerations related to acquiring an image. The questions that arise for curious believers, historians studying Orthodoxy are related to where the original icon of the Kazan Mother of God is located and whether it exists now.
The date of acquisition of the image is July 8, 1579. And what is quite curious, even before the onset of 1580 and before the opening of the Bogoroditsky monastery, the first list was sent to the tsar to Moscow. Of course, the autocrat to whom such a parcel was addressed was Ivan the Terrible.
A literary work about how they found out in the city where the icon of the Kazan Mother of God is located, about her direct discovery under the ashes and the first miracles created in a way, appeared in 1594. It is called "The Tale and Miracles of the Most Holy Theotokos, an honest and glorious Her appearance of the image, like in Kazan." The story was composed by Hermogenes, that year he was not yet a patriarch, but already Metropolitan of Kazan.
About the first miracles
The first miracles associated with this image began shortly after the townspeople found out where the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan was located and freed her from the rubble. They are described in detail in his work devoted to this icon-painting image, Hermogenes.
The news of a dream that visited a little girl quickly spread throughout the city. It is not surprising that a crowd of curious people gathered around the parsed blockage, which Matron pointed to as the location of the image. After the icon-painted face was discovered, these people composed a procession accompanying the found image of the Virgin to the nearest temple. Among the people accompanying the image of Kazan were the blind - they were healed. Of course, the icon immediately received the status of miraculous.
On the meaning of the image and the historical moments associated with it
For quite a long time, veneration of the image was limited to a place in Kazan, where the icon of the Kazan Mother of God was found. In Kazan, the lines of the afflicted were lined up for the Virgin, and in other cities almost nothing was known about her. Many historians attribute this to the fact that the tsar was indifferent to the list from the image sent to him from Kazan.
But everything changed in 1606, when Hermogenes, personally present when the face of the Virgin was found, assumed the duties of the patriarch. Of course, the icon owes popular love and reverence not only to the patriarch. At the beginning of the XVII century, the Time of Troubles began and a difficult period of actual anarchy.
The first militia was blessed by Germogen, and as a special testimony to this, the icon of the Virgin was brought from the Kazan Annunciation Cathedral under the walls of the Moscow Kremlin. Of course, it was a copy. However, many historians doubt that it was the list with the image that was delivered to the militia. The stakes were too great; the point was to preserve not only the independence of Russia, but also the very fact of the existence of the state.
Whatever the case, the Kazan icon of the Mother of God played a huge role in the Time of Troubles. Where is the original - nobody asked such a question in those years. People simply believed in support from heaven and expected a miracle from the image.
It is known for certain that already at the convocation of the Second Militia, the Protopop of the Annunciation Cathedral from Kazan was with the icon in Yaroslavl. This is rather strange, since in the Yaroslavl region for several years the monastery of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God acted. The monastery had its own list with the image, which also had the glory of the miraculous. This fact is also an occasion for questions about where the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan is now located.
Since 1620, the all-Russian official worship of the image began. At the same time, a new temple opened in Moscow opened in honor of the icon. And it was not opened anywhere, but in the very heart of the capital, on Red Square. A Moscow copy was transferred there, which had previously been in a church on Lubyanka. The temple was looted and ceased to exist at the beginning of the last century. But the icon survived, it was transferred to the Epiphany Elohovsky Cathedral.
The significance of the image in Russian history and the spiritual culture of the nation is difficult to overestimate. This icon was given its due not only by ordinary people who revered it for numerous healings and other miracles, but also monarchs who understood the significance of the image. For example, Catherine the Great adorned the salary of the icon located in Kazan with a diamond crown. With this act, the wise ruler not only honored the miraculous image, but also for centuries put an end to rumors that a copy is in the Bogoroditsky monastery and where the icon of the Mother of God of Kazan is stored.
About the style of writing the image
The iconography of this image is quite curious. The writing style is defined as hodegetria. According to legend, for the first time in iconography this type of presentation of the image of the Mother of God was used by the Evangelist Luke. The essence of this style is clear from the name translated into Russian from Greek as "indicating the way."
However, the style is not fully respected. That is, iconography is close to typical, but at the same time, and original. Of course, the author of the first found image is unknown. There are so many lists with the Virgin that they now consider her the founder of her own genre in icon painting.
Where is the manifest image now?
So where is the miraculous icon of the Kazan Mother of God? The official version says that the image was lost in 1904.
The story of her loss is described in detail, even carefully documented. But, unlike written evidence of the miraculous appearance, the story of her loss raises many questions.
How was the image lost?
One of June nights, namely from 28 to 29, a thief entered the temple. This man’s name was Stoyan Chaikin. He got along not only with the face of the Virgin, but also with the image of the Savior, as well as with the offerings of parishioners.
The protocols of the gendarmes were preserved, as was the order of the prosecutor. The thief was caught in record time, but the person abducted was not found. According to the records left after this case, the robber explained that the precious salaries were sold, and the image boards were cut and burned in the furnace.
It is possible that the investigation was under pressure and the gendarmes were forced to close the case and transfer the thief to the hands of the judge in a short time. It is not possible to explain anything else that the interrogators were satisfied with the explanations given by the robber.
The cost of stolen salaries amounted to more than ten thousand rubles. Even if we assume that the thief sold them for a couple of bottles of moonshine, the question arises of where the robber managed to spend the stolen donations, which were at least 600 rubles?
Considering that several attempts were made before this robbery, which turned out to be unsuccessful, doubts arise both in the guilt of the condemned and in the fact of the destruction of the miraculous icon.
Are there any salvation versions of the image?
The most famous version of how the miraculous icon could survive is the story of its replacement on the eve of the robbery.
This story says that the abbess, frightened by the robbery attempts, changed the original image every night under the salary of the list. Having learned in the morning about the misfortune that befell the temple, the woman was afraid to return the image of the Virgin and took him to the church of Yaroslavl miracle workers, standing in the Arsky cemetery.
In order to ensure the preservation of the image, the clergy did not publicly declare what kind of a new icon the modest cemetery church had found. The image in question is still in the temple at the Arskoye cemetery of Kazan.
The second most popular version is the story that the icon turned out to be outside of Russia. In the middle of the last century, she was in the collection of the Englishman Frederick Mitchell-Hedges. A citizen of the British crown was absolutely convinced that he had acquired the original. His confidence was so great that the icon was presented to him at an exhibition in New York in 1964. The image caused great excitement, and by 1970 the Russian diasporas were able to find means to buy the icon. For some time, the Virgin was in a specially built building for her in the Portuguese city of Fatima.
In 1993, the image again moved, this time to the Vatican. And in 2004, the icon was transferred to the Russian Orthodox Church. Cardinal Walter Casper delivered her to Moscow. A year later, Alexy II transferred the Virgin to the Kazan diocese.
Now this image is located in the chapel of the Holy Cross Exaltation Church, in the Bogoroditsky monastery of Kazan.
Can the icons now in Kazan be real?
None of the icons claiming the status of the first manifestation of the image passed art criticism examination. For this reason, the icon of the Mother of God to this day is officially considered lost.
However, the art history examination of the image is not in this case undeniable. How exactly the revealed image looked is known only from the lists from it. From the beginning of the last century, photographs of the icon case of the cathedral, from where the icon was stolen, give no idea about it. The image is closed by a salary almost completely. Lists are not copies in the truest sense of the word, they are simply made in the same style.
One cannot but take into account the likelihood that the genuine icon left Kazan during the lifetime of the patriarch Germogen.
How do believers relate to the icons claiming the status of a manifest image?
The people have incredibly strong faith in the version of the substitution of the image of the abbess. Although this legend does not stand up to criticism, a large number of people believe that in the church of Yaroslavl miracle workers there is a true, manifest image.
The clergy behind the scenes supports the face of the Virgin sent from the Vatican. A religious procession takes place with him, one of which was attended by the patriarch himself.
Should we expect miracles from any of the icons?
This question excites everyone, but first of all it is relevant for people suffering from incurable diseases or struggling for the health of their children.
Any of the icons of the Kazan Mother of God will help those in need. However, in order for this to happen, in the heart of a person there must be unlimited unconditional faith, absolute and unshakable. Not icon-painting images work miracles, but the Lord, who rewards everyone according to his faith.