Kazan Icon of the Mother of God Photo: AiF / Aliya Sharafutdinova
On July 21, the Orthodox world celebrates the 435th anniversary of the discovery of one of the most revered shrines - the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. In 1904, criminals stole this miraculous image from the Bogoroditsky Monastery. He has not been found yet. In 2005, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus' Alexy II gave Kazan one of the most famous copies of the icon, kept in the Vatican.
Answering questions from journalists about the miraculous power of the list of the Kazan Icon, Alexy II said that after some time he would definitely make himself known...
On the eve of the 435th anniversary of the discovery of the shrine, the AiF-Kazan correspondent went to the Cathedral of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross of the Bogoroditsky Monastery.
It turned out that the deacon of the cathedral knows most about the affairs of the Kazan IconFather Kharlampy. It is he who is responsible for all mail arriving at the monastery.
The Day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God is celebrated twice a year - on July 21, in memory of the appearance of the icon in Kazan, and on November 4, in gratitude for the deliverance of Moscow and all of Russia from the Polish intervention in 1612. The first description of the miracles revealed by the Kazan Icon was the healing of two blind men , who participated in the procession of transferring the found face to the temple, were made by Patriarch Hermogenes in 1594, 15 years after the discovery of the shrine. And by 1903, documented evidence of salvations and healings that occurred through prayer to the glorified image already occupied more than one hundred pages.
Last year, an announcement appeared in the church asking those who had received “special grace-filled help from the Kazan Miracle-Working Icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary” to respond. But the monastery had received letters of gratitude before.
“The icon is behind armored glass, so it is impossible to hang crosses and other gifts on it, as is customary among Christians,” says Father Harlampiy. - However, the image constantly receives gifts. Parishioners bring gold and silver crosses and chains to the church shop, sometimes putting them in the donation box. I find notes and letters there glorifying the Mother of God. People put photos of children she helped in their letters.”
Father Kharlampy says that you can ask the Mother of God for intercession even without knowing the prayers. It is enough to say: “Most Holy Theotokos, save us!” or pray in your own words. The main thing is that it is not just a reading of words, but a sincere prayer.
Judging by the letters, a variety of people turn to the miraculous one, with different aspirations - from the most serious to the most banal problems. At the monastery, the AiF-Kazan correspondent was provided with four letters about the miracles of the Kazan icon. In fact, there are tens of times more such letters.
Holy Cross Cathedral of the Mother of God Monastery Photo: www.kazan-mitropolia.ru
Got me out of debt
The most recent evidence is a letter that arrived at the monastery this year, immediately after Antipascha.
Place where the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was found Photo: sobory.ru
“For more than a year, a financial problem hung over me like the sword of Damocles. At work, I was owed a large amount of money, which I, in turn, owed to my friend - 282 thousand rubles. My soul was sick, nothing made me happy. It seemed like this problem would never be resolved. I begged for help. I stood around the service, listened to the guide, and didn’t even notice how time flew by. I left with joy, with a calm soul. And on April 29, they told me that a decision had been made to return the entire debt to me, and I was able to pay off my friend. I immediately went to the monastery and thanked the icon. My soul sang. I know that my problem is just a nuisance compared to the troubles of other people. After all, all my loved ones are alive and well. I am grateful to the chance that brought me to the holy icon. I’m sure everything worked out well for a reason. My prayers were heard through the holy icon and thanks to faith.”
Gave it to the winner
“In 2011, I came to Krasnodar from Kazan, where I went to services at the Bogoroditsky Monastery. I was 34 years old when I first became pregnant, but my husband and I didn’t have long to rejoice. In the second month, the ultrasound doctor said: “Your fetus is frozen, there is no heartbeat. Urgent cleaning is needed, otherwise it will be fatal.” Swallowing back tears, I went to the hospital. There, the obstetrician-gynecologist sadly shook her head and confirmed the terrible diagnosis. I was given full anesthesia, and the doctors got to work. I woke up already in the ward. A little long-awaited man lived inside me for 6 whole weeks, and he was gone! The painful thoughts were interrupted by a telephone call. “Do you know what day it is today? “The day of the appearance of the Miracle Worker,” my husband consoled me. - I was in the temple for a festive service. And at home I will read the akathist and pray for you. The Mother of God will definitely help us.” Before discharge I was sent for an ultrasound. The doctor looked at the screen for a long time. “Why does the card say that you are after cleaning? - he finally said. “Your child is alive, nothing happened to him.” A minute later the ultrasound room was filled with doctors. “In 30 years of work, I have never seen anything like this,” said the manager. - It looks like your child hid in a muscle while cleaning. It feels like someone hid it.” It was clear to us WHO first gave life to our child and then hid him. During pregnancy, doctors told me that I might be born deformed or disabled, and they offered to get rid of the child. But my husband and I decided to pray and believe in a miracle. Kazan relatives more than once ordered a magpie for me in the church and even sent me a consecrated icon. Nine months later, a daughter was born. Of all the children in the maternity hospital, she had the highest health score on the Apgar scale (every newborn is given this rating in the first minutes of life based on 5 indicators). We named our daughter Daria. This name means "Gift of God" and "Victorious". She, through the power of God, won the battle for life.”
Photo: AiF-Kazan / Photo by Maria Zvereva
Overcame distances
“Just a year and a half before these events, I stood at the site where the icon was found. The windows of the former convent looked at me in silence like empty eye sockets. I often came here and prayed about everything and, of course, about the structure of my personal life. By the age of 33, I had everything I aspired to. Rare education, creative promising work. Only family was missing. A friend advised me to pray to the great shrine of our city. And the miracle was not long in coming. Soon we met my future husband, got married, and left for his city. At the wedding, the priest blessed us with an icon. Now it stands in our prayer corner. The miraculous protection did not leave me even at a distance of 2 thousand km.”
Defended in battle
“At the beginning of 2007, my son received a summons from the military registration and enlistment office. I, like any mother, was very worried about him, I was afraid that he would end up in a disadvantaged unit. I really wanted him to join the Navy, like his father. Yes, and I, having left for my husband in Severomorsk, worked in the naval unit. Because of this, I believed that there was better discipline and more order. After receiving the summons, I went to the monastery and prayed to the Mother of God for a son. And the miracle happened. My son ended up in the Northern Fleet, although his health is poor. Surprisingly, nothing is indicated in the “health” column on my son’s military ID... But the miracles did not end there. After studying, my son was sent to serve in the Black Sea Fleet. He participated in the Georgian-Ossetian conflict as a peacekeeper, took part in a naval battle in 2008, and received gratitude for this from the President of Russia. He returned home safe and sound."
As veterans of the Great Patriotic War, and even soldiers who went through the crucible of other military conflicts, said, “there are no atheists in war or in the trenches.”
After the war, many Soviet soldiers joined the ranks of the clergy or became residents of monasteries. Others did not go so far, but forever in their hearts they retained faith in God and the firm conviction that it was the Lord or the Mother of God who saved them from death.
The Mother of God herself experienced the pain of loss when Her son, the God-man Christ was on the cross. then, still shameful, we deprive of life. That is why She responds so quickly to the prayers of mothers for their children and so quickly comes to their aid in a moment of danger. We present some cases of the Mother of God’s help and appearance to Her soldiers on the battlefield:
Appearance on the Kursk Bulge
“My uncle saw the Mother of God during the war - it was on the Kursk Bulge. She appeared in the sky and pointed her hand towards the Germans, as if indicating the direction of our advance. The whole company saw this - and everyone fell to their knees, everyone believed and heartily prayed to the Most Holy Theotokos. And from that day on, the war actually flowed in a different direction - the Russians began to advance. That’s how my uncle, a front-line soldier, became a believer…” recalled one of our contemporaries in the book “Orthodox Miracles of the 20th Century”
“And you will serve Me for the rest of your life!”
In his youth he was an unbeliever. When the Great Patriotic War began, he, an officer, was called to the front. At parting, his mother gave him an icon of the Mother of God and bequeathed: “Son, when things get difficult for you, take out the icon, pray to the Mother of God - She will help you!” My mother’s parting words were not erased from my memory: they warmed me and inspired me with hope.
One day, with a group of his soldiers, he was surrounded in the forest and was wounded. There are Germans on three sides, a viscous swamp on the fourth. It was then that he remembered his mother’s order. He stood back a little from his people, took out an icon and, as best he could, began to pray: “Virgin Mother of God, if You exist, help!” He prayed and returned to his family, and an old woman stood next to them and addressed them: “Are you lost, sons? Let’s go, I’ll show you the path!” And she led everyone along the path to hers.
Father Alipy fell behind again and said to the old woman: “Well, mother, I don’t know how to thank you!” And the “old woman” answers him: “And you will serve Me for the rest of your life!” - and disappeared, as if it never happened. It was then that he remembered his mother’s farewell words, and that’s when he realized what kind of “old woman” she was!
And those words turned out to be true: indeed, he then served the Mother of God all his life - for many years he was the abbot of the Holy Dormition Pskov-Pechersky Monastery.
This is how the abbot of the Pskov-Pechersk Monastery, Archimandrite Alipiy (Voronov), spoke about himself.
Lamentation of the Virgin Mary - the story of a front-line soldier
The place where we sat in the trenches seemed somehow special. It was as if someone was helping us: the Germans attacked us with superior forces, and we pushed them back, and our losses were surprisingly small.
And that day the battle was especially fierce. The entire no man's land was covered with the bodies of the dead - both ours and the Germans. The battle died down only in the evening.
We busied ourselves with who and what while waiting for dinner to be brought to us. I took out a tobacco pouch, lit a cigarette, and my fellow countryman, Ivan Bozhkov, stepped aside.
Suddenly I see: Bozhkov stuck his head over the parapet.
“Ivan,” I shout, “what are you doing?” Are you waiting for the sniper?
Bozhkov sank into the trench - he was not himself. And he says to me quietly:
- Petya, there’s a woman crying...
– You wondered where a woman could come from here?
But when the “music” died down from the Germans, we heard that somewhere a woman was really crying. Bozhkov put his helmet on his head and climbed out onto the parapet.
“The fog is swirling there,” he tells us. – And in the fog, along a no-man’s land, a woman is walking towards us... She bends over the dead and cries. God! She looks like the Mother of God... Brothers! After all, the Lord chose us for this memorable moment; a miracle is happening before our eyes. Before us is a holy vision!..
We cautiously looked out of the trench. A woman in dark and long clothes walked along a no-man's land in the clouds of fog. She bowed to the ground and cried loudly.
Here someone says:
– And the Germans are also looking at the vision. There are their helmets sticking out over the trenches... Yes, something is wrong here. Look how tall she is, twice as tall as an ordinary woman...
Lord, how she cried, everything turned upside down in her soul! While we were looking at the vision, a strange fog covered most of the no man's land.
I thought:
“It’s like he’s covering the dead with a shroud...”
And the Woman, who looked so much like the Mother of God, suddenly stopped crying, turned towards our trenches and bowed.
- The Mother of God bowed in our direction!
Victory is ours! - Bozhkov said loudly.
A woman with two warriors in ancient armor - the story of a front-line soldier
In one of the battles, he was shell-shocked and remained lying on the ground under the dead bodies of his fighting friends. When he woke up, he saw a picture that struck him: a woman with two warriors in ancient armor was walking across the field.
The warriors had bowls in their hands. The woman took something from the bowls and put it into the mouths of some of the soldiers lying on the ground. I approached the wounded man, but he couldn’t get up, he wanted to scream, but he couldn’t.
“And this coward,” the woman said and moved on. It is not clear where he got the strength from, he stood up and shouted:
- I'm not a coward, help me.
“We’ll see,” the woman answered, “find the Gospel in the Slavic language and always carry it with you - then you will return home alive.”
Our troops had already retreated far, and he had to get out of the encirclement. In a nearby village, he found a Gospel in Slavic in an abandoned house and hid it on his chest.
When he left the encirclement, he naturally ended up in a penal company and fought with the penal soldiers almost until the end of the war. He sewed the Gospel into his clothes and carried it with him all the time.
No matter what kind of troubles I was in, the penalty box was sent to the most hopeless places, into breakthroughs, etc. It happened that after the battle half of the unit remained alive - and he was among them; it happened that there were four left - and he was among them, and it happened that he was the only one left alive.
And yet he walked along the roads of war until victory and returned home.
Gray-haired Kiselyov - the story of a priest
A truly believing man, Fr. Oleg (Oleg Viktorovich Kiselev) became during the Great Patriotic War. In 1944, having already passed many front-line roads, he found himself near Leningrad. The Germans retreated with heavy fighting and heavy losses, but fought fiercely.
“There was a long enemy artillery barrage,” recalls Father Oleg, “then the German tanks came, ours knocked them out with our guns, and my partner and I used an anti-tank rifle.
We knocked out two tanks, but the Germans broke through and began to “iron” our trenches: they drove into the trench and, walking along it with caterpillar tracks, tried to crush the soldiers, weapons, and destroy the trench...
We fired at the tank, but it moved forward: the ground crumbled, the tank roared, drowning out everything. I found myself under it, the tracks almost touched me, the trench was settling, and the tank was also settling. I was covered with earth, the tank was tossing and turning above me. I'm about to be crushed. It was not fear that gripped me, but boundless horror!
And then a prayer flashed in my mind: “Lord Jesus, Son of God! Holy Mother of God! Save and help!”
I poured my whole soul into this frantic prayer to God and the Most Holy Theotokos. In hundredths of a second, my whole life flashed before me, but the thought of God and my guilt before Him pierced me especially clearly.
And then... The tank, having ironed the trench, crawled further, but was hit - I learned about this later. The soldiers dug me up, pulled me out, poured vodka down my throat - and I quickly came to my senses. The lieutenant approached and exclaimed in surprise: “Guys! Look at Kiselev, he’s all gray!” Indeed, within a few minutes spent under the tank tracks, I turned gray.
There, on the battlefield, I made a vow to the Lord God and the Most Holy Theotokos to become a priest after the war, which I fulfilled.
In contact with
Date of publication or update 11/01/2017
“Deliverer from troubles” miraculous icon of the Mother of God
"They preach Your help
and Your Love, Mother"
I recently learned about this case from my close friends. This happened in 1985. As often happens, the wife was a believer, went to church, and prayed at home. And the husband was an unbeliever.
And when his wife picked up the Gospel to read the obligatory chapter before going to bed, he usually reproached her. One day he destroyed all Orthodox books. And a month later, a misfortune happened to him - he was paralyzed (the entire right side was affected). The doctors could not help, time passed, and there was no improvement. Finally, his wife persuaded him to call the priest into the house and receive communion. After this, the husband said: “Now I can’t atone for my sins...” The wife replied: “Let’s pray together!”
You have already heard about how various miracles happen after praying to the Mother of God. It is also interesting that the Most Pure One, apparently, especially favors those who REVERENCE Her unusual and rare image - the ECONOMISSA. There has been a lot of evidence of this recently. Read more about the Icon.
The miracles that happen through prayers in front of this Icon are so obvious that, as they say, you cannot hide them! And we, to the best of our ability, try to inform you about them.
Pray to the Economist! Be sure to pray! And the Most Pure One will not leave you and your family. I am convinced that you will be confirmed in your faith in God!
To be more consistent, I will give the floor to one of our good friends, Elena, whom we met while working at one of the Orthodox exhibitions and fairs. Lena asked the Mother of God in front of the image of Economissa just about the arrangement of her life. And the Most Pure One surprised her with Her mercy by arranging an acquaintance with a good man.
Read another review:
Now our Lena is happy and cheerful.
We give glory to God!
We wish you the all-powerful help of Our Lady!
We are waiting for your comments. Save me, God!
On Saturday of the fifth week of Great Lent, the Holy Church celebrates. Otherwise, this holiday is called Saturday Akathist, compiled in gratitude for miraculous deliverance from troubles through the intercession of the Mother of God. These stories are about a small fraction of the modern miracles of Our Lady.
In 2016, after retiring from military service, I took a trip to a sanatorium in Sochi. I went out, I remember, to the coast. It was a clear sunny day. The sea is calm: not a single wave. Exactly at noon I saw a school of dolphins swimming to the shore, and began to count: 12. I sat in a sun lounger and watched them. When I suddenly realized that they were pushing some object to the shore edge of the water... When the dolphins disappeared, suddenly the only wave that I noticed that day came and threw this bundle onto the sand. I paid attention to him, but soon I was distracted by business and left the beach for a while. I come back, and this sea offering is still lying in the same place... I took out the e-book and tried to get into reading, but my inner voice kept repeating:
Open the bag. Open the bag.
I obeyed. Came up. The bag was covered in mud. I removed these algae. He began to untie the twine. The contents turned out to be tied up with a man's sweater, fastened with stationery needles with plastic tips. I unfold the sweater, and there is an icon! Mother of God.
I called my mother and sent home a picture of the find via WhatsApp.
Mom said:
It was sent to you - take it.
Although someone immediately came up and offered to take the shrine to the temple. But I still listened to my mother. Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin) later confirmed this decision to me when I brought him the icon to Peredelkino. Archpriest Valerian Krechetov was still with him at that time. I wanted to give the icon to them, but Father Eli said:
Let her stay with you for now.
This icon is miraculous. How many times has it happened that colleagues who had some serious problems in life came to my home, and I told them:
Believe, pray! Just ask the Mother of God in your own words!
And each time, absolutely miraculously, everything in the lives of these people was resolved.
My life has completely changed. Somehow everything started to work out correctly. Someone wrote something on the Internet about this incident, but there are a lot of lies there. For some reason they wrote that I was there with my wife, but I just got married a year ago! I feel the help and protection of the Most Holy Theotokos.
How the Mother of God intervened when the doctors refused
I remember how in the 1970s the monks of the Lavra were prevented from holding separate unctions. They say that one general unction on Great Wednesday is enough for believers. And soon a very young girl living next door to the Lavra fell ill. She worked as an accountant at a children's clinic. They built something in the courtyard of the institution, dug holes, and through carelessness she fell and hurt herself. She had some kind of hard lump, she thought it would go away, but as it seemed to the doctors, they diagnosed cancer, and already with metastases... She was lying alone in the ward of the Botkin hospital, and she burst into tears:
For what, Lord?..
The Mother of God said: “Lydia, why are you grumbling? No one left you"
And I saw the Most Holy Theotokos right in the chamber:
Lydia, why are you complaining? Nobody left you.
The doctors abandoned her and sent her home as hopeless. Her mother was a believer, and she immediately turned to the Lavra monks with a request to give unction and communion.
The girl was brought to the Lavra, and we locked ourselves in the Mikheevsky Church, without turning on the lights, and offered unction to her by candlelight. Then she took communion three times and returned to work healthy.
How were you healed? - her colleagues ask.
The Lord healed, Communion,” she answered.
You just have to believe, pray, the Mother of God will hear, the Lord will not leave.
