The Kazan Mother of God

THE MIRACULOUS ICONS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

THE KAZAN MOTHER OF GOD

By VADIM WRIGHT


ONE OF THE MOST VENERABLE of the Russian miracleworking icons is that of the Kazan Mother of God, named, as are most icons, after the town or village where it first appeared and produced the first miracles.

Today, as Christian morality and the witness of Orthodox Christianity rapidly diminish over the face of the earth, and to lead a true Christian life becomes ever more difficult, we need all the more to be reminded of the closeness of God, which is manifested so strikingly in the phenomenon of wonderworking icons, that our faith may be strengthened. And God, seeing the waves of unbelief that rush against a believer today, has power to bestow great mercy upon those who love Him, just as He has done in the past, especially in connection with the origin or revelation of various wonderworking icons.


A true revelation of a wonderworking icon always bears a providential significance. This is quite clear in the case of the Kazan Icon, for: (1) it was revealed to the people of Kazan to strengthen their faith immediately after a terrible fire which had tried their faith; (2) it vividly demonstrated the glory of Orthodox Christianity and the mercy of God to Russia's new subjects, the Moslem Tatars and pagan nomads; (3) it prompted great devotion to Orthodoxy in the loyal sons of Russia so that they might withstand the Roman Catholic assault upon Holy Russia in 1612. An active part in the events accompanying the revelation of the Kazan Icon was taken by the glorious Patriarch Germogen, who was to defend Orthodoxy unto martyrdom. He is the author of the Church Service to the Wonderworking Kazan Icon, and he composed the touching troparion that follows.


Troparion, Tone 4

Ardent Intercessor, Mother of the Lord on High! Thou prayest to Thy Son, Christ our God, for all and savest those who have recourse to Thy powerful protection. Defend us, O Lady, Queen and Holder of Sovereign Power when we, burdened with many sins, stand before Thee in misfortune, sorrow, and sickness, praying to Thee with tender sensitivity of soul and contrite heart, shedding tears before this, Thy Most Pure Image, and having steadfast hope in Thee Who deliverest from all evils. Grant to us what is profitable for our souls and save all, Virgin Mother of God, for Thou art the Divine Protection of Thy servants.


THE HISTORY OF THE KAZAN ICON begins with the introduction of the Orthodox Faith to the part of Russia known as Kazan, an area then occupied by the Tatars. In the time of Tsar Ivan IV (known as the Terrible to the Tatars) it was God's will to bring Christian enlightenment to this region. The Tsar's armies marched on Kazan and took the surrounding lands in 1552. On the day following the capture of Kazan the Tsar immediately began the construction of a church in the name of the Mother of God in this new Russian territory. The first archpastor of Kazan, sent the next year, was Archbishop Gury, a saint, as was his successor, St. Herman.

Orthodox enlightenment was successfully disseminated in Kazan by Archbishop Gury and his assistant, St. Barsonophy; the latter, later to become bishop of Tver, knew the language and customs of the Tatars and was also a skillful physician. The Christian example manifested in the holy lives of these two great men was a chief factor in the spread of Orthodoxy in the Kazan region. However, there was a constant and strong opposition on the part of the Moslem natives. For this reason, as well as to strengthen the faith of Orthodox believers, it was the will of the Most Holy Mother of God to reveal one of Her Icons.

In the year 1579, shortly after a great fire had destroyed more than half of the Kazan Kremlin, the Moslems tried to discourage the Orthodox faithful by saying that the Christian God had had no mercy for the Kremlin and its inhabitants. It was at just this time that God was truly to show His great and wondrous mercy for His people.

In one of the many families made homeless by the fire there was a nine-year-old girl, Matrona. To her the Mother of God appeared in a dream, telling her to reveal to the Archbishop the exact place where a holy Icon was buried. Rising from her bed, Matrona ran to her mother and told her what had occurred, but she was ignored and sent back to sleep. Twice more the same dream was repeated and finally her mother believed her and took her to see the archbishop. He and his clergy heard Matrona's story of the buried Icon, but refused to go in search of it.

On this very day, the 8th of July, 1579, while Matrona and her mother were weeping in desperation over what to do about revealing the Icon, a bright light suddenly appeared in their home, not far from where the Icon was supposed to be buried. And in this light there appeared the holy Icon itself, clean and shining as if freshly painted. Matrona and her mother rushed to tell the archbishop and the whole town. The archbishop returned to Matrona's home and, having witnessed the miracle, served a moleben and triumphantly carried the Icon to the church of St. Nicholas, where at that time was serving the future Patriarch of Moscow, Germogen. On the way to the church the first miracle occurred from the holy Icon: a blind man named Joseph regained his sight. At the church itself a short time later another blind man, Nikita by name, was healed. From these first two miracles it was revealed that the Kazan Mother of God was truly a miracle-working Icon.

Soon after this an exact copy of the Kazan Icon was sent to the Tsar in Moscow. The Tsar then decreed that a convent be erected in Kazan to shelter the Icon. The first two nuns to take monastic vows at the new convent were Matrona and her mother. Soon the number of nuns rose to 64. The erection of the convent was completed in 1594; in 1808 a new cathedral was finished, replacing the 200-year-old original church. At the convent the holy Icon was adorned many times with priceless jewels and metal covers (rizas).

The Kazan Mother of God has played a decisive part in the history of the Orthodox Russian people. Russian armies have been aided and cities saved by the mercy of the Mother of God in response to prayer before Her holy Icon. One of the greatest miracles from the Icon occurred in 1612, when the Poles devastated Moscow and caused its people great misery. The bishop of Kazan sent the holy Icon to the Tsar to help drive the invaders from the capital, and St. Sergy of Radonezh appeared to a Greek bishop in Russia and revealed that if Moscow were to be saved the people must pray to and rely upon the Most Holy Mother of God. When word spread of this appearance of St. Sergy, the people began fervently to pray. The Kazan Mother of God was placed at the head of the Russian troops, and Moscow was thus freed and peace restored to the Russian people. This liberation of Moscow and all Russia, on October 22, 1612, is commemorated to this day as one of the two feasts of the Icon. The Kazan Mother of God also aided in the repelling of the Napoleonic invasion: before the decisive battle of Borodino in 1812, General Kutuzov visited and prayed before the Petersburg copy of the Icon and took Her blessing with him into battle; later he was buried in the Petersburg cathedral where this Icon is located.

There are a great number of wonderworking copies of the Kazan Icon, many of them quite old; Poselyanin's standard work on the icons of the Mother of God gives brief accounts of 56 of the best-known copies in Imperial Russia, concluding with the icon in St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka, Alaska. In our own time of revolution and diaspora She continues to be the "Guide" (Hodigitria, as this type of icon of the Mother of God is called in Greek) of Orthodox believers, sending speedy help to troubled souls.

The original Icon, however, to the sorrow of all Orthodox people, has been lost. In the night of June 29, 1904, impious thieves broke into the Kazan Cathedral and stole, among other holy objects, the Kazan Icon. The thieves were later found and punished, but the Icon itself was not found. The icon now in America that has been widely advertised as the original is apparently only another of the later copies; Orthodox hierarchs who knew the Kazan Icon have seen this icon and affirm that it is definitely not the original.

THE WEEPING KAZAN ICONS

One of the most touching miracles of the Most Holy Mother of God, one which usually precedes some general calamity allowed by God because of men's sins, is that of Her Weeping Icons. At least three Kazan icons are recorded to have emitted tears, at the same time granting miraculous healings to believers. Two of them, those of Kaplunovka and Tambov, have already been presented in English on the list of Weeping Icons in The Orthodox Word, vol. 1, no. 6. All the meager information available about the third one is presented below as an addition to this list. (Information from E. Poselyanin, The Mother of God, St. Petersburg, n.d.)

11. The Kazan Icon of Kargopol. This icon originally belonged to a widow, Martha W. Ponomareva, in the town of Kargopol in Central Russia. On February 14, 1724, tears began to flow from the right eye of the Mother of God. The widow reported this to a priest of the church of the Exaltation of the Cross, and he, after coming to her home and inspecting the icon, carried it to the church. That same day the miraculous emission of tears was repeated in the church. On the 29th of the same month, tears began to flow from both eyes in the sight of many people of the town. Then miracles began to occur after prayer before this miraculous icon. The present whereabouts of the icon is not known.