Surety of Sinners

THE MIRACULOUS ICONS OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

THE SURETY OF SINNERS


Translated from the weekly bulletin of the Shanghai "Surety of Sinners" Cathedral, No. 361, March 6, 1939, edited by Archbishop John Maximovitch.


THE SURETY OF SINNERS

Commemorated March 7


TROPARION, TONE 4

AN HONORABLE dwelling hast Thou been+ of the unutterable Divine Nature beyond words and above the mind,+ and art for sinners a Surety,+ granting grace and healing,+ as the Mother of Him Who rules all,+ pray to Thy Son+ that we may receive mercy in the Day of Judgement.


IN HER ICON, "Surety of Sinners," the Mother of God is represented in half stature; with Her left hand She embraces the God-Child, Who holds Her right hand with both His hands in such a way that Her thumb is in His right hand and Her small finger and the one next to it are in His left hand, resembling what is done when one goes surety for another. On their heads are crowns with jewels and precious stones. In a semicircle around the faces of the Mother of God and the God-Child are twelve stars six on each side. In the four corners of the Icon are depicted scrolls with the words (above): "I am the Surety of sinners for My Son," "Who has entrusted Me to hear them"; (below) "and they who will bring Me the joy of hearing them," "will receive through Me eternal rejoicing."

It is not known when or by whom the image of the Mother of God was made in such a manner, nor where this Icon was first revealed. It is presumed that the basis of such a representation of the Mother of God is to be found in the words of the akathist to the Protection of the Most Holy Mother of God: Rejoice, Thou Who offerest Thy hands in surety for us to God. It is known only that the glorification of the Icon of the Mother of God under the title of "Surety of Sinners" first began in the St. Nicholas Monastery in Odrin in the diocese of Orel.

For a very long time this Icon remained unknown and disdained. It stood between two ancient icons in an old chapel beyond the monastery gates, and it was so faded and covered with dust that it was not possible to read the inscriptions on it.

In the summer of 1844 there came to the monastery at Odrin a merchant's wife, Pochepina, with her two-year-old son, who was subject to terrible attacks which would not yield to any medical means, and she requested a moleben to be served before the Icon, "Surety of Sinners," which was in the chapel. The moleben was served and the sick son of Pochepina became well. After this the Icon of the Mother of God was transferred to the monastery and put in a good place in the church. Soon other miraculous signs followed from it, and from that time the Icon of the Mother of God in the St. Nicholas Monastery of Odrin became glorified as miraculous. The Icon appeared just on the eve of a terrible epidemic of cholera in the city of Orel and nearby. Then multitudes, not only of the well but of the sick as well, flocked to the Icon of the Mother of God and, notwithstanding the terrible contagiousness of the disease, not one who came died of it. When the Icon was carried to the city of Orel, the cholera ceased entirely there.

THE MOSCOW (KHAMOVNIKI) ICON

In 1846 a hieromonk of the Odrin monastery was sent to Moscow in order to have made a riza (covering) for the miraculous Icon. From a feeling of love for travelers a Lieutenant-Colonel D.H. Boncheskul gave shelter to this monk. In gratitude for his hospitality there was sent to him from the Odrin monastery a faithful copy of the miraculous Icon in the same form and the same size, namely 17/; inches long and 14 inches wide. This Icon was placed together with the other icons in the house icon-corner. At Easter, 1848, Boncheskul began to notice that about the Icon there flashed an extraordinary glitter, a wonderful fragrance exuded and drops of an oil-like moisture appeared, with which the sick were anointed and they received healing. From all sides the sick began to flock; they prayed before the Icon and received healing.

On the 30th of May, 1848, Boncheskul gave this Icon, the "Surety of Sinners," to the parish church at Khamovniki in Moscow, where it was placed on a stand near the kliros. Soon, in the sanctuary of this church, extraordinary manifestations of light began to come from behind the altar, in the form of appearing and disappearing stars, which many saw through a window in the sanctuary. (Poselyanin, in his book on the Icons of the Mother of God, gives full information on the police investigation of this, which confirmed the extraordinary nature of these manifestations.) The emission of the oil-like moisture continued; a deacon who was stationed next to the Icon wiped the moisture with cotton and distributed it to the people. More important than anything else in the glorification of the Icon were the numerous grace-giving signs: healings from illnesses, deliverance from the cholera which raged in 1848, from severe seizures and various other illnesses. The following are a few of the many miracles that occurred at this time.

1. On the 21st of July, 1848, the wife of Captain A. P. Ushakov, Maria Pavlovna, reported that, having come from Yaroslavl to Moscow, she had been in the St. Nicholas church at Khamovniki and, seeing that the Icon of the Mother of God "Surety of Sinners" was painted in naturalistic and not ancient style, doubted that miracles could occur from such an icon; nonetheless she took oil from the lamp. At home, at midnight she had terrible fits of cholera that lasted until 5 a.m. She drank of the oil taken from the lamp and smeared herself with it, and at the same time began to pray mentally before the Icon of the "Surety of Sinners" and beg forgiveness for her sin of disbelief. The Queen of Heaven heard her prayer. On the spot the sick woman felt relief and soon was healed.

2. Lieutenant D.I.Chernyaev of the Uglich Chasseurs was so dangerously ill with cholera for four days in July that his tongue began to grow numb and his whole body darkened; the doctors could do nothing. Abandoning medicine, he began to drink holy water and rub himself with cotton that had oil from the Icon of the Mother of God "Surety of Sinners," and soon he became well.

3. Evfimia Pavlova, 26 years old, a peasant woman of the village of Mironovo, Klin district, suffered from seizures. When she heard that they wanted to take her to Moscow to the Icon of the Mother of God "Surety of Sinners," she became so frightened that she ran off into the forest, from where they were scarcely able to drag her, and she was brought bound to Moscow. About two miles from Moscow she began to weep and sob, and when on the 23rd of June she was brought into the church of the Image of the Mother of God, she felt herself as if in fire. She was the same on the 24th, but on the 25th she became better, and soon she was completely healed.

This Icon of the "Surety of Sinners" remains to this day1 as it was before, not decorated by a covering, although there have been many who were zealous to make a most elaborate covering for it. It is affirmed that Boncheskul, who donated the Icon, had a vision that this Icon should not be covered with a riza. The yearly commemoration of the Icon is made in the St. Nicholas church at Khamovniki on Thursday of the week of All Saints, and likewise on March 7. The local clergy and parishioners requested permission for one of the wings of this church to be renamed in honor of the Mother of God "Surety of Sinners."

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1. The Khamovniki church is one of the few churches "functioning" today in Moscow – is, open, with services being conducted regularly (ed note).


Copies of the miraculous Icon spread in a short time throughout the whole of Russia. Churches are adorned with this Icon. In many families they are entrusted in blessing to close ones on special occasions: when children are let to go to distant lands, when daughters are given in marriage, or sons marry.

THE KYA;;;; ICON IN SIBERIA

In February, 1854, the same D.H. Boncheskul who had given his Icon of the "Surety of Sinners" to his parish church of St. Nicholas in Moscow, sent another exact copy of this Icon to Kyakhta, in the region of Siberia beyond the Baikal, entrusting it to the Kyakhta merchant L. T.Molchanov to give it to the Holy Trinity Cathedral of St. Sava's Holy Trinity Monastery. The reason for this he explained in a special letter: "There is much which the human mind cannot fathom. The will of the living Lord God is performed where He pleases. In accordance with this will, unfathomable to us mortals, I saw a vision in sleep: I was to place a copy of the miraculous Icon "Surety of Sinners" in your Holy Trinity-St. Sava Cathedral. I saw a fiery pillar above this church, extending from the church dome to the heavens, and I heard a voice from a monk standing near me, saying that I should take into this church an Icon of the 'Surety of Sinners.' I asked what church this was, and in reply it was said: the Holy Trinity-St. Sava Cathedral."

From the time it was placed in the Holy Trinity-St. Sava Cathedral, grace-giving signs began to be manifested from the Icon. Besides an extraordinary manifestation of light, which illuminated the cathedral while only a single lamp was burning before the Icon, there began to be performed miracles of healing of the suffering and of those who came with faith to God's mercy. Christians and pagans of the region beyond Baikal and other remote lands hastened in illnesses to the aid of the Mother of God, and through anointment by oil from the lamp hanging before the Icon they began to receive healing from afflictions. Icons of the "Surety of Sinners" have been spread in great numbers beyond the Baikal and along the Chinese border, both in churches and in homes.

From the notes of the cathedral clergy a whole record has been compiled of the miracles of this Icon of the Mother of God. This record, entitled, "Description of miracles and healings from the Icon of the Mother of God 'Surety of Sinners' in the province of Kyakhta in the Holy Trinity-St. Sava Cathedral," is to be found in a special manuscript preserved in the cathedral. Such an abundance of miracles and benefactions of the Queen of Heaven beyond the Baikal inspired the desire to erect a church of the "Surety of Sinners" on the place of the manifestation of such grace-giving signs. The pious benefactor of churches and missions, Y. A. Nemchinov, was destined to perform this deed. His only son, Andrew, was critically ill, and through anointment with oil from the lamp that burned constantly before the Icon of the "Surety of Sinners" in the cathedral, he received healing; then Nemchinov gave a vow to build a wing of the cathedral in honor of the "Surety of Sinners," which was done. (Excerpts from a book by S. Snessoreva.)

ICONS OUTSIDE OF RUSSIA

Outside of Russia a copy of the Icon was sent from Mt. Athos to the holy Archbishop Simon, head of the Chinese Mission, who began the building of a large cathedral dedicated to that Icon in Shanghai. The late Archbishop John Maximovitch completed the cathedral, which became the site of God's great deeds of mercy bestowed through the prayers of the righteous hierarch.

A large copy of the Icon is located today in the new San Francisco Cathedral before the left kliros. As a recent example of the mercy of the Mother of God shown through this Icon, here is the testimony of a young woman, Marina Aronstam, who was mysteriously brought to the truth of Orthodoxy out of the darkness of Protestantism and found the Mother of God to be truly a Surety to herself, an unenlightened sinner: "About the first part of March, 1966, I dreamed that a boy I knew back in high school was killed and I ran into a church I've never seen before and I knelt and put my head to the floor before a large Icon of the Mother of God. And I started praying for the forgiveness of this young man's sins. Being a Protestant, prostrating and praying for the dead in front of an icon – all this was very strange and new to me. All of a sudden I felt a great force pulling me up; I looked up and saw that the Mother of God was holding a glass and this glass was filled with Her tears and as the tears fell they became crystals. And She gave it to me. I felt so happy words can never express it, and I ran out of the church carrying the glass with Her tears. Outside the sun was shining and everything was green and exceptionally beautiful as I had never seen before. And I woke up. Some time later I entered the Russian Cathedral on Geary Boulevard and was stunned to see the same church and Icon the Surety of Sinners – which I saw in my dream. Shortly after that I became Orthodox and was baptized in the same church and in front of the same Icon."