Rare icon of Christ - "Jesus blinking". Discussion on LiveInternet

RARE AND REVERED ICONS

In Georgia, in the Monastery of the Holy Cross of Jvari there is a rather rare icon called “Jesus Blinking” or “Plate of Saint Veronica”. The peculiarity of this icon is that the face on the icon opens and closes its eyes. He looks at some people approaching the icon, but not at others. According to legend, it depends on the purity of a person’s soul; if he is sinful or is preparing to commit a sin, Jesus does not look up at him.

Here is what Galina Polshikova from the Samara region, who saw this image, writes about this icon:

In August 1980, I went on a free trip to Tbilisi. We were taken to the monastery of the Holy Cross - Jvari. Then this monastery was still a museum, but now it has been returned to the Church. In the monastery church there was a large icon of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is called “Jesus Blinking”. Its peculiarity is that Jesus Christ looks at some people from the icon, but not at others, His eyelids are lowered. Photocopies of this image and the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary were sold in the church. I was an unbeliever then, but baptized - at the age of 15 I was baptized at the insistence of my grandmother Olga. But something touched my soul at that moment, and I bought two photocopies of the icons. I brought them home, emptied the top shelf in the cupboard from the dishes and put the icons there. She explained to her husband Vladimir the “secret” of this icon of Jesus Christ.

Soon I was given Yuri Nagibin’s story “Three and One and One More” to read - it directly talks about the “Blinking Jesus” icon. This is a story about how one man, out of vain jealousy, killed his beloved and committed suicide himself. Before this, they were in Tbilisi at that icon, and the Lord did not look at him either, knowing that he was preparing to commit a terrible sin. (Recently, based on this story, they made the film “The Model” with the famous actress Victoria Tolstoganova in the title role - and there is also a scene at the icon of the Blinking Christ... It is the most memorable in the entire film - ed.).

A few years later, another small miracle associated with this icon happened in my apartment. I was friends with an old woman, Olga Nikolaevna, she lived in our house. Olga Nikolaevna was a deeply religious person; in her apartment there was a whole iconostasis of small icons. She often helped me out by loaning me money because I was in great need.

One day Olga Nikolaevna comes to me and says: “Tonya (her young neighbor) wanted to poison me in order to take possession of my furniture and carpets. She brought me some pies with potatoes, I ate two pies and almost died.” Olga Nikolaevna handed me a bag with the rest of the pies and asked me to take them to the sanitary and epidemiological station so that they could check what kind of poison Tonya had put in. I unwrapped the package and saw green pies. She told Olga Nikolaevna that nothing could be found in them. And I didn’t believe that Tonya could do such a thing. But Olga Nikolaevna could not be convinced; she still asked me to take the pies for examination. I agreed. When Olga Nikolaevna left, I threw the pies in the trash.

Since 1991, I began going to church. For the two icons that I brought from Tbilisi, my son-in-law, a carpenter, made wooden frames. They still stand in my cupboard. Nobody is hiding them, because my husband has been living with another woman for thirteen years. Sometimes the thought occurs to me that, despite the fact that I was very worried about the divorce, everything turned out for the better. No one now forbids me to go to church, confess, take communion, or pray for the living and the dead. The ways of the Lord are inscrutable, and He does everything for our good! For everything I thank my Savior!

With wishes to love our Lord Jesus Christ and our neighbors as much as possible

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An unusual icon of Jesus from the Monastery of the Holy Cross in Georgia... -

"Don't accept it, but don't blame it either"

Council of the Fathers of the Orthodox Church...

. Its peculiarity is that Jesus Christ looks at some people from the icon, but not at others, His eyelids are lowered. Photocopies of this image and the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary were sold in the church. I was an unbeliever then, but baptized - at the age of 15 I was baptized at the insistence of my grandmother Olga. But something touched my soul at that moment, and I bought two photocopies of the icons. I brought them home, emptied the top shelf in the cupboard from the dishes and put the icons there. She explained to her husband Vladimir the “secret” of this icon of Jesus Christ. After some time, the husband began to take the icon of the Lord out of the cupboard, while swearing in black words (Lord, forgive him such blasphemy!) and hiding the icon in a drawer. I took it out again and put it in the cupboard. This happened several times, and I told my husband: “Don’t touch the icon, it stood and will stand here until my death.” My husband stopped hiding the icon in a drawer. Then my guesses were confirmed that my husband cheated on me in those years. Jesus Christ did not look at him from the icon then, convicting him of adultery, so he hid it. Soon I was given Yuri Nagibin’s story “Three and One and One More” to read - it directly talks about the “Blinking Jesus” icon. This is a story about how one man, out of vain jealousy, killed his beloved and committed suicide himself. Before this, they were in Tbilisi at that icon, and the Lord did not look at him either, knowing that he was preparing to commit a terrible sin. (Recently, based on this story, they made the film “The Model” with the famous actress Victoria Tolstoganova in the title role - and there is also a scene at the icon of the Blinking Christ... It is the most memorable in the entire film - ed.). A few years later, another small miracle associated with this icon happened in my apartment. I was friends with an old woman, Olga Nikolaevna, she lived in our house. Olga Nikolaevna was a deeply religious person; in her apartment there was a whole iconostasis of small icons. She often helped me out by loaning me money because I was in great need. One day Olga Nikolaevna comes to me and says: “Tonya (her young neighbor) wanted to poison me in order to take possession of my furniture and carpets. She brought me some pies with potatoes, I ate two pies and almost died.” Olga Nikolaevna handed me a bag with the rest of the pies and asked me to take them to the sanitary and epidemiological station so that they could check what kind of poison Tonya had put in. I unwrapped the package and saw green pies. She told Olga Nikolaevna that nothing could be found in them. And I didn’t believe that Tonya could do such a thing. But Olga Nikolaevna could not be convinced; she still asked me to take the pies for examination. I agreed. When Olga Nikolaevna left, I threw the pies in the trash. Monastery of the Holy Cross - Jvari, Georgia.

A few days later, Olga Nikolaevna comes again and asks what was found in the pies. I replied that they found nothing. And suddenly she hit me like a blow to the head: “Galya, you’re deceiving me, you threw them in the bucket.” Out of surprise, I fell on my knees in front of her and said: “Yes, I didn’t take them anywhere, I just threw them away.” And how she began to shame me! Then I remembered the icon of the Lord Jesus Christ. She brought the icon to Olga Nikolaevna’s face with the words: “Look at the Lord, if He looks at you, then you are right. If she doesn’t look, it means Tonya is not guilty of anything.” She looked - and suddenly she also fell to her knees in front of me: “Galya, forgive me, and let Tonya forgive me. I must have eaten something else that was bad.” This is how the Lord Himself removed the heavy suspicion from Tony. Olga Nikolaevna left me peaceful. Since 1991, I began going to church. For the two icons that I brought from Tbilisi, my son-in-law, a carpenter, made wooden frames. They still stand in my cupboard. Nobody is hiding them, because my husband has been living with another woman for thirteen years. Sometimes the thought occurs to me that, despite the fact that I was very worried about the divorce, everything turned out for the better. No one now forbids me to go to church, confess, take communion, or pray for the living and the dead. The ways of the Lord are inscrutable, and He does everything for our good! For everything I thank my Savior! Share with wishes to love our Lord Jesus Christ and our neighbors as much as possible Galina Polshikova Zhigulevsk, Samara region 04/16/2010

Why is there asymmetry on the icon of the Savior of Sinai?

More than a thousand years ago, iconoclastic disputes died down, and the Church approved the veneration of holy icons. But how many of our contemporaries think about who and what they see on the icon? And when you think about it, isn’t it even worse? Icon painter Dmitry Marchenko talks about whether art historians are telling the truth about the Sinai Savior.

The image of the Savior from the monastery of St. Catherine in Sinai is one of the most impressive masterpieces of icon painting. It was written, as is commonly believed, in Constantinople in the middle of the 6th century under Emperor Justinian I and donated by him to the Sinai monastery, which enjoyed the patronage of the emperor.

For some time, the image was forgotten, it was discovered only in the 19th century, but the world was able to appreciate the full artistic power and spiritual depth of this icon only in 1962, when its surface was cleared of later renovations.

Initially, the Savior of Sinai was painted using the encaustic technique. This is an ancient painting technique in which colorful pigment is mixed with heated wax. In the pre-iconoclastic era, encaustic painting was the most common technique for creating icons.

The Sinai image makes a very strong impression on the viewer - primarily with its unusual expression, strength and freedom of stroke. It is no secret that the modern Russian Orthodox are more accustomed to the smoothness and licking of the icon surface - a “humble” imitation of the examples of the late Russian Middle Ages, from Rublev to Dionysius. Another striking feature is the pronounced asymmetry and even, as it were, diversity in the features of the Savior’s face.

This asymmetry of the Sinai icon, without mentioning which not a single text about it is complete, has become a real stumbling block for many modern theological art critics and art theologians.

I admit honestly, I was lucky with the Sinai Spas. I first saw a reproduction of this beautiful monument, and only then read about it. It was then that I realized that I had not noticed the famous asymmetry before becoming acquainted with the literature dedicated to the monument. That is, I, of course, saw it, but did not attach any special, much less symbolic, meaning to it.

Christ was looking at me, I recognized Him - this was the main thing in my communication with the icon, and I was absolutely not inclined to make observations like “ah-ah, look, His eyes are different!” or “the left mustache is shorter than the right!”

But there are people who look at the image of the Savior differently. It seems to them that their understanding of the icon will deepen because, firstly, they will focus their attention on the “diversity of eyes”, the asymmetry of the image and, secondly, they will find the correct explanation for this asymmetry.

The explanation begins with an interpretation, for example, this: “different eyes of the Savior, merciful and rejecting...”. At the same time, the statement about “multi-emotional” eyes is supported by a reference to the Fourth Act of the VII Ecumenical Council, which talks about the depiction of the heroine of ancient Greek myths Medea: “one eye showed anger in her, the second, on the contrary, tenderness” (Acts of the Ecumenical Councils. Vol. 4. P. 423).

And these different eyes of a pagan character, which in the context of conciliar decrees should demonstrate a different, sometimes directly opposite range of human emotions, suddenly become attached to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Or even more twisted. Here's what one Israeli tour guide writes about the notorious asymmetry:

“And one more interesting feature of this icon. It reflected the debates of that time about the nature of Christ. Shortly before the painting of this icon, the Dyophysites won a final victory over the Arians and Monophysites.
Monophysites believed that in Jesus there is only a Divine nature, Arians - that Jesus was created by God and is not equal to Him. The Dyophysites assert that in Him there are simultaneously two natures, unmerged and inseparable—Divine and human. The icon reflects this duality.
The right side of the face is solemn and calm, light emanates from it, the eye looks straight ahead - this is the expression on the face of the Supreme Judge. The left side is in shadow, the eyebrow is wrinkled with suffering, the gaze is directed downward - we see the suffering human essence of Jesus. And all this in a 6th century icon! This is how icons were painted back then!”

Of course, these are not just tourist guides’ tales - art historians also often speak and write in the same vein. But to claim this, you need to close your eyes to what the holy fathers wrote about the icon.

Let me remind you. During the period of iconoclastic persecution, opponents of the sacred image accused the Orthodox, among other things, of the fact that by depicting the human nature of the Lord on icons, we thereby separate it from His Divine nature, like the Nestorians, as stated in the anathematisms of the iconoclastic council:

“Whoever tries to paint on an icon the inseparable and hypostatic union of the nature of God the Word and the flesh, that is, that one unmerged and indivisible that was formed from both, and calls this image Christ, while the name Christ means both God and man, let him be anathema.
Whoever with one thought separates the flesh united with the hypostasis of God the Word, and as a result of this tries to depict it on an icon, let him be anathema.
Whoever paints on an icon flesh deified by its union with God the Word, as if separating it from the Deity who received and deified it and thus making it as if undeified, let him be anathema.”

Orthodoxy gave its answer to these accusations: the icon reflects not nature, but the personality of Christ .

And within the framework of this polemic, one simple observation is important: never, in any context, either from the Orthodox side or from the iconoclastic side, has there been any mention of depicting the difference between two natures in one icon. It is clear as day that the Christian world was simply not familiar with such a tricky artistic phenomenon as the depiction of this difference.

Let's now try to look at the problem from a purely art historical point of view. Is this technique of depicting a face really so unique that some kind of symbolic meaning can be attributed to it?

As is known, the monuments closest to the Sinai Savior in iconography, style and technique are the funeral images of the Hellenistic era, the so-called. "Fayum Portraits". If we look at a selection of these images, we will notice that various kinds of asymmetries are not uncommon there:

Simply put, in this group of monuments it is more difficult to find a symmetrical face than an asymmetrical one; there are dozens of much more gross violations of symmetry than on the Sinai icon.

As you can see, asymmetry is just one of the manifestations of the style of this school.

Of course, it is impossible to forbid a person to see in an icon what he wants. For example, in Christ’s hairstyle, depending on the number of strands, one can find the Holy Trinity, the four Gospels, and the seven Passions. In the wrinkles on the forehead there is a hint of the celestial spheres. In the vertical of the nose and horizontal of the eyebrows is the Life-Giving Cross, and on the basis of these in-depth observations, immerse yourself in theology - sometimes Orthodox, and more often esoteric.

But an Orthodox Christian must always remember that the icon of Christ is, first of all, a direct image of Him, and what could be more than this? What fictions, what symbolic codes, what “secret doctrines”? Only those who do not care for Christ Himself, merciful and formidable, majestic and humble, Savior and Judge - only such “Christians” will begin to look in His icon, be it the Sinai Savior or any other, for cheap rattles to satisfy their need to philosophize there, where one should only contemplate and pray.

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Rare icon of Christ - “Blinking Jesus”
In Georgia, in the Monastery of the Holy Cross of Jvari there is a rather rare icon called “Blinking Jesus” or “St. Veronica’s Plath”. The peculiarity of this icon is that the face on the icon opens and closes its eyes. He looks at some people approaching the icon, but not at others. According to legend, it depends on the purity of a person’s soul; if he is sinful or is preparing to commit a sin, Jesus does not look up at him.

Here is what Galina Polshikova writes about this icon:

After some time, the husband began to take the icon of the Lord out of the cupboard, while swearing in black words (Lord, forgive him such blasphemy!) and hiding the icon in a drawer. I took it out again and put it in the cupboard. This happened several times, and I told my husband: “Don’t touch the icon, it stood and will stand here until my death.” My husband stopped hiding the icon in a drawer. Then my guesses were confirmed that my husband cheated on me in those years. Jesus Christ did not look at him from the icon then, convicting him of adultery, so he hid it. Soon I was given Yuri Nagibin’s story “Three and One and One More” to read - it directly talks about the “Blinking Jesus” icon. This is a story about how one man, out of vain jealousy, killed his beloved and committed suicide himself. Before this, they were in Tbilisi at that icon, and the Lord did not look at him either, knowing that he was preparing to commit a terrible sin. (Recently, based on this story, they made the film “The Model” with the famous actress Victoria Tolstoganova in the title role - and there is also a scene at the icon of the Blinking Christ... It is the most memorable in the entire film - ed.). A few years later, another small miracle associated with this icon happened in my apartment. I was friends with an old woman, Olga Nikolaevna, she lived in our house. Olga Nikolaevna was a deeply religious person; in her apartment there was a whole iconostasis of small icons. She often helped me out by loaning me money because I was in great need. One day Olga Nikolaevna comes to me and says: “Tonya (her young neighbor) wanted to poison me in order to take possession of my furniture and carpets. She brought me some pies with potatoes, I ate two pies and almost died.” Olga Nikolaevna handed me a bag with the rest of the pies and asked me to take them to the sanitary and epidemiological station so that they could check what kind of poison Tonya had put in. I unwrapped the package and saw green pies. She told Olga Nikolaevna that nothing could be found in them. And I didn’t believe that Tonya could do such a thing. But Olga Nikolaevna could not be convinced; she still asked me to take the pies for examination. I agreed. When Olga Nikolaevna left, I threw the pies in the trash. A few days later, Olga Nikolaevna comes again and asks what was found in the pies. I replied that they found nothing. And suddenly she hit me like a blow to the head: “Galya, you’re deceiving me, you threw them in the bucket.” Out of surprise, I fell on my knees in front of her and said: “Yes, I didn’t take them anywhere, I just threw them away.” And how she began to shame me! Then I remembered the icon of the Lord Jesus Christ. She brought the icon to Olga Nikolaevna’s face with the words: “Look at the Lord, if He looks at you, then you are right. If she doesn’t look, it means Tonya is not guilty of anything.” She looked - and suddenly she also fell to her knees in front of me: “Galya, forgive me, and let Tonya forgive me. I must have eaten something else that was bad.” This is how the Lord Himself removed the heavy suspicion from Tony. Olga Nikolaevna left me peaceful. Since 1991, I began going to church. For the two icons that I brought from Tbilisi, my son-in-law, a carpenter, made wooden frames. They still stand in my cupboard. Nobody is hiding them, because my husband has been living with another woman for thirteen years. Sometimes the thought occurs to me that, despite the fact that I was very worried about the divorce, everything turned out for the better. No one now forbids me to go to church, confess, take communion, or pray for the living and the dead. The ways of the Lord are inscrutable, and He does everything for our good! For everything I thank my Savior! With wishes to love our Lord Jesus Christ and our loved ones as much as possible Galina Polshikova, Zhigulevsk, Samara region 04/16/2010 https://chudopomolitve.ortox.ru/chudesa_bozhii/view/id/2920

You can read about this icon here: https://azbyka.ru/znakomstva/index.php?w=1920&module=news&file=dnevnik&id=69318

Series of messages “Icons”:
Part 1 – Rare icon of Christ – “Jesus blinking” Part 2 – Mother’s prayer

The icon opened the eyes of believers

They are like two sisters: the Zinovinskaya Mother of God and a copy copied from her hang side by side in the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist in the village of Shevchenko, Vinnytsia region. Only one Mother of God is peacefully dozing, clutching the Baby Jesus to her chest, the second seems to be sad, with her eyelids slightly open...

“Here she is, the miraculous, our Mother of God of Zinovinskaya...” Father Vladimir reverently designates the “awakened” shrine with a kiss.

I’m trying to detect traces of modern “rework,” but the icon’s eyes are still in place—where they were from the very beginning. Virgo looks down wearily.

“Don’t think that she sharply opened her eyes,” the abbot refutes my doubts, “the eyelids of the Virgin Mary rose a fraction of a millimeter for two years, it would be impossible to complete this... And there are more than enough witnesses to the miracle.”

All-seeing eye

In the village of Shevchenko, the people are extremely healthy, there are almost no drinkers - they have spiritual food for everything. Instead of Zavalinki, grandmothers meet in the church choir, children attend Sunday school. And there is a powerful argument for such a life - a miracle happened right next door. People are afraid: the Mother of God sees everything, you won’t spoil her.

“At the beginning of the 17th century, our village was called Zinovintsy, then there was a large cathedral, in which they placed a brand new icon of the Mother of God,” Father Vladimir tells the history of the shrine. “And miracles began immediately after painting the image... The servants noticed that at night there was a slight glimmer of light in the windows of the temple. They thought that they had forgotten to extinguish the candles, and when they entered the church, it turned out that this glow was coming from the icon, as if from the inside.

Having thus discovered the divine presence, people with their ailments immediately began to flock to the image: at that time, Our Lady of Zinovinskaya healed parishioners without looking.

“Rumors of the miracle spread throughout Russia and Ukraine,” continues the abbot. “And a copy of the icon was ordered in the 19th century by the grateful guardian Nicholas because the Virgin Mary healed his newborn son: the baby was almost completely paralyzed, the priest applied the baby to the image - and he came to life, and then stood on his feet.

While the copy of the Zinovinskaya icon of the Mother of God mourns, closing its eyes. Photo: Maria Belova.

For many years, the inhabitants of the village passed on legends about the Zinovinskaya Mother of God from mouth to mouth, until the revolution broke out: the Bolsheviks set up a collective farm in the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist, and destroyed the cathedral, throwing all the icons into the trash.

“Then the village residents at night, risking their lives, took the images home,” says the priest. “And the quickest of all turned out to be a certain girl Evdokia, who took away both Zinovinsky Mother of God - both the original and the copy. For eighty years she kept both shrines on her mezzanine. During the years of Soviet power, the people had already forgotten about the miracles that their ancestors honored. Even the neighbors did not know what treasure Evdokia was hiding in her house. It was not for nothing that she lived very secretly and never allowed guests into the house. And only before her death she revealed the secret that she had kept all her life. And then, perhaps, she would not have decided if the Mother of God herself had not advised her.

During the All-Ukrainian religious procession in 2004, the Virgin Mary in the image suddenly began to look at Evdokia with a noticeable squint. Then the old woman understood the desire of the Mother of God in her own way and, already on her deathbed, returned her to her home - to the church.

In the original, eyes were opened and they saw the troubles of the world. Photo: Maria Belova.

“The Mother of God consoled me, and I became her guardian”

In the village of Shevchenko, the young and aspiring priest Vladimir Kishchuk literally blossomed. Although at first it seemed to him that he was wasting his time in the wilderness in vain.

“When I was sent from Ivano-Frankivsk, a large city, to the village, I grumbled,” he says. — Here it was necessary to restore the temple after the collective farm, but I have a sick child with a heart defect. Doctors said that Seraphim would not live to be three years old and would never be able to lead a normal life, because he had several heart attacks in infancy. What kind of medicine is there here, in the Vinnytsia region?..

Father Vladimir even turned to his confessor with complaints about life, but he said prophetic words: “Everything will change when the Mother of God consoles you.”

And a few days later, a dilapidated old woman appeared on the threshold of the church: “Evdokia is dying there, calling you to your body...” The village priest was determined to absolve the future deceased of her sins, she suddenly sent him to look at the mezzanine... “I’ve lost my mind,” the priest sighed, fulfilling the will of the dying woman - and almost fell from the stepladder...

“I immediately brought both icons to the church, carefully placed them at the altar, and began to pray,” says Father Vladimir. “And then I seemed to feel: I need to bring Seraphim and attach him to the icon.” The one with the slightly open eyes... I repeated the sacrament just a few times... And Seraphim’s condition improved. Now he is 8 years old, he goes to school, studies along with other children, although the doctors did not promise his son even this. The Mother of God really consoled me: this is how I became the custodian of her miraculous icon.

In confession, Evdokia told the holy father that the Virgin Mary did not always “peek” at the world from under her eyelids - before, it was as if she was sleeping. A few months later, the rector of the temple noticed that the shape of the icon’s eyes seemed to have become even wider... Elders from the Diocesan Commission for Miracles visited the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist for two years with a ruler - each time they measured how much the Mother of God opened her eyes. And they eventually included it in their register of official religious miracles.

“Parishioners told me that during the liturgy, the Mother of God sometimes winks at them with both eyes - like blinking,” says the rector. “I see: people are pointing at her, but I don’t dare tell the story myself - I’ll start checking whether it’s true, it will turn out that I’ll doubt the Mother of God and my faith.” Although sometimes I myself pray in front of the icon and suddenly notice that the cheeks of the Virgin Mary are covered with a barely noticeable blush. That means she notices me too!

The Mother of God saves not only parishioners, but also protects herself. Apparently, she persuaded the local rector to allow him to take the icon to another church for a while, and in the meantime the temple in the village of Shevchenko was set on fire by sectarians. They probably wanted to destroy the ancient shrine - she read their thoughts in advance.

Pilgrims flock to the Church of the Beheading of John the Baptist. Photo: Maria Belova.

Throw away the crutch, get on your skis!

The Zinovinskaya Mother of God opened the eyes of the prophetic eyes and, as they say in Ukraine, took a shine to her parishioners: who asks the boss to become kinder to him, who wants to earn money... But believers come with real troubles.

“Cancer cannot be treated by medicine, and we have had many cases where the tumor disappeared after turning to the Virgin Mary,” rejoices Father Vladimir Kishchuk. “One woman could no longer even move her hand—neither dress nor comb her hair... But as soon as she made the pilgrimage, her tumor immediately burst through, the pus came out and everything healed. Another woman asked for her husband: the doctors had already given him a death sentence... The parishioner prayed to the Mother of God, and upon returning she immediately noticed an improvement in her husband. They took a picture - and the tumor had resolved! It even happens that hematomas in the brains of victims of car accidents disappear.

Another pilgrim across the entire region barely made it to venerate the Mother of God on crutches - a spinal injury left her relying only on God.

“On the way back, the woman simply forgot her crutches in the minibus, and when she realized that she was walking without supports, she fell on her forehead to the ground - she thanked the Lord, and then she came to our church again, hitting the Zinovinskaya icon with her forehead,” says the priest. “Then I even took up sports - skiing through the forest.

They also ask the Virgin Mary for maternal happiness - it is not given to everyone easily and simply. For example, one midwife could only be happy for others, but considered herself childless because of problems in the female area.

“But after prayer, everything finally worked out well for her!” - continues the priest. “Another girl came to us twice to baptize other people’s children, but God did not give her and her husband her own for a long time. So, having learned about the wonderful icon, she appeared before the eyes of the Mother of God... And immediately became pregnant. I mean, in two weeks.

And how many sick children the Zinovinskaya icon has seen - at least close your eyes again.

For the miraculous healing, parishioners bring gifts to the Mother of God. Photo: Maria Belova.

“They brought children with paralysis and applied them to the icon, and with leukemia, and with cerebral palsy - then many parents returned, thanked the icon, which means it helped,” says the priest. “It’s not for nothing that there are so many gold crosses, rings and chains hanging near her - people bring whatever they can as gifts.

It is believed that the Zinovinskaya icon opens our spiritual eyes...

“People who are possessed by demons are also often brought to our church, this is the worst thing,” admits Father Vladimir. “Once a husband brought his wife. She looks like an ordinary woman in a burlap scarf, but when he begins to lead her to the icon, she growls, screams in a man’s bass voice: “Don’t take me to her! She’s burning me!” - and her husband puts her face directly to the icon... And it is clear that the demon is tormenting the woman, does not want to leave... And then she sat down in exhaustion, but with enlightened eyes... This does not happen in front of every icon, but in Zinovinskaya the holy spirit is clearly present. Once they put a possessed boy on her - he shouted in a brutal voice: “I can’t look - she’s standing there!” She will kill me!” For the first time in my youth, I almost ran away from the temple when I saw something like this. But the elders held me back, convinced me to be stronger in spirit... Today I haven’t seen anything like that.

And on the last Easter, the church service at the Zinovinskaya icon was almost disrupted by a bird choir located on the branches of trees in front of the temple. The winged creatures sang so loudly that people forgot about the service for a few minutes. Then the birds immediately rose into the air and disappeared from view, but the parishioners remained confident in miracles.

Vinnytsia region - Moscow