Historical information
The famous image of the Mother of God “Savior of the Drowning” has another more famous name - “Lenkovskaya”. The icon has a long history, but to this day it enjoys great respect among Christians. People are ready to travel from afar just to see the miraculous face with their own eyes and offer sincere prayers to heaven in front of it. But first things first.
In ancient times, during the time of Kievan Rus, on the Desna River in the Chernigov province there was a dangerous zone in which large water disasters regularly occurred: ships kept colliding with each other. The deadly site was located not far from a high mountain in the village of Lenkovo.
There, in the 17th century, local residents found the sacred icon of the Mother of God. The image was discovered in the water, the believers immediately saw this as a sign from heaven, so they gratefully accepted the icon as a gift from the Mother of God herself. People hoped that the Virgin Mary would protect them from unexpected deaths and natural disasters.
The icon of the Mother of God was raised to the top of the mountain in Lenkovo. After this, the number of tragic disasters actually decreased significantly, the local population received spiritual support and the sacred intercession of the Mother of God. At first, ships and barges began to crash less and less frequently, and later such incidents stopped altogether.
Interesting! The icon was nicknamed Lenkovskaya from the place of its acquisition and location.
A little later, on the mountain, at the location of the holy image, a monastery was built in honor of the icon. Orthodox laity began to flock from all corners of the world, wanting to kneel before the Lenkovo icon and feel for themselves all the power and strength of this face.
There are many mystical stories associated with people using icons. So, one day the image miraculously saved two children drowning in a river. The boy saved the drowning girl, but he did not have enough strength. When he was about to give up, he offered a prayer to the heavens, asking God for help. And at that same moment he felt someone’s presence next to him, saw the beautiful face of a young woman nearby. He also felt as if someone's hands were pushing him out of the water to the surface.
Having climbed ashore, the rescued boy and girl did not tell anyone anything, as they were afraid that they would be laughed at. The boy decided to tell only his Christian grandmother about what happened. But when many years ago, as an adult man, he arrived at the monastery and decided to pray in front of the miraculous Lenkovskaya icon, he was surprised to discover that the image depicted the same face that he had already seen once before. Then it was the Mother of God who helped him get out of the water without drowning.
Gradually, popular rumor spread rumors about this story, so the Lenkovskaya icon began to be called in a new way - “Savior of the Drowning.”
Location of the miraculous image
Unfortunately, the original version of the icon of the Mother of God has not survived to this day, having disappeared during the persecution of Christian shrines after the Great October Revolution. Fortunately, they managed to make lists (that is, copies) from the image.
The most famous of them, possessing miraculous powers no less than the original, is carefully preserved at the Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery (city of Novgorod-Seversky, modern Ukraine). It is there that pilgrims come every year who dream of seeing with their own eyes the genuine miracles of the face.
What date is Icon Day in 2021?
The date of special veneration of the sacred image, when believers strive to express their gratitude to the famous face, falls annually on January 2 . But Catholics honor the image a little earlier - on December 20, since their calendar is Julian, which is older.
There are no special holiday traditions. It is advisable to visit church on this day, light a candle and pray for family and friends. You cannot quarrel, offend other people, slander or sin in any other way before God.
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Rare and unusual icons
“We are drowning in the abyss of sin!” - some Orthodox Christians say piously, as if there is some merit in this. No, they answer, there is no merit, what are our merits - our grave sins! But we, our sins, begin to see them, like the sand of the sea, and this is the health of our soul, just like St. Peter of Damascus is written. And that means everything went smoothly. Let's drown correctly. We call for help correctly and measuredly. Oh, the sand of the sea... Some kind of, but still solid soil that disappears from under the feet of those unfortunates who are swallowed up by many waters and have despaired of stepping on it - on dry, lifeless, but solid, on which you can stand and just breathe . After all, they can barely breathe, much less scream or call for help. They no longer have the strength to do this. ...During these summer days, stories are repeatedly posted and reposted on the Internet about how to recognize someone who is drowning, who is close to death. These are not floundering people. These are not people who are in panic on the water and are calling for help - rest assured, such people will be noticed. People drown, go to death quietly - in front of their cheerful friends splashing a few meters away. They can no longer speak - their fading strength is only enough to sometimes breathe - when their mouth appears above the water. They cannot wave their arms - they do not have the strength to do that either. They quietly rise above the deathly watery abyss, inhale half the air and water and fall down. They are silent. The main human gift - the gift of speech - has already been taken away from them by impending death. They quickly become speechless. They cannot make decisions - how to escape, where to move in order to stay on the water. They find themselves at the mercy of instinct - and it lasts no more than a minute. The eyes are empty, the gaze does not focus, or the eyes are completely closed. The legs, which you can supposedly move and thereby save yourself, are motionless. From the outside it seems that such a person is simply silent and looking at the deck. He does not at all look like a drowning man, but in these seconds death is inexorably approaching him from the waters, which will cover his head forever from sunlight... And then the man ceases to be verbal and disappears under water forever. Then the dead body of a person will be pulled out of the waters... But if in these moments you call out to a person and, without hearing an answer, understand that he is dying, then he can still be saved. And these moments will remain in his human memory. Moments of proximity to death and deliverance, when help comes not because you call, but because they saw you in your hopeless misfortune, in mortal silence. Yes, they come to your aid when you can no longer call, when you can’t do anything, when you are paralyzed, reduced to speechlessness. And to us - like this, drowning in sins - comes He Whom we are unable to call.
Description of the image “Savior of the Drowning”
On the icon we can see the image of the Holy Virgin Mary at chest level. The Virgin Mary is dressed in rich, regal clothes, her head is covered with golden maforium. She hugs little Jesus Christ to her, hugging him with both arms.
The cheeks of the mother and baby touch each other closely, in which believers see a symbol of deep divine connection, spiritual unity, boundless love and faith. Baby Jesus reaches out with his left hand to touch the cheek of the Mother of God, thereby demonstrating how tenderly and reverently he treats her, how much he respects her and is grateful to her.
