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The Kozelshchansk Icon of the Mother of God is one of the most recent icons of glorification, which is one of the most revered in Orthodoxy. She has become a symbol of healing and God's forgiveness for Christians around the world. For it contains great power and wisdom that gives the eternal - faith and true grace.
The history of the origin and glorification of the Kozelshchansky Icon of the Mother of God
Once upon a time, an ancient Russian noble family, the Kapnists, lived in the Poltava province of the Russian Empire, whose ancestors moved to Russian soil from the Greek island of Zante. It was on the estate of Count Kapnist, located in the village of Kozelshchina, that the family icon of the Mother of God was kept, which was passed down by inheritance. Back in the 18th century, it was brought from Italy by the count’s great-grandmother.
“This icon in my family, as well as in the surrounding area, has long enjoyed the glory of working miracles. My wife in particular always revered this icon, which our children also borrowed from it.”
Count Kapnist, entry from a notebook
One day, during the celebration of Maslenitsa, one of the count’s daughters named Maria stumbled and sprained her leg. The doctor made a special fixation shoe with steel springs for the girl. Mary wore this shoe throughout Lent, but after Easter she suddenly felt severe pain in her other foot. I had to put a steel shoe on her too.
Count and Countess Kapnist were in great anxiety. But when, after some time, their daughter’s arms began to be taken away, they decided to immediately take the girl to Moscow to show her to the best doctors.
On the eve of departure, the countess, pointing to the family icon of the Mother of God, said to Mary: “We have a long journey ahead, it’s a serious matter. Pray, Masha, stronger. May the Mother of God help us."
Maria did just that. Her surprise and joy knew no bounds when, immediately after the prayer, she felt relief and strength in her arms and legs. The girl arrived in Moscow almost healthy.
The news of this miracle spread throughout the surrounding area. Many wanted to see the miraculous image and offer a prayer to the Mother of God in front of it. Therefore, on the estate of Count Kapnist, a chapel was first built for the icon, and later a church in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Over time, the universal veneration of the Kozelshchyna Icon of the Mother of God led to the appearance of a women's monastery in the Kozelshchyna. The Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary itself turned into a cathedral, which is still a local landmark.
Iconography and meaning of the Kozelshchansky Icon of the Mother of God
It is not possible to accurately establish the authorship and date the Kozelshchan icon. From the family tradition of the Kapnist counts, one can only take away that by the time she appeared in the family, she was already “very old,” and before the moment of Mary’s miraculous healing, she spent half a century in the Kozel region.
The picturesque manner in which the image of the Blessed Virgin Mary is executed proves the Italian origin of the icon. According to the description of Count Kapnist himself, the original without a frame was “8 inches high and 6 inches wide” - that is, the size is 36 * 27 centimeters.
The composition of the icon is unique and makes it easy to distinguish it from other Orthodox images of the Mother of God by the following features:
- Generational image of the Virgin Mary. On other Orthodox icons you can usually see either a shoulder-length or waist-length image, or a full-length image. On the Kozelschanskaya icon, the Mother of God sits so that we see her knees covered with maforium.
- Lack of himation in the Christ Child. The Infant of God is depicted in one undershirt.
- Pose of the Christ Child. The Divine Infant reclines on the crook of the left elbow of the Mother of God. A folded blanket is placed under it, on which the Mother supports it.
- Attributes of the Sacrament of the Eucharist. To the right of the Virgin Mary is the edge of a low table, on which stands the Chalice, and next to it lies the Liar. In Christ's right hand is a cross.
It is the Eucharistic attributes present on the Kozelshchanskaya icon that make it possible to find the secret meaning of this image. By placing the Cup and the Liar near the Eternal Child, the icon painter points to Christ as the establisher of the Sacrament of Communion. At the same time, the deep meaning of this Sacrament, revealed in the words of Christ himself, is emphasized:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My Flesh is truly food, and My Blood is truly drink. He who eats My Flesh and drinks My Blood abides in Me, and I in him” (John 6: 53–56)
Sometimes the image of the Kozelshchanskaya Mother of God is interpreted based on the Akathist to the Blessed Virgin. It contains the phrase “Rejoice, O Cup that draws joy.” The Mother of God herself is compared here to a cup full of joy.
What does it look like and what does it mean?
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The icon was created in the 16th century in Italy, although it gained fame as a miracle worker in Ukraine and Russia. By type of icon painting, this is Hodegetria (below I will tell you in detail what this means). The icon is not painted on canvas, but on a small tablet.
At the end of the 19th century, the image was covered with a silver chasuble.
Its meaning is simple: the Virgin points to her son, showing people the path they should follow - that is, the one to whom every Christian soul should strive.
Also on this icon you can see a spoon (communion spoon) and a cup. This detail tells about the sacrament of communion, which the Son of God taught to his disciples (and therefore to all people). On the other hand, this church utensil hints that communion is the eating of the flesh and blood of Christ, who sacrificed himself for all humanity.
Hodegetria - what kind of icon is this?
It would be more correct to say - a type of icons. This word translates as “guidebook”. It is believed that for the first time such an icon of the Mother of God was painted by Luke, the apostle from the age of seventy.
This icon is often compared with Eleusa - “Merciful” (this is also an icon of the Mother of God with the Child, but in this image Jesus presses his cheek to his mother, showing his boundless love for her, and through her - for the entire human race).
Which Hodegetria are considered the most revered? How do such images differ in iconography? This sign will show all this:
By the way, the Kozelshchanskaya icon differs from most hodegetria: here the baby does not hold a scroll or book, and besides, he blesses people not with his hand, but with a cross.
Current location of the original Kozelshchansk Icon of the Mother of God
Until 1929, the original Kozelshchanskaya Icon of the Mother of God was in his native village, in the cathedral at the Monastery of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. However, during the destruction of the monastery by the atheists, the nuns had to flee and hide the miraculous relic.
Since the 90s of the 20th century, the monastery has been gradually restored. Now the large Rozhdestvensko-Bogoroditsky is not heated, therefore services are held in it only in the summer, and it is not yet possible to store ancient icons in it. Therefore, the miraculous image of the Kozelshchansky Mother of God was placed in the small Transfiguration Church at the monastery.
You can pray in front of the miraculous Kozelshchansky image on a pilgrimage trip to Ukraine. The Nativity of the Virgin Mary Monastery is located in the Poltava region, in the village of Kozelshchina, on Lenin Street.
About the holy image of the Virgin Mary
This image is of Italian origin and was presumably painted in the 16th century. At first it belonged to a lady-in-waiting of Empress Elizabeth, and later became a family heirloom of the Kapnist counts. In the 1880s it was decorated with a massive silver chasuble, which made it more beautiful in appearance and truly a masterpiece of icon painting in the entire Orthodox culture.
On the estate of the counts, which is located in the village of the same name, Kozelshchina, a chapel was built for the face of the Mother of God, then a stone church in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, at which a women’s community was later founded, which later became a famous monastery. The icon was kept in it until it was closed, then it was hidden by nuns for a long time and only in 1993 it returned to the restored church.
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Where is
Currently, the original image of the Kozelshchanskaya Mother of God is in the Krasnogorsk Pokrovsky Convent, which is located in the Kyiv diocese.
Revered lists of the Kozelshchansky Icon of the Mother of God
One of the most interesting copies of the Kozelshchanskaya icon was made at the end of the 19th century and belonged to John of Kronstadt himself. When the daughter of the Vyborg merchant Kravotinsky became seriously ill, her father turned to the famous righteous man for help and prayer. At that time, John of Kronstadt was unable to go to the sick girl himself, but sent the blessed Kozelshchansky icon to the merchant.
In the merchant's house, a prayer service was held in front of the icon, and the girl soon began to recover. After her healing, the miraculous list was transferred to a church in the suburbs of Vyborg. However, during the Great Patriotic War, the relic was taken to Finland. Now it is located in Helsinki, in the Cathedral of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Finnish Orthodox Church.
Among other revered copies of the Kozelshchanskaya icon, the following can be noted:
- list from the Gomel St. Nicholas Monastery;
- list from the Annunciation Church in the city of Murom;
- list from the Archangel Michael Church in the village of Taman, Krasnodar Territory;
- list from the Church of St. Seraphim of Sarov in Lugansk.
The list kept in the Church of the Kozelshchanskaya Icon of the Mother of God in Donetsk deserves special mention. People come here from all over the city, which has been enduring the hardships of a fratricidal war for several years now. Here, before the image of the Mother of God, prayers are offered for mercy and heavenly cover, for prosperity and peace. In addition, the local list enjoys the fame of miraculous and grace-filled healing:
“Near our icon there is a special casket into which people who have received healing from their ailments bring some of their gold jewelry or whatever they can as a sign of gratitude. And here’s a recent case: three women who could not have children received what they asked for through the prayer of the Mother of God.”
Archpriest Alexei, rector of the Church of the Kozelshchanskaya Icon of the Mother of God
Numerous gifts stored in the casket in front of the Donetsk list of the Kozelshchanskaya Icon of the Mother of God indicate that sincere prayer will always be heard.
Miracles of the Holy Face
The miracles of healing of Muscovites who prayed to the Kozelshchanskaya icon immediately after the first healing it revealed do not exhaust the gracious help that the Mother of God herself gives to believers through her image.
- In 1941, at the height of the bombing of Moscow, not a single shell fell on the hospital of St. Alexis, Metropolitan of Moscow.
- In September, one of the hospital workers walked around its territory with the Kozelshchanskaya icon of the Mother of God. One of the churches on the hospital grounds was also dedicated to this image of the Mother of God.
- One of the parishioners of this church told a story about the mother of a soldier who fought on the front of the Great Patriotic War. The woman prayed fervently in front of the Kozelshchansk Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos for the health of her son. And the soldier not only returned from the war, but also did not receive a single injury.
- In difficult years, the Kozelshchanskaya Mother of God also saved from arrests: the prayer of his wife before this icon in the 30s saved one of the aircraft design engineers Boris Popov from repression.
Kozelshchansk Icon of the Mother of God
How does the icon of the Mother of God of Kozelshchansk help?
In the vicinity of the Kozel region, there is a belief that in addition to helping with mental and physical illnesses, this icon especially helps young girls who come to it and want to get married. At the same time, an interesting custom has developed: anyone praying and asking for help from the Mother of God through the Kozelshchansky image must cleanse her robe.
People turn to this icon for help in other cases:
- for strengthening faith;
- with severe internal conflicts and despair;
- if necessary, preserve the family hearth.
Believers turn their sincere prayers to the icon of the Kozelshchanskaya Mother of God in the most terrible life situations, when they lose hope for earthly help and faith in their own strength.
Where to hang and how to pray in front of the Kozelshchanskaya icon
According to one of the Orthodox postulates, the image is inextricably linked with the prototype, therefore any consecrated icon with the image of the Kozelshchanskaya Mother of God can have the qualities of the original. Having bought this icon in a church shop, you need to install it on your home iconostasis and pray in front of it as follows:
“To the Virgin Mary, Immaculate Mother of Christ our God, Intercessor of the entire Christian race! Standing reverently before Thy miraculous icon, we pray to Thee, hear us praying to Thee: accept our unworthy thanksgiving for all Thy unspeakable good deeds to us, in this place and in many villages and towns of the Russian land, manifested and manifested; For you are healing for the sick, comfort for the sorrowful, correction and admonition for the erring. Be for us all protection and consolation, a refuge from all evils, troubles and circumstances, from famine, cowardice, flood, fire, sword, foreign invasion, deadly plagues and from evil people’s bitterness. Oh, Most Merciful Mother, always be a loving prayer book for the well-being of this holy temple, for the peace and quiet of the life of this community, strengthen and support the priests and those serving in this holy temple. Autumn with Thy all-powerful protection are the builders and benefactors of this holy monastery, reward them with eternal gifts of Thy bounties, intercede from all adversity and preserve with faith and reverence those who flow to Thy miraculous icon and pray to You with love here and in every place. Lift up our prayers, like a fragrant censer, to the Throne of the Most High, who grants us health, long life and haste in pious labors, so that we may be guided by Your nourishment and covered by Your protection, glorifying the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit and Your Motherly intercession for us, always, now and ever and ever. Amen".
