“Pray - the Mother of God will hear!”
On Saturday of the fifth week of Great Lent, the Holy Church celebrates the Praise of the Most Holy Theotokos. Otherwise, this holiday is called Saturday Akathist, compiled in gratitude for miraculous deliverance from troubles through the intercession of the Mother of God. These stories are about a small fraction of the modern miracles of Our Lady.
Manifestation of icons
Archpriest Georgy Breev , rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Krylatskoye:
Archpriest Georgy Breev shows the Burning Bush icon in his cell
— When I was appointed rector of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Krylatskoye 20 years ago, they immediately brought me the Rudny Icon of the Mother of God. Here, in honor of this image, the throne was consecrated, since local peasants found it at a holy spring near the church. I remember the headman comes and says:
- Father, I wanted to give you something in connection with the fact that you were assigned to restore this temple...
She knew that the Rudny Icon of the Mother of God was revered here. He holds out the icon, but it’s dark. Nothing was visible: neither colors, nor the image itself.
— How did you understand that this was the Rudny Icon? - I ask her.
“They told me about this when I bought it at the antique market in Izmailovo,” explains.
- Okay, since Rudnenskaya, I’ll take it with pleasure!
The fact is that in our church there remained only one revered Rudny icon, preserved by old parishioners. According to legend, when the temple was closed in 1936, the temple icon was split and burned by a resident of the village of Krylatskoye. A few years later, during the Great Patriotic War, during a German air raid on a plant across the Moscow River, one of the bombs “accidentally” fell and hit the village - precisely the house of this woman, killing her along with her daughter. No one else in the village was hurt except them.
Rudny icon in the cell of Father Georgy Breev
And so I look at this dark Rudny icon brought to me and think: “It requires clearing.” However, on the first feast of this image celebrated in the restored church, I still placed this icon in the church on the lectern. Then, after the icon has been in the temple, I bring it to my cell and cannot understand: what is happening?! It’s as if she’s changing before her eyes, some colors in her come to life... Tamara Alekseevna Gavrilova, the treasurer of the temple, came in:
- Look, Tamara Alekseevna, the icon was not like that!
“Yes, father,” she confirms, shocked.
The icon was completely renewed before our eyes, sparkling with colors
Indeed, the icon was completely renewed before our eyes, sparkling with colors - and this despite the fact that the restorer’s brush did not even touch it! Do you see the colors on it? It was just a black board, on which only some outlines appeared, but now it shines so much!
And here is another image of “The Burning Bush”. The parishioners gave it to me, too, completely dark. I brought it here to the cell, but nothing is visible on it: neither the face nor the details can be made out. There were just some stripes visible on the dark board. It was only by these lines, converging at the corners, that I realized that this was the image of the “Burning Bush”. He hung it in his cell...
“Okay,” I think, “I’ll find good artists.” It was then that I just realized that I shouldn’t be the first person I met to give an icon for restoration; the day before I had one image ruined. So I decided to wait...
And this icon also manifested itself! What you can see on it now—all this never happened! Now even the blue azure is visible on it - this color was completely absent. There were no angels in sight! And look what a noble face the icon has!
Here you go, the wonders of our time.
Just the other day, they told me from the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Life-Giving Spring” in Tsaritsyno, where I also used to be rector, that three icons shone there. Go there and take a look! These are the icons of the Mother of God “Joy of All Who Sorrow” and “Seeking the Lost”, as well as the image of the Great Martyr George the Victorious. And in my cell, in addition to the Mother of God, the icon of St. George the Victorious was renewed.
I also remember, when I was just appointed rector of Krylatskoye, one artist brought me the “Deliverer” icon of the Mother of God.
- Take her to the altar! - asks me.
- Why to the altar? — I’ll clarify.
And then she tells me her story. She became seriously ill and made a vow to the Mother of God that she would paint Her icon. And when I recovered, in the rush of fuss I forgot about what I had promised. Two years have passed, one morning she goes out for a walk with the dog and this is what she sees. A tall, slender nun comes towards her... She reined in the dog, but she herself thinks: “How majestic...”
- You gave me your word and why don’t you keep it? — a passer-by suddenly turns to her.
“What word?.. To whom?” she thinks and suddenly remembers:
— She promised to paint the Mother of God an icon of Her!
But the Mother of God has already become invisible.
"Sign" from the sea
Sergey Korablev:
Icon of the Sign, brought by dolphins to the coast
— In 2021, after leaving the service for the reserve, I took a trip to a sanatorium in Sochi. I went out, I remember, to the coast. It was a clear sunny day. The sea is calm: not a single wave. Exactly at noon I saw a school of dolphins swimming to the shore, and began to count: 12. I sat in a sun lounger and watched them. When I suddenly realized that they were pushing some object to the shore edge of the water... When the dolphins disappeared, suddenly the only wave that I noticed that day came and threw this bundle onto the sand. I paid attention to him, but soon I was distracted by business and left the beach for a while. I come back, and this sea offering is still lying in the same place... I took out the e-book and tried to get into reading, but my inner voice kept repeating:
- Open the bag. Open the bag.
I obeyed. Came up. The bag was covered in mud. I removed these algae. He began to untie the twine. The contents turned out to be tied up with a man's sweater, fastened with stationery needles with plastic tips. I unfold the sweater, and there is an icon! Mother of God.
I called my mother and sent home a picture of the find via WhatsApp.
Mom said:
- It was sent to you - take it.
Although someone immediately came up and offered to take the shrine to the temple. But I still listened to my mother. Schema-Archimandrite Iliy (Nozdrin) later confirmed this decision to me when I brought him the icon to Peredelkino. Archpriest Valerian Krechetov was still with him at that time. I wanted to give the icon to them, but Father Eli said:
- Let her stay with you for now.
Sergei Korablev with the found icon
This icon is miraculous. How many times has it happened that colleagues who had some serious problems in life came to my home, and I told them:
- Believe, pray! Just ask the Mother of God in your own words!
And each time, absolutely miraculously, everything in the lives of these people was resolved.
My life has completely changed. Somehow everything started to work out correctly. Someone wrote something on the Internet about this incident, but there are a lot of lies there. For some reason they wrote that I was there with my wife, but I just got married a year ago! I feel the help and protection of the Most Holy Theotokos.
How the Mother of God intervened when the doctors refused
Archimandrite Elijah (Reizmir)
Archimandrite Elijah (Reizmir) , resident of the Holy Trinity Sergius Lavra:
- I remember how in the 1970s the monks of the Lavra were prevented from holding separate unctions. They say that one general unction on Great Wednesday is enough for believers. And soon a very young girl living next door to the Lavra fell ill. She worked as an accountant at a children's clinic. They built something in the courtyard of the institution, dug holes, and through carelessness she fell and hurt herself. She had some kind of hard lump, she thought it would go away, but as it seemed to the doctors, they diagnosed cancer, and already with metastases... She lay alone in the ward of the Botkin hospital, and burst into tears:
- For what, Lord?..
The Mother of God said: “Lydia, why are you grumbling? No one left you"
And I saw the Most Holy Theotokos right in the chamber:
- Lydia, why are you complaining? Nobody left you.
The doctors abandoned her and sent her home as hopeless. Her mother was a believer, and she immediately turned to the Lavra monks with a request to give unction and communion.
The girl was brought to the Lavra, and we locked ourselves in the Mikheevsky Church, without turning on the lights, and offered unction to her by candlelight. Then she took communion three times and returned to work healthy.
- How were you healed? - her colleagues ask.
“The Lord healed, Holy Communion,” she answered.
You just have to believe, pray, the Mother of God will hear, the Lord will not leave.
“The icon did not want to leave her beloved home”
In 1748, a decision was made to close the Rozhetsky monastery, transfer its property and transfer the nuns to the Vinnitsa convent. However, in fact, for another 40 years the monastery existed in a semi-legal position. The church authorities closed it, the landowner did everything to destroy it, but monastic life nevertheless did not fade away here.
After the annexation of Podolia to the Russian Empire, the Rozhetsky Monastery was declared incapable of existence due to poverty and was finally closed.
“There is a folk legend and documentary facts about how the Rozhetskaya icon ended up in Vinnitsa,” says Fr. Nazariy Davidovsky. – In 1802, dean John Basarsky and deputy John Kulchitsky came to Rozhok to carry out an assignment and transport the property of the former monastery to Vinnitsa. The peasants watched with sadness as the old church was dismantled and the icons were placed on a cart. But they didn’t want to give up their ancient shrine - the Rozhetsky Icon. People placed it in the former monastery refectory. However, a few days later the priest and the deputy came again and secretly took the icon. When people found out about this, they rushed after the performers to return the shrine back. But the list of the Mother of God was delivered to the Vinnitsa Monastery.
View across Pochtovaya (Cathedral), where the cathedral is, to Monastyrsky Lane (now Kropivnitsky Street), beginning. XX century
The head of the historical department of the Vinnitsa diocese refers to the study of Archpriest John Shipovich, dedicated to the Rozhetsky monastery: “There is a legend among the local people that this icon did not want to leave her beloved home: when, after taking many other sacred objects, it was her turn, she turned out to be so heavy, that many people could not only lift it, but even move it from its place, and only then was it possible to take and move the shrine, when those present made a vow that sooner or later a church would be built on this place, where the saint would be returned icon".
Procession and healing of the sick
The icon was first in the house of a woman who was the first to see it in a well. But they soon noticed that moisture appeared on the face of the Mother of God. The surface of the icon was carefully wiped, but moisture appeared again and again. People began to say that the icon was crying.
Then, with the blessing of the priest, the image was solemnly transferred to the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the neighboring village of Gulevtsy, since there was no church of its own in Pisarevka. The celebration of the icon was established on the Nativity of John the Baptist.
In memory of the miraculous discovery of the icon in the well, the board was given a round shape and a special round icon case with a carved frame was made for the icon.
“When the wooden Church of the Holy Intercession was built in Pisarevka in 1885, the icon was transferred in a procession to the newly built church and placed in the iconostasis, where a special place was reserved for it above the Royal Doors,” says Rostislav Motspan. – During prayer services, the icon was solemnly lowered for the worship of believers. Those who came to pray in the temple received healing, and therefore the icon was revered by the people as miraculous.
Rostislav gives an example that old-timers talked about:
“A girl from the village of Pikova, having learned about miraculous healings occurring through prayers in front of the icon, hoping for recovery from a serious illness, asked people to help her get to the church. After the evening service she was allowed to stay in the temple. After spending the night in prayer in front of the icon, the next morning the girl felt healthy and returned home on her own.”
Fear of the authorities and the madness of the mother in labor
The destroyed temple served as building material for the club, which was built in the center of Pisarevka before the war.
And during the fascist occupation, a certain representative of the German authorities, not finding a church in the village, ordered the construction of a building for worship within 24 hours. Overnight, new crosses were installed at the club and icons that had been preserved from the village residents were collected. The venerable shrine was also brought to a new location.
But after the liberation of Pisarevka, the temple was closed and rebuilt into a store.
“For fear of the authorities, none of the believers dared to take the icon into their home, so it suffered greatly from dampness,” says Rostislav Motpan. “But this oblivion did not last long. The icon began to appear to one of the local residents during sleep, and out of fear of God he decided to take the image to the house of his mother Matrona. In this house, in a separate prayer room, the icon remained until the end of the 60s. At the request of the owner, a nun who lived in a neighboring village after the closure of the Brailovsky Monastery made a velvet frame for the icon with an embroidered inscription.
Pisarevskaya Icon of the Mother of God before restoration
Miracles from the icon continued all these years. Stories about miraculous healings were passed on from mouth to mouth and became legend. For example, a young woman was brought to the house where the icon was kept, who had fallen into madness after childbed fever and did not recognize her child. The patient was brought to the miraculous image at the cost of enormous efforts. But as soon as the woman venerated the icon, she immediately came to her senses - she calmed down and began to think clearly. Later, this woman often prayed to the Mother of God in front of Her miraculous image.
The big mystery of the ancient shrine
For more than 40 years, the Rozhetskaya Icon of the Mother of God resided in the Annunciation Vinnitsa convent, and when the monastery was transferred to Brailov, the miraculous image, along with other shrines, was moved to a new place.
“The icon was in the central church of the Vinnitsa-Brailovsky convent until 1891,” says the head of the historical department of the Vinnitsa diocese. – When on October 17, 1888, the royal family escaped from a railway disaster, the abbess of the monastery, Mother Melitina, vowed to build the Alexander-Mariinsky hermitage in the village of Rozhok. On August 30, 1891, His Grace Demetrius consecrated the built church, where the revered Rozhetsky icon returned again.
Brailovsky Monastery
The Soviet government closed the Rozhetsk Hermitage. During the German occupation from 1941 to 1942, monastic life resumed for a short time. According to folk legend, one day the nuns discovered that the Rozhets miraculous icon was completely covered with myrrh, as if it were crying. The sisters felt that trouble was approaching and decided to leave the monastery, going to Brailov.
Brailovsky Monastery
After the nuns left, underground fighters set up an ambush in the monastery, opening fire on German soldiers from the bell tower. The Nazis burned the monastery to the ground. No one saw the Rozhetsk Icon of the Mother of God again.
“The further fate of the Rozhetskaya icon is a big mystery,” says Fr. Nazariy Davidovsky. “By the providence of God, a pre-revolutionary photo of the icon itself and two copies of it came to us. It was on the basis of these components that the icon painter Rostislav Motspan reconstructed this ancient and miraculous image revered in Podolia.
And since the Rozhetsky monastery has not survived to this day, and in the cathedral city of Vinnitsa the shrine was located for more than 40 years, and it was restored here, the historical department of the Vinnitsa diocese proposes to name the shrine as “Vinnitsa-Rozhetsky” and establish the Day of its honor - September 7 ( new style) when the Vinnytsia diocese was founded.
Vinnytsia Cathedral of the Transfiguration of the Savior
Miracles of Podolsk icons 2: The Virgin Mary opened her eyes on the holy image
The Zinovinskaya miraculous icon of the Mother of God is one of the most ancient Podolsk venerated images of the Mother of God. The fate of this shrine and the miracles manifested through it are amazing.
The Commission for the Canonization of Saints of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church presented the Zinovinsk Icon to the Holy Synod of the UOC for consideration of the possibility of its church-wide veneration.
Zinovinskaya Icon of the Mother of God
– The miraculous image of the village of Zinovintsy can presumably be attributed to the beginning of the 17th century. According to its translation, it belongs to the rare and almost never found in Ukrainian icons of the Mother of God - “Nurturing”, as well as “Arabian”, says icon painter Rostislav Motspan, an employee of the historical department of the Vinnitsa diocese. – The icon was painted by a simple pious village resident, and it can be assumed that he was a skilled icon painter, because the image is executed at a high artistic level. Rare iconography and the closed eyes of the Mother of God indicate that the Zinovinsky image was painted according to God’s special providence.
Healing of the youth Daniel
For some time, the icon was in a rural house, emitting light at night. Realizing the special grace of the holy image, the owner of the house gave it to the Zinovinsky St. John the Theological Church, built by the village residents in 1758. The icon was placed in the altar, and miraculous healings occurred from it.
The icon became famous throughout Podolia and beyond its borders after the healing of the youth Daniel, the son of the rector of the Zinovinsky Church, Fr. Konstantin Strelbitsky. The boy, at the age of five, was paralyzed, and his father-priest laid him in front of the image of the Virgin Mary with the words: “Mother of God, heal my son, if he recovers, I will give him to You to serve.”
“Then, with the lip with which the Chalice is wiped after consuming the Holy Gifts, he wiped the face of the Mother of God, and then the face and head of his son. And - oh, the ineffable mercy of the Lady - in the evening of the same day the boy became completely healthy,” writes the Podolsk Diocesan Gazette in No. 35, 1893.
Orthodox publication Fr.
And Daniel’s life after the miraculous healing was dedicated to God. He took monastic vows with the name Modest and, working for the good of the Church, at the age of 54 he was consecrated Bishop of Yekaterinburg of the Alexander Nevsky Lavra.
Archbishop Modest (Strelbitsky)
Throughout his life, Archbishop Modest kept in his heart the memory of the ineffable mercy of the Mother of God, who granted him miraculous healing. And in 1895, he built the majestic Holy Trinity Church in his native village, where the miraculous image of the Zinovinskaya Mother of God was installed in a gilded carved icon case. The icon was covered with an expensive silver-gilded chasuble, decorated with precious stones.
Archbishop Modest (Strelbitsky) until the end of his days kept a list of the miraculous image with him and always took it with him.
After the death of the bishop, this list was transferred to his native village and placed in the cathedral next to the miraculous image. In the temple book that has survived to this day, there is a record of a miraculous image, which indicates that the eyes on the face of the Mother of God were closed.
List of the miraculous image of the Mother of God “Zinovinskaya”
