Miracle-working icon of Andronikovskaya Mother of God

Among the house relics of the Byzantine emperor Andronik III of Palaeologus, who occupied the throne from 1328 to 1341, there was a miraculous icon of the Virgin, according to legend, one of the three written by the former Evangelist Luke. The name of the crowned owner gave her the name, and in subsequent centuries she became known as the icon of Andronikovskaya of the Mother of God.

Icon rescued from fire

Shortly before his death, the emperor (pictured below) raised it as a gift to a Greek monastery on the Peloponnese Peninsula. There, under the arches of the ancient monastery Andronikovskaya icon of the Mother of God was kept until the invasion of the Turks, who seized the peninsula in 1821, and destroyed the monastery.

Ottoman conquerors looted all the valuables that were kept in the monastery, and that they could not bear, were put to the fire. Miraculously preserved only an icon, donated by the Byzantine emperor. She was saved from the hands of gentiles by the abbot of the monastery Bishop Agapius. With a risk to life, he took the shrine out to the city of Patras free of the invaders (the modern name of Patras), and there he handed it to his relative, the Russian consul, A.N. Vlassopulo.

The icon painted on a wooden board was of a very small size ─ 35 cm x 25 cm. The Blessed Virgin was depicted on it alone without Her Eternal Infant. A characteristic feature of the image was a bleeding wound on the neck of the Virgin, which remained after the impact of a spear inflicted in the VIII century, when Byzantium was captured by the fire of iconoclasm.

Road to Russia

In 1839, the icon of Andronikovskaya Mother of God was sent from Greece to St. Petersburg by the son and heir of the deceased consul by that time. Upon arrival in the capital of the Russian Empire, the shrine until 1868 was in the house temple of the Winter Palace, and then for a while - in the Trinity Cathedral, located on the Petrograd side. It is believed that in the same years was composed by the Akathist Andronikovskaya icon of the Mother of God.

In April 1877, the holy image was sent to Vyshny Volochok, where he was met with extraordinary honors by local clergy and townspeople. After solemn service in the Kazan Cathedral, the shrine was crossed by the cross to the nearby convent of the city, founded in honor of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.

Miracles revealed in Theodore Monastery

After the icon of Andronicus of the Mother of God took the place of honor in the main temple of the monastery, its prioress Father Superior Dosifei appealed to the Holy Synod with a request to establish an official day of the festival dedicated to the relics. Soon her request was granted, and since that time the celebrations dedicated to this icon have been held annually on May 1st.

Evidence has been preserved that the prayer of the Andronik Icon of the Mother of God often carried the execution of the most cherished and difficult to fulfill desires. The monastic book is full of records about the healing of the hopelessly sick, about finding family happiness and safe chorodia. It is no wonder that after this the image became revered as miraculous.

The years of Bolshevik rule

This went on until the tragic events of 1917, fundamentally changed the whole way of life in Russia. With the coming to power of the God-seeking forces, the women's monastery was closed. Most of the buildings on its territory were destroyed, and those that, according to the authorities, represented economic value, were rebuilt and used for the needs of the military unit that was located there.

Two miraculous miraculous icons, which were kept in the monastery before its destruction, Andronikovskaya and Kazan, were transferred to the only open city temple at that time. It was the same Kazan Cathedral, which in 1877 became a place of celebration on the occasion of the arrival from St. Petersburg of the image written by the hand of the Evangelist Luke.

The fate of this temple is very sad. Safely surviving all the decades of communist rule with their regular anti-religious campaigns, it was destroyed in 1993, when on a wave of perestroika the churches returned and thousands of ruined and desecrated shrines were restored. The church utensils, vestments and icons that were in it were transferred to another city church, Bogoyavlensky. There also in the early 80-ies was placed and the icon of Andronikovskaya Mother of God.

The Stolen Shrine

Simultaneously with the destruction of the Kazan Cathedral near Vyshny Volochok, a revival of the women's monastery began, in which, before its abolition, the wonderworking Andronik icon was located. However, she was not destined to return to her former place. Back in 1984, the icon, under very mysterious circumstances, was stolen from the Epiphany Church, and has not been found to this day. More than two decades of her fate, nothing is known.

Andronik icon of the Mother of God in Pereslavl-Zalesk

The news about the appearance of a stolen icon in Pereslavl flew around the country in 2005. However, as it turned out, it did not correspond to reality. The reason for its appearance were events that in themselves deserve attention. It all started back in 1998, when one of the parishioners brought a Feodorovsky female monastery to the temple of Pereslavl-Zalessky, made in a natural size, a lithographic copy of the stolen Andronikov icon (photo below). After a while another woman gave the monastery a kyot, in size, exactly the same as that previously brought lithography.

The icon thus obtained was placed in the temple, but since it did not represent any artistic or historical value, its appearance went unnoticed. This continued until 2005, until the lithography, according to eyewitnesses, did not emit a wonderful fragrance that filled the entire temple.

The inexhaustible source of miracles

Moreover, in the subsequent time, numerous miracles of healing were revealed, revealed through prayers before her. This caused extraordinary excitement among the faithful and served as an excuse to consider a lithographic copy as miraculous as its stolen original. The celebration of the day of the newly acquired icon takes place on May 14 and November 4.

A year later the Andronik icon, or rather its lithographic copy, began to abundantly melt, which gave it universal popularity, and, accordingly, increased the number of pilgrims. For the information of skeptics, we note that there are many evidences that are alive to people who have been healed of ailments after their visit to Theodore Monastery, where the Andronik icon of the Mother of God is still.

What they pray for in front of her is clearly visible from the text of the short prayer, together with the photo that opens the article. The main thing is the petition for the intercession for us of the Mother of God before the Throne of the Most High who gives life, health and all earthly goods.