Kazan Mother of God
Oil Paint on Wood Panel
6.5" x 4.75" x .75"


I would like to share one of the latest icons. It is essentially the same as an icon from this previous post. I will only add some information about the history of this icon.

According to tradition, after a great fire in Kazan, when a major part of the city was destroyed, on July 8 (21), 1579 an icon was discovered by a ten-year-old girl, Matrona, to whom the location of the image was revealed by the Theotokos. To commemorate the spot where the icon had been discovered Theotokos Monastery of Kazan was built, of which Matrona became the first nun, who then took the name Mavra, and later became the Mother Superior. (The cathedral was later destroyed by the communist authorities.)

By 19th century there was uncertainty to the location of this icon, though most believe that it remained in the monastery until June 29, 1904 when the icon was stolen. Thieves apparently coveted the icon's gold frame, which was ornamented with many valuable jewels. Russian police apprehended the thieves and recovered the frame, but the icon was not found. There was a version that the icon was burnt or sold to the Old Believers, but it found no confirmation. And yet according to another story that spread in Kazan, the stolen icon was not the original, but a copy and the icon itself was saved and preserved by the old Mother Superior. Many people say that today this ancient Kazan icon of Mother of God is in the church of Yaroslavl Miracle-Workers.

Yet, According to some data, in the last century the Kazan icon of the Mother of God was sold abroad, where it changed several owners, as they didn’t value spiritual essence of the sacred image and viewed the icon as an eligible investment. As both the icon and its copies are extremely valuable, the experts can’t agree on trace of what exactly image they found.

The Kazan icon has always been very highly regarded and even today it is hard to find a Russian orthodox home without it. Generals would take this icon into battles for invoking the protection of the Mother of God against the enemies. This icon can even be found in the cosmos: April 7, 2011, spacecraft Soyuz TMA-21 ("Gagarin") brought Kazan Mother of God icon to the International Space Station, where it is kept within the Russian section of the station. The icon was given to the crew by Patriarch Kirill I of Moscow.