Icon "In sorrows and sorrows of consolation": description, photographs, meaning. The history of the icon, the akathist, the prayer icon

Among the numerous images of the Queen of Heaven, the icon "In sorrows and sorrows, consolation", photos of which are presented in this article, occupies a special place, despite the fact that its original did not reach our days, and only Orthodox copies are represented in Orthodox churches. This shrine was a gift brought to the Russian land from ancient Athos, and here it became famous through its miracles.

Appearance of the original of the holy image

According to the surviving lists it is not difficult to get an idea of how the icon "In sorrows and sorrows was consoled" looked. The description of it can also be found in documents that have come down to us. It was a small three-winged folding, in the center of which was a waist image of the Virgin with the Eternal Infant in her arms. They were St. John the Forerunner and John the Theologian.

Christ, holding a scepter in his left hand, blessed all who accepted his teaching. In the lower part of the icon, as well as on the side doors, figures of saints were portrayed, glorifying the Lord by their exploits. It is this godlike image that went down in history under the title "In sorrows and sorrows, consolation."

History of the icon

Its roots go to ancient Byzantium. The icon of the Virgin "In sorrows and sorrows is consolation" was first mentioned in the documents relating to the XVII century. It is known that it belonged to the Patriarch of Constantinople Athanasius III, subsequently canonized and ranked as a saint. Together with him, she first came to Russia in 1653, whence, after his blessed death, passed to one of the elders of Athos Vatopedi monastery.

In ancient times, Patriarch Athanasius III lived on St. Athos, in the Vatopedi monastery. In 1849, on the site where his cell was located, St. Andrew's Skete, which became famous afterwards, was opened, the first hegumen of which, Vissarion, received as a blessing from the abbot of the monastery this icon, as she had previously lived here as a primate of the Byzantine church.

The first phenomenon of the icon in Holy Russia

In those years, the collection of funds for the holy monastery, among other brethren, engaged and sent to this end in St. Petersburg, Hieromonk Theodoret. To support the monk in this difficult, but vitally necessary business, he was sent an icon "In sorrows and sorrows, consolation," since in monastic life, both those and others abound.

In August 1853, it was sent by sea to Odessa and then delivered to St. Petersburg by mail. Apparently, in the XIX century, the post of Russia worked no better than in our days, because the holy image during the journey was seriously damaged. In the city on the Neva, he remained for six years, accompanying the hieromonk Feodorit in the performance of his obedience and calling upon him the blessing of the Queen of Heaven. When, in 1859, he returned to Athos, the holy image returned to the monastery.

Miracles revealed in the Kursk province

This time, only for four years the icon "In sorrows and sorrows of consolation" was held under the Greek sky, and again its path lay in Russia, now in the Kursk province, where hieromonk Paisii went for the same purpose as his predecessor Theodoret - collecting money For the brethren. It is from here that the glory of the miracles revealed through her by the Queen of Heaven has spread to all the ends of the country.

Cases of healing that occurred through the prayers taken up by the Mother of God before her miraculous image were recorded in special books that were kept for many years to strengthen faith and piety among the people. The first of them dates back to 1863. The case itself is unique, and therefore it is worthwhile to dwell on it in more detail.

Student struck dumb

As one can see from the church book of the parish church of the village of Kyrmyzh in the Vyatka district, one student of a Vyatka spiritual school, coming from a very religious family, was stopped by a wanderer at the entrance to the temple, who asked him to convey a message to the father of the young man who had become a priest.

The young man neglected his request frivolously. Soon in the night vision he saw three luminous husbands who reproached him for what he had done and promised a quick punishment. The next morning the student was struck dumb. For six years he remained speechless. By the time their temple visited the icon "In sorrows and sorrows of consolation." Attached to her after the prayer service, the young man suddenly felt a kind of heat in the language and immediately received the gift of speech.

The abundance of miracles exhibited by the icon

This amazing case was entered in the church book and certified by the signatures of numerous witnesses. Since then, miracles have been poured out on all who with faith and hope proceeded to the holy image. Turning over the yellowed pages, we learn that the same year, on October 20, a similar miracle happened to the wife of the local deacon Akulina Frolova, who had been extremely tongue-tied since childhood.

A month later, health was granted to the middleman Savyel Ermakov, who had been paralyzed for many years, and the young merchant Elizaveta Martynova, dying from the birth fever , was rescued the next day. All the cases described in the book, not to list, but how many of them remained unknown to descendants!

The gift of St. Athos to the Russian land

When Hieromonk Paisii came to return to Athos, the miraculous icon with him left the Kaluga land. The shrine left so many memories in the people about the healings received through it, that hundreds of letters were sent from Russia to the Holy Mountain with a request to return it even for a short time.

In 1876, to the great joy of the Russians, the icon of the Mother of God "In sorrows and sorrows, consolation" reappeared on our land, brought to Rostov, and in 1890 the brothers of the St. Andrew's hermitage decided to permanently send her to St. Petersburg, where to that Afon's farmstead was opened. Accompanying the priceless gift was entrusted to the future abbot of the hermitage of hieromonk Joseph.

The road to the Neva shores

The entire path of the shrine to the city on the Neva was furnished with extraordinary solemnity. In Odessa, on the occasion of her arrival, a solemn prayer service was held in the cathedral church, during which two demon-possessed women miraculously healed. Then the way of the icon lay in Rostov-on-Don, where the facts were also revealed, sent through it on the suffering God's grace.

This was repeated again, first in Novocherkassk, and then in Moscow, until, finally, the holy image arrived at the monastery of the Athonite monastery in St. Petersburg, where he was greeted with a bell ringing at the confluence of a huge number of pilgrims. Throughout the course of the journey, Hieromonk Joseph neatly recorded in the notebook cases of healing that the prayer brought in the icon "In sorrows and sorrows, consolation," while not forgetting to certify them with the signatures of witnesses. They recorded more than twenty such episodes.

Vigilant prayer before the icon

Of particular importance is the icon of the Virgin Mary "In sorrows and sorrows" consolation during the First World War. Preserved information that the Metropolitan of Petrograd Vladimir (Bogoyavlensky) in 1915 ordered to perform before her vigilant prayer for sending down the Russian army a victory over the enemy. It was accompanied by the reading of the akathist, specially written for this miraculous image, each icon of which ends with a petition for deliverance from evil and all sorrows, for this was why the icon "In sorrows and sorrows of consolation" was given to people.

Akathist fully expresses the significance that the miracle-working icon had for all who resorted to her help. It was a kind of link between the Intercessor of Heaven and the human race, for sins of wounded sorrows and troubles. Prayer before her opened the possibility of direct communication with the Mother of God, who constantly prayed for us before the throne of her Son.

Lists with miraculous icons

About where the original icon is now, nothing is known. According to some reports, the monks of the Athos monastery were taken with them when in 1929 they were forcibly resettled from Leningrad to the village of Slavyanka, but there is no evidence of this. Traces of it are lost in the whirlpool of the events of those years. Today, all those who would like to offer prayers to the Mother of God before her can find in the Orthodox churches only the lists made with her, also endowed with the power of miracles.

Among them - a copy, made in 1863 by order of the famous Russian lawyer and historian KA Nevolin, who received a prayer for the healing of the illness before the icon. It was decorated with a rhinestone specially made by the masters of Mount Athos, and was located in the Vyatka Nativity of Christ. A year later, with his participation in Vyatka, another miraculous list of icons was made for the St. Nicholas Cathedral.

It is known that the abbess of the Preobrazhensky convent in 1882, in accordance with the vow given to her by the MostHoly Mother of God, built in honor of this holy image the cathedral in Vyatka, which for a long time kept specially painted for him the icon "In sorrows and sorrows of consolation." The significance of her pious deed is beyond the scope of a purely religious act. In that year, when the grief over the innocent murdered emperor-liberator Alexander II was still in the country, the creation of a copy of the famous icon and the erection of a temple for it in many ways contributed to the introduction of peace and tranquility into civil society.