Icon of Our Lady of Tolga - a famous shrine

In Orthodoxy, the Mother of God is venerated more than all saints. It helps people in all pious matters, the icon of the Virgin is in any Orthodox house. And if usually a saint is depicted in any one way, then the images of the Mother of God are thousands. Icons of the Theotokos are called in different ways, so that there is no confusion, but each has its own, only her characteristic signs. Thus, although there are many icons, but still there are a certain number of them in the world, the Mother of God can not be written as you like.

How did all these icons come about and why are there so many of them? The images of the Mother of God are the first icons of the Christian world. According to legend, the very first image was written by the Evangelist Luke, and he wrote it from the original. But all the other images were not a copy from that first image. They appeared in the world in many different ways: they were painted by icon painters, and then they were glorified by miracles, appeared in the most unexpected places (in such cases the image is considered to be not made by hands).

For example, the Kazan Icon of the Virgin was found on the fire, and the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God is on a branch of a tree, high above the heads of all people. Such images are revered from the moment of their acquisition, are considered miraculous.

The icon of the Mother of God Tolgskaya was found by Bishop Prokhor, in a short time a monastery began to be built nearby.

The icon itself is named for the place of the phenomenon and the present stay. It was not far from the small river in Tolga that the icon of the Mother of God Tolga was found. Since its acquisition almost 700 years have passed, the image is considered very ancient and valuable.

Before the revolution Tolga monastery was male, but in the decades that have passed since the beginning of perestroika, it has been restored as a female one. The beginning of its revival was made in the early nineties, the community was going to be difficult. But the Tolga icon of the Mother of God helps the nuns of the monastery. Gradually, all material difficulties were overcome, the repair work was completed. The Tolga icon is not the only shrine of the monastery. Here the relics of Saint Ignatius Bryanchaninov, whose books began to be published again in recent years, rest. Now the icon of Our Lady of Tolgskaya is in the Yaroslavl Region, in the Tolga Monastery. And in Soviet times, the icon was kept in the city museum, but in the nineties it was transferred back to the monastery. First it was brought here on holidays: the image of the ancient and extraordinarily valuable, so the transportation was carried out in a special car with security. But now the monastery managed to create the conditions necessary for the storage of such an old icon. Therefore, the icon of the Mother of God Tolgskaya now resides in the temple, and you can attach to it any day.

The monastery lives a measured life, before the Tolga Icon, akathists are read daily, prayer services are performed before the relics, and a sleepless psalter is read. Sisters-nuns record testimonies of miracles that occurred through prayers before the Tolga icon.

Every year Tolgin is celebrated in the monastery on August 21, the day of special veneration of the Tolga Icon of the Mother of God. A lot of pilgrims flock here. After the Liturgy, the sisters give out cedar cones from the relic park - the cedar forest on the territory of the monastery, treated with monastic kvass. All who come this day to pray to the Mother of God in the monastery, leave comforted and joyful.