The icon of Valaam Mother of God: what helps?

Every year, on the first Sunday after the feast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrates the icon of the Mother of God, which was found a little more than a century ago among the harsh cliffs of the island of Valaam. What is the glorious Valaam icon of the Mother of God, where does it help and where is it now? Let's talk about this in the article.

The Painful Servant of God's Natasha

The circumstances under which the icon of the Valaam Mother of God was found are very surprising, and this history extends for two decades. It began with the fact that in 1878 a resident of St. Petersburg, Natalia Andreevna Andreeva, a devout and pious person, who came from a peasant family, caught a cold.

In St. Petersburg with its damp Baltic climate this matter is quite common, but for Natalya Andreevna the cold ended in a complication - her legs began to ache and swell, so that the sufferer could barely move. This went on for almost ten years.

Since the doctors she addressed could not provide substantial assistance, Andreeva decided, on the advice of her relative, to make a pilgrimage to the Valaam Monastery, which is well-known to the whole Orthodox world. There, on the islands of the stern Lake Ladoga, in the holy temples and the secret monastic sketes, the grace of God abounded eternally, generously poured out on everyone who opened the doors of his heart to it.

Marvelous night vision

The night before the departure, and it was in June 1887, Natalia Andreyevna was visited by an extraordinary vision. In a thin dream, she saw a woman dressed in a robe of crimson velvet, holding the baby in her arms and surrounded by a marvelous radiance. Having emboldened the patient with her smile, the young mother ordered her to visit the monastery without fail, promising her help and intercession.

After these words, the woman disappeared without revealing her name to the astonished pilgrim. Excited by what she saw, Natalya Andreevna did not even dare to think that this night she honored the appearance of the Queen of Heaven herself. But a wonderful vision gave her strength, and the next morning she went to the pier.

The first trip to the monastery

The first time she set foot on the shore of the island on the day of the feast of finding the relics of local saints Reverend Herman and Sergius. On this occasion, all the churches were filled with pilgrims, and only at the very end of her stay on the island did Natalya Andreevna manage to make her way to the Assumption Church, where, in the image of the Blessed Virgin, hanging on one of the columns, to her amazement, she recognized as a guest from her night vision, promising Her help and intercession. This was the icon of the Valaam Mother of God, by that time not yet glorified by miracles.

However, hardly had she managed to add to the image, as in the distance a whistle of a steamer sounded calling the pilgrims to the dock, and on this first visit Andreeva did not even have time to pray to the Mother of God. But nevertheless, returning home, she felt inexplicable in her legs, the sensation of which was caused by the stopping pain. From that time, she quickly went on the mend and already moved without crutches.

Re-visit the island

Ten years passed, during which the disease did not return, and the grateful Natalya Andreevna wished to return to the island where the icon of the Valaam Mother of God was kept, through which the Blessed Virgin revealed to her a miracle of healing. Again, like the first time, she got ready for the journey and went to the familiar pier.

However, on the island she was disappointed - the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God disappeared without a trace from the Assumption Church. Moreover, none of the monastery inhabitants could not only say where she could have gone, but many even assured him that there was no such image at all. Even the omniscient father sacrificed in disbelief with his hands, but suggested that if such an icon was, then, apparently, sent to St. Petersburg, where by that time the monastery metochion was opened.

Searches in the city on the Neva

Returning to St. Petersburg, Andreeva first hurried to Narva side, where the metochion of the Valaam Monastery was located. However, to her great disappointment, and there was no coveted image. The icon of the Valaam Mother of God disappeared as completely as a night vision, visited once by a servant of God's Natalya.

But some inner voice did not cease to inspire her that the marvelous image that once saved her from suffering really exists and is destined to find him. Filled with faith in her so wonderful destination, Natalia Andreevna for the third time went to the island.

The Second Prophetic Vision

Hoping in her works to help the Valaam saints, she began by having served a moleben before their relics. The first night, spent at the monastery hotel, Andreeva saw a wonderful dream, which the next morning hastened to tell Papfunia, the father she knew, the same sacristan she had addressed to her last visit.

She dreamed that, wandering around the monastery and constantly praying to the Mother of God, she approached the ancient church of Nicholas the Wonderworker, long since abolished and closed due to extreme dilapidation. And there, standing on the porch, the servant of God Natalya suddenly heard the voice addressed to her from heaven: "You will soon find me. I'm here".

No sooner had the voices of a voice ceased, as the ecclesiastical door was suddenly opened by an unknown old man in a blue kamilavke, in which Andreeva immediately recognized St. Sergius of Valaam, in the manner in which she prayed that day. He pointed it inside, where in the depths of the temple, among the old church utensils, stood the icon of the Valaam Mother of God in the corner.

The meaning of the dream was quite obvious - the Queen of Heaven itself pointed out to her the place where her miraculous image was. But before the holy work was done, Natalya Andreevna considered it her duty first to receive communion and in the holy gifts to gain strength. For three days she fasted and prepared herself for the sacramental sacrament, and on the night before she saw in her dream the father of Paphnutia, leaving the church, in whose hands was the very image.

Finding the holy image

Having communed in the early liturgy of the holy gifts and barely leaving the church, Andreeva saw before her a crowd of pilgrims, in front of whom Father Paphnutius solemnly walked, carrying before him the image of the Most Holy Theotokos. The scene was undoubtedly the continuation of her dream today. When he came to an agreement with Andreeva, the priest uttered only one word with a voice broken in excitement: "She?" There was no doubt, it was the same icon of the Valaam Mother of God, who miraculously healed it ten years ago.

The appearance of Father Paphnutia with an icon in the hands of Natalia Andreevna is explained as follows. Hearing her story about what she saw in a dream, he also interpreted it as a sign from above, and, having received a blessing from the abbot, went to an old church, whose doors had not been unlocked for many years. In it, he found a shrine standing in a corner, among the darkened icons with barely perceptible faces of the saints, as well as broken analogies and other worn-out church utensils.

Glorification of the Miraculous Icon

A miraculous image was placed in the main monastery cathedral and before it the same day a solemn prayer service with the water service was held, during which many new healings occurred. The prayer of the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God, raised with faith and hope, has always been heard.

All the miracles were recorded in detail, and to ensure that no one subsequently doubted their credibility, each page was certified by the signatures of numerous witnesses. When in 1901 the abbot was headed by the abbot Gabriel, he invested in the lower part of the icon the greatest shrine - a piece of the Robe of the Mother of God.

Soon after the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God acquired glory with its miracles and thousands of pilgrims reached out to it, it was possible to establish the name of the master who wrote it. Hieromonk Aliipius (Konstantinov), who once worked in the monastery, was to them.

He completed the image of the Virgin in 1887, shortly before his death, just at the time when Natalia Andreevna caught cold. How surprisingly these two events were related to each other - in the quiet of the monastery the artist wrote an icon, and in St. Petersburg at that time a woman fell ill, whose illness eventually served her glorification.

Iconography of the Valaam miracle-working image

Let us dwell in more detail on what the Valaam icon of the Mother of God is, the photo of which is presented in the article. According to art critics, it belongs to the type of the Virgin images, which originated from Byzantium and called "Panagia", which means "All-holy". Also this icon in its composition structure can be attributed to a different, but similar type of "Nikopaia" - "The Winner".

With her it is related by the image of the Virgin, standing in full growth and holding before her baby, blessing the viewer with a gesture of the right hand. However, the power in his left hand is not of Byzantine origin. This detail of the composition is typical for Western European icons "Christ is the Savior of the World".

The icon of Valaam Mother of God has a curious detail, which is unique in Orthodox iconography: the Queen of Heaven is depicted with bare feet, they are visible from the edge of her vestments. Nothing of the kind is found in other Holy Virgin icons of the Eastern church.

Departure to a foreign country

Until 1940, the island of Valaam belonged to Finland, and among other shrines there was the Valaam icon of the Mother of God. The celebration of the day of its acquisition, once crowded at the expense of pilgrims who came from St. Petersburg and other Russian cities, after the revolution was made only by the inhabitants of the monastery and the few of its admirers that after the October coup they immigrated to the West.

When, at the end of the Finnish war, Ladoga and all of its islands were annexed to the Soviet Union, the monastery's inhabitants left the inhabited place and moved to the depths of Finland, where they founded a monastery called "New Valaam". With them, they tried to take away everything that was possible. First of all, of course, they took the most sacred objects, including crosses, icons, church books and vestments.

So was in Finland and the miraculous image, once healed Natalia Andreevna and many other pilgrims. Troparion Valaam Icon of the Mother of God, written soon after its acquisition, now began to sound on foreign soil, and every year more and more Orthodox Finns began to come to her to pray through her intercession of the Queen of Heaven through her. In the same place it is still located in the main temple of the monastery - the Transfiguration Cathedral (photo at the end of the article) and rightly considered to be the main monastic shrine.

The subsequent fate of the island of Valaam and its monastery

And on the island abandoned by monks throughout almost the entire Soviet period, religious life did not resume. For a long time there was a house for invalids of war and labor, where unfortunate cripples were brought from the mainland occasionally forcibly. Only in the sixties this wonderful corner of the northern nature was open to tourists, and ten years later the premises of the former monastery and the sketes that belonged to it were given the status of a museum-reserve. At the same time, their restoration began.

The revival of the monastery began in September 1989, when the decision of the Government of Karelia, its territory and all the buildings on it were transferred to the use of the Leningrad diocese. The day of the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God, celebrated, as already mentioned, on the first Sunday after the feast of the holy apostles Peter and Paul, was officially established in 2002 by the decree of Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Alexy II.

Among other structures, the building of the same church, which was once abolished once St. Nicolas, in which was found miraculous icon. After major repairs and proper restoration, the temple of the Valaam Icon of the Mother of God was created in it. In it there is a list made from the original, forever left in Finland.

The Valaam icon of the Mother of God: what helps?

The very glorification of the Valaam icon, through which many miracles were revealed, began with the healing of the suffering St. Petersburg, described in detail above. This marked the beginning of the tradition of praying before this image of the Most Holy Theotokos about getting rid of ills and bestowing health. Examples of how generously poured out on the prayers of the grace of God and they found the requested, very much. Most of these cases are recorded in monastic books and confirmed by the signatures of witnesses. It is difficult to imagine how many Valaam icon of the Mother of God brought the desired healing.

What are they praying for before this marvelous way? Of course, one can not reduce the idea of the help that the Heavenly Queen sends down, only to heal the human flesh, no matter how important it is for us. Her mercy is unlimited, and, before the Lord, she intercedes for the fulfillment of all the prayers coming from a pure heart and strengthened by faith. The Mother of God will not leave without her participation those who honestly ask her for the accession of peace in the family, for a safe solution from pregnancy, for the upbringing of children and for teaching them the right path.