Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God

The ancient Pochaev icon revered by the miraculous is kept in the Assumption Pochaev Lavra in western Ukraine in the city of Pochaev, Ternopil Region . According to legend, it was presented to monks by a noblewoman Anna Goiska, who in 1559 received it as a gift from Metropolitan Neophytos , the future patriarch of Constantinople , who was passing by Pochaev.

After some time, the icon was taken from the monastery by the heir of Anna Goiska, Calvinist Andrzej Firlei . He had the image for about 20 years and in 1644 he returned to the monastery. Tradition connects with the return the story that Andrei's wife became possessed and, on the advice of Job Pochaevsky , in order to receive healing, returned the icon to the monastery.

Around 1721, the monastery, together with the icon, passed into the possession of the Uniates . In 1773, the faces of the infant Christ and the Virgin were crowned by two gold crowns sent by Pope Clement XIV . In 1831, the monastery and icon were returned to the Orthodox, the monastery received the status of a laurel .

Currently, the icon is located in the Assumption Cathedral of the Pochaev Lavra, akathist is read daily in front of it ^[1] .

• the deliverance of the Assumption Pochaev Lavra from the Turkish siege on July 20-23, 1675

The most famous miracle attributed to the icon:

On the morning of July 23, at sunrise, the Tatars held the last advice on the storming of the monastery, the abbot ordered the akathist of the Mother of God to sing. With the first words to the "Taken Governor" over the church, the Most Holy Theotokos herself appeared suddenly ... Rev. Job was near the Mother of God, bowing to Her and praying for the protection of the monastery. The Tatars took the heavenly army for a ghost, in dismay began to shoot at the Most Holy Theotokos and the Monk Job, but the arrows returned and wounded those who let them in. Horror gripped the enemy. In a stampede, not sorting out their own, they killed each other. The defenders of the monastery rushed in pursuit and captured many prisoners. ^[2]

• miracles of the period of the capture of laurels by the Uniates

In the Uniate period of the Pochaev Lavra (1721-1832), 539 miracles were witnessed from the icon, according to the Russian Church . The return of the laurels to the Orthodox is marked, according to legend, by the healing of the blind girl Anna Akimchukova. In memory of this event, a weekly, on Saturdays, reading of the cathedral akathist in front of the miraculous icon was established.

Belongs to the iconographic type of Tenderness . The image of the Virgin is half-length. On her right hand she holds the baby Jesus , and on her left is the plate with which Christ's legs and back are covered. The left hand of Jesus lies on the shoulder of the Virgin, and the right hand blesses him.

The icon has Greek inscriptions, and in the margins are miniature images of saints: the prophet Elijah , St. Mina , the First Martyr Stephen , the Rev. Martyr Abraham, the Great Martyrs Catherine , Paraskeva and Irina .

• Kholm Icon of the Mother of God

• Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God
• Miracles from the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, revealed during her stay in the Danilov Monastery

• Talberg N.D. Spacious month of the words of the Saints in the Russian Land shone. What needs should be worshiped what icons. - Reprint reproduction of the publication. - SPb. : Vera, 1997 .-- S. 437-440.