Icon of the Mother of God from Pryazhevo. Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God: what they pray for and who it helps. The meaning of the Pryazhevo icon of the Mother of God

The Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God, a miraculous image, a revered icon in the Zhitomir and Kursk dioceses.

Celebration - June 29 (local) and the tenth Friday after Easter (local).

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AND there was a race “11 vershoks in width and 1 1/4 arshins in height” (E. Poselyanin, Mother of God. Description of Her earthly life and miraculous icons, 1914) , which corresponds to approximately 50 cm in width and 90 cm in height.

Appeared at the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century. Information about the place where the miraculous image appeared has not been preserved. The original icon was located in the church of the village of Pryazheva, 6 km south of the city of Zhitomir, which is why the icon began to be called “Pryazhevskaya.” The antiquity of the image is indicated by entries in Pryazhev’s church books. Before the Uniates took possession of the temple, there was a pious custom of carrying the miraculous image to the Zhitomir Cathedral. Perhaps already in those years the first copies of the Pryazhevskaya icon appeared in Zhitomir and its environs.

In the 18th century, the temple fell into the hands of the Uniates and was returned to the Orthodox on October 18, 1794. Probably, the period of the Uniate economy in the church explains the lack of documents about the acquisition and early veneration of the image. On the eve of the return of the temple to the Orthodox, a certain Roman Catholic priest arrived in Pryazhev and wanted to take away the revered icon. But when he rode a few miles from the village, the horses stopped, and they could not be forced to go further. The priest looked at the face of the Most Pure One and saw drops of moisture on it, like tears. Realizing that the Mother of God did not bless the removal of the image from Pryazhev, the priest returned the shrine.

In subsequent years, the Pryazhevskaya Church, where the icon was located, was poor, which is why the icon of the Mother of God had a copper robe. Having learned about this, Empress Maria Alexandrovna in 1864 sent a silver robe with precious stones for the image. On May 24, 1874, the miraculous icon was moved from the high place where it had been before and placed in the iconostasis, above the royal doors, and in the high place they placed the icon of Jesus Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

To restore the ancient custom of bringing the icon to the Zhitomir Cathedral, a decree of the Holy Synod of July 27, 1893 was followed, which allowed an annual religious procession with the miraculous icon to Zhitomir, where the image stayed in the cathedral from June to August, and then returned to Pryazhev.

During the years of theomachism, the Pryazhevskaya Church and the miraculous icon were destroyed. Copies of the image have been preserved in the Transfiguration Cathedral of Zhitomir and in the Trigorsk Spaso-Preobrazhensky Monastery. The copy of the icon found in the Gornalsky St. Nicholas Belogorsk Monastery gained special veneration.

Gornal list

WITH The squeak is notable for the fact that it is written on canvas and not on wood. It is noticeable that the icon was painted at different times by different hands: the face and hands were created more skillfully than the clothes painted at the end of the 18th century by Ivan the White.

There is an assumption that the icon dates back to the 17th century. Its large size suggests that the monks, moving from the Ostrogozh Divnogorsk Monastery to the Gornal Monastery, which was devastated in 1672, removed the icon from the iconostasis of the monastery they left behind. When the monastery was closed in the 1780s, the Transfiguration Church of the monastery was converted into a parish church in the nearby settlement of Gornali. Soon it became known about miraculous phenomena in the former monastery church: despite the fact that after the service all the candles and lamps were carefully extinguished, in the morning some of them were found burning. At first this was written off as an oversight, but the phenomena were repeated many times until the miraculous icon was found. The discovery and renewal of the icon took place in 1792, as evidenced by the inscription on the back: “This icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Pryazhevsk was renewed in 1792.”

Pryazhevskaya icon without chasuble


In 1862, Abbot Nestor described the discovery of the icon as follows: “It was revealed from above to a certain God-fearing painter Ivan Bely that he should take out the ancient icon of the Mother of God, painted on canvas and hidden behind the iconostasis of the surviving monastery church, and carefully update it, leaving only the intact, perfectly preserved faces of the Ever-Virgin and the Eternal Child. About the origin and existence of this image no one knew until then, but he was actually found where indicated and renewed as commanded in revelation."

Ivan Bely was sick, but when he, together with the priest and sexton, found an icon behind the iconostasis and served a prayer service, he received healing. The news of the healing spread far and wide. Many came to pray before the holy image and received what they asked for. When local villages were engulfed by cholera epidemics, the monks performed religious processions around the villages and the epidemics receded.

In the middle of the 19th century, as a result of the healing of the sick pious Sudzhan merchant Kosma Kupreev, the Belogorsky monastery was revived. In a dream, Kosma was commanded to go to a closed monastery and serve a prayer service in front of the icon. After healing, Kosma, together with his sons Fyodor and Vladimir, began to work on opening the monastery. By the highest order on August 24, 1863, it was allowed to restore the monastery as a hermitage, and Kosma and his sons became one of the first inhabitants of the restored monastery.

After the restoration of the monastery, the fame and veneration of the miraculous icon increased. In memory of the rescue of Tsar Alexander II during an assassination attempt in Paris, from 1867 on Ascension to the second feast of the Holy Trinity, the icon began to be transferred to the city of Miropol in a religious procession. Later, in memory of the salvation of the August family during a train crash, a second religious procession took place in Sudzha, where the monastery’s Alexander Nevsky Chapel served as the location of the icon. From the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos until the Nativity of the Most Pure One, the icon visited all the settlements and villages of the district. In the Belogorsk hermitage, the miraculous image was in the iconostasis of the right side aisle of the Transfiguration Cathedral built in his honor, and for the winter it was transferred to the warm Church of the Intercession.

The Belogorsky Nikolaevsky Monastery was closed by the atheistic authorities in 1922, but the monks continued to live there, hiding in chalk caves and preserving the miraculous icon. In 1937, after the monastery was finally closed, the monks, taking the image, came to Sudzha, where they placed it in the Assumption Cathedral of the city, located in the central square. At night, the Queen of Heaven herself appeared to the brothers in a dream and said that she had been placed in a place of desolation and debauchery, and ordered them to take the icon to where Elder Simeon would meet her. The next morning, the monks began asking the residents if there was an old man with such a rare name in the city. Wandering around the city in search, they stopped near the Trinity Church. From the side of the altar, on the apse, they saw the icon of the Presentation of the Lord, in which Elder Simeon the God-Receiver takes the Infant Christ from the hands of the Virgin Mary. Then the monks realized that the Mother of God ordered them to place the icon in this very temple, where there was a throne in honor of the Feast of the Presentation. And the Sudzhansky Assumption Cathedral was soon destroyed and a city club was placed in it.

In 1943, a fire occurred in the Sudzhan Trinity Church, but the rector of the temple, Father John Pereverzev, saved the shrine. The miraculous icon remained in Sudzha until 1946, then data about it was lost.

The second acquisition of the image occurred in 1996, when, during an inventory in the Sudzhansky Holy Trinity Church, a discrepancy between the face and the robe covering the image was noticed on the icon listed in the inventory as Smolensk. At this time, an elderly woman, a parishioner of the temple, a resident of the city, approached the abbot and said that there was a “lost” miraculous icon in the temple. When referring to archival data, it was confirmed that the image located under the robe was a revered copy of the Pryazhevsk Icon of the Mother of God. The silver robe and precious jewelry that Christians donated as a token of gratitude for the healings received have not survived.


On October 17, 1996, the tradition of religious processions with the Pryazhevsky miraculous icon to the former Gornal monastery, on the territory of which there was a special boarding school, was resumed. In 2001, the Gornal Monastery was returned to the Orthodox Church. Since 2002, the religious procession in Miropol has also been revived. According to the newly established custom, after the service in the St. Nicholas Church of the bishop's metochion in Miropol, priests, parishioners and numerous pilgrims from the Ukrainian side headed to the border with Russia to meet the miraculous icon. The 16-kilometer procession was dedicated to the unity of the fraternal Slavic peoples and became the only religious procession across the Russian-Ukrainian border.

The revered list remained in the Holy Trinity Church in the city of Sudzha. The huge number of decorations on the icon testified to the healings that people received through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos in front of this image. Before Christmas 2005, the icon was enlightened. The image began to be revered as the second most important shrine of the Kursk diocese after the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”.


Pryazhevskaya icon with chasuble in an icon case

The PRYAZHEVSKAYA MIRACLE-WORKING ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD arrives in the village of Medvenka, from Lyubitskoe and the village of Panino!

SCHEDULE:

  • With. Lyubitskoye (Pokrovsky Church): January 1, 12:00 to January 2, 15:00 (the temple will be open until 20:00)
  • village Medvenka (Assumption Church): January 2 15:30 to January 4 14:00 (the temple will be open daily from 7:00 to 18:00)
  • With. Panino (Mitrofan Church): January 4 15:00 to January 5 12:00 (the temple will be open until 20:00)
According to the tradition that has developed in recent years, every year the miraculous icon of the Mother of God "Pryazhevskaya" arrives from the Gornalsky St. Nicholas Belogorsky Monastery (the village of Gornal, Sudzhansky district, Kursk region) to Kursk and the region.

The Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God is one of the main shrines of the Kursk land, has a rich history and is MIRACLE-WORKING. Until recently, the only religious procession in Russia beyond the State Border was carried out with her... now - only in Russia...

THE PRYAZHEVSKAYA MOTHER OF GOD HELPED ME...

Prayers before the image of the Most Holy Theotokos “Pryazhevskaya” are especially beneficial in healing diseases of the legs, spine, infertility and female ailments. It also alleviates everyday sorrows, evidence of this is the modern offerings on the icon.

There are many personal miracles happening there: those who could not give birth to a child: they prayed at a prayer service to the Most Holy Theotokos in front of her miraculous image “Pryazhevskaya” and received great mercy from Her, who received healings... (in the historical essay of the 1912 edition - in the attachment about some miracles you can read...) And you can yourself, if the Lord pleases, become witnesses of them. For several years in a row, on the day of the traditional procession of the Cross with the Pryazhevskaya miraculous Icon of the Mother of God (which takes place annually on the first Saturday after the Holy Trinity), special signs of God’s Grace and the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos through the prayers of St. Nicholas (after all, he is the patron of the monastery along with the Most Holy Mother of God) ), witnessed by all the pilgrims... What can I say - come and see everything with your own eyes... As they say: “it’s better to see once”... Although this does not apply to Gornali, because those who visited the Gornali monastery - they come here again and again - to see more than once...

Pay attention to page 12 of the attached publication from the funds of the Sudzhansky Museum of Local Lore in 1912!!!

ABOUT THE HEALING OF THE SUJAN MERCHANT

Miraculous healing of the sick pious Sudzhan merchant Kosma Kupreev. In a dream, he was commanded to go to the closed Belogorsky Monastery (in Gornali, Sudzhansky district) and serve a prayer service in front of the Pryazhevskaya miraculous icon of the Mother of God. After healing, Kosma, together with his sons Fyodor and Vladimir, began to work on opening the monastery. By the highest order on August 24, 1863, it was allowed to restore the monastery under the name Belogorskaya Nikolaevskaya Hermitage. Kosmas and his sons became among the first monks. After the restoration of the monastery, the fame and veneration of the miraculous icon increased.

DISCOVERY OF THE PRYAZHEVSKAYA MIRACLE-WORKING ICON OF THE MOTHER OF GOD

The miraculous icon of the Mother of God “Pryazhevskaya” - one of the saints of the Kursk land - until Soviet times was located in the Belogorsk Nikolaev Hermitage (now the Gornalsky St. Nicholas Belogorsk Monastery). Founded in 1672 by the hieromonks of the Divnogorsk monastery in Voronezh province, which was devastated by the Tatars, due to political circumstances the monastery was closed in 1788, and the Transfiguration Cathedral was converted into a parish church in the nearby settlement of Gornali. In the former monastery church, miraculous phenomena began to occur, despite the fact that after the service all the candles were carefully extinguished, in the morning some of them were found burning. This was repeated many times until the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God was found.

“It was revealed from above to a certain God-fearing painter Ivan Bely that he should take out the ancient icon of the Mother of God, painted on canvas and hidden behind the iconostasis of the surviving monastery church, and carefully update it, leaving only the intact, perfectly preserved faces of the Ever-Virgin and the Eternal Child. Until then, no one knew about the origin and existence of this image, but it was actually found where indicated and updated as commanded in revelation,” Abbot Nestor wrote in 1862. Ivan Bely was sick, but when he, together with the priest and sexton, found an icon behind the iconostasis and served a prayer service, he received healing. From then on, miracles began to happen.

Schedule of services before the icon.

village Medvenka (Assumption Church)

In the Temple, prayer services with Akathist will be performed before the miraculous image.

January 2:
15:30 - Prayer service with Akathist
17:00 - Prayer service with Akathist
January 3:
8:00 - WATER SANCTUARY prayer service with akathist
12:00 - Prayer service with Akathist
15:00 - Prayer service with akathist
17:00 - Evening Worship
4 January
8:00 - Liturgy (memory of St. Anastasia the Pattern Maker)
10:00 - Water Blessing Prayer with Akathist
13:00 - Prayer service with Akathist.

Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God (1890)

Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God. miraculous image, revered icon in the Zhitomir and Kursk dioceses

The icon was " 11 inches wide and 1 1/4 inches high". which corresponds to approximately 50 cm in width and 90 cm in height.

Appeared at the end of the 17th or beginning of the 18th century. Information about the place where the miraculous image appeared has not been preserved. The original icon was located in the church of the village of Pryazheva, 6 km south of the city of Zhitomir. which is why the icon began to be called “Pryazhevskaya.” The antiquity of the image is indicated by entries in Pryazhev’s church books. Before the Uniates took possession of the temple, there was a pious custom of carrying the miraculous image to the Zhitomir Cathedral. Perhaps already in those years the first copies of the Pryazhevskaya icon appeared in Zhitomir and its environs.

In the 18th century, the temple fell into the hands of the Uniates and was returned to the Orthodox on October 18, 1794. Probably, the period of the Uniate economy in the church explains the lack of documents about the acquisition and early veneration of the image. On the eve of the return of the temple to the Orthodox, a certain Roman Catholic priest arrived in Pryazhev and wanted to take away the revered icon. But when he rode a few miles from the village, the horses stopped, and they could not be forced to go further. The priest looked at the face of the Most Pure One and saw drops of moisture on it, like tears. Realizing that the Mother of God did not bless the removal of the image from Pryazhev, the priest returned the shrine.

In subsequent years, the Pryazhevskaya Church, where the icon was located, was poor, which is why the icon of the Mother of God had a copper robe. Having learned about this, Empress Maria Alexandrovna in 1864 sent a silver robe with precious stones for the image. On May 24, 1874, the miraculous icon was moved from its high place. where it was before, and placed in the iconostasis. above the royal doors. and in a high place they placed an icon of Jesus Christ praying in the Garden of Gethsemane.

To restore the ancient custom of bringing the icon to the Zhitomir Cathedral, a decree of the Holy Synod of July 27, 1893 was followed, which allowed an annual religious procession with the miraculous icon to Zhitomir, where the image stayed in the cathedral from June to August, and then returned to Pryazhev.

Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God

Gornal list

The list is notable for being written on canvas rather than wood. It is noticeable that the icon was painted at different times by different hands: the face and hands were created more skillfully than the clothes painted at the end of the 18th century by Ivan the White.

There is an assumption that the icon dates back to the 17th century. Its large size suggests that the monks were moving from the Ostrogozhsky Divnogorsk monastery, which was devastated in 1672, to the Gornal monastery. They took the icon out of the iconostasis of the monastery they were leaving. When the monastery was closed in the 1780s, the Transfiguration Church of the monastery was converted into a parish church in the nearby settlement of Gornali. Soon it became known about miraculous phenomena in the former monastery church: despite the fact that after the service all the candles and lamps were carefully extinguished, in the morning some of them were found burning. At first this was written off as an oversight, but the phenomena were repeated many times until the miraculous icon was found. The discovery and renovation of the icon took place in 1792, as evidenced by the inscription on the back: " This icon of the Most Holy Theotokos of Pryazhevsk was renewed in 1792 ."

In 1862, Abbot Nestor described the discovery of the icon as follows:

"It was revealed to a certain God-fearing painter Ivan Bely from above that he should take out the ancient icon of the Mother of God, painted on canvas and hidden behind the iconostasis of the surviving monastery church, and carefully update it, leaving only the intact, perfectly preserved faces of the Ever-Virgin and the Eternal Child. No one knew about the origin and existence of this image, but it was actually found where indicated and updated as commanded in revelation ."

Ivan Bely was sick, but when he, together with the priest and sexton, found an icon behind the iconostasis and served a prayer service, he received healing. The news of the healing spread far and wide. Many came to pray before the holy image and received what they asked for. When local villages were engulfed by cholera epidemics, the monks performed religious processions around the villages and the epidemics receded.

In the middle of the 19th century, as a result of the healing of the sick pious Sudzhan merchant Kosma Kupreev, the Belogorsky monastery was revived. In a dream, Kosma was commanded to go to a closed monastery and serve a prayer service in front of the icon. After healing, Kosma, together with his sons Fyodor and Vladimir, began to work on opening the monastery. By the highest order on August 24, 1863, it was allowed to restore the monastery as a hermitage, and Kosma and his sons became one of the first inhabitants of the restored monastery.

After the restoration of the monastery, the fame and veneration of the miraculous icon increased. In memory of the rescue of Tsar Alexander II during an assassination attempt in Paris, from 1867 on Ascension to the second feast of the Holy Trinity, the icon began to be transferred to the city of Miropol in a religious procession. Later, in memory of the rescue of the August family during a train crash, a second religious procession took place in Sudzha. where the location of the icon was the monastery Alexander Nevsky Chapel. From the Dormition of the Most Holy Theotokos until the Nativity of the Most Pure One, the icon visited all the settlements and villages of the district. In the Belogorsk hermitage, the miraculous image was in the iconostasis of the right side aisle of the Transfiguration Cathedral built in his honor, and for the winter it was transferred to the warm Church of the Intercession.

The Belogorsky Nikolaevsky Monastery was closed by the atheistic authorities in 1922, but the monks continued to live there, hiding in chalk caves and preserving the miraculous icon. In 1937, after the monastery was finally closed, the monks, taking the image, came to Sudzha. where they placed it in the Assumption Cathedral of the city, located in the central square. At night, the Queen of Heaven herself appeared to the brothers in a dream and said that she had been placed in a place of desolation and debauchery, and ordered them to take the icon to where Elder Simeon would meet her. The next morning, the monks began asking the residents if there was an old man with such a rare name in the city. Wandering around the city in search, they stopped near the Trinity Church. From the side of the altar, on the apse. they saw the icon of the Presentation of the Lord. in which Elder Simeon the God-Receiver takes the Infant Christ from the hands of the Virgin Mary. Then the monks realized that the Mother of God ordered them to place the icon in this very temple, where there was a throne in honor of the Feast of the Presentation. And the Sudzhansky Assumption Cathedral was soon destroyed and a city club was placed in it.

In 1943, a fire occurred in the Sudzhan Trinity Church, but the rector of the temple, Father John Pereverzev, saved the shrine. The miraculous icon remained in Sudzha until 1946, then data about it was lost.

The second acquisition of the image occurred in 1996, when, during an inventory in the Sudzhansky Holy Trinity Church, a discrepancy between the face and the robe covering the image was noticed on the icon listed in the inventory as Smolensk. At this time, an elderly woman, a parishioner of the temple, a resident of the city, approached the abbot and said that there was a “lost” miraculous icon in the temple. When referring to archival data, it was confirmed that the image located under the robe was a revered copy of the Pryazhevsk Icon of the Mother of God. The silver robe and precious jewelry that Christians donated as a token of gratitude for the healings received have not survived.

On October 17, 1996, the tradition of religious processions with the Pryazhevskaya miraculous icon to the former Gornal monastery was resumed. on the territory of which there was a special boarding school. In 2001, the Gornal Monastery was returned to the Orthodox Church. Since 2002, the religious procession in Miropol has also been revived. According to the newly established custom, after the service in the St. Nicholas Church of the bishop's metochion in Miropol, priests, parishioners and numerous pilgrims from the Ukrainian side headed to the border with Russia to meet the miraculous icon. The 16-kilometer procession was dedicated to the unity of the fraternal Slavic peoples and became the only religious procession across the Russian-Ukrainian border.

The revered list remained in the Holy Trinity Church in the city of Sudzha. The huge number of decorations on the icon testified to the healings that people received through the prayers of the Most Holy Theotokos in front of this image. Before Christmas 2005, the icon was enlightened. The image began to be revered as the second most important shrine of the Kursk diocese after the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”.

The ancient Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God is venerated in several southern dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church. Nowadays, one of its oldest lists, located in the Belogorsk Nikolaev Hermitage, is especially revered.

History of the Holy Face

There is no reliable information about the origin and authorship of the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God. Researchers believe that its original was written no later than the 14th century in the Byzantine icon-painting manner. Over the centuries-old history, the image was lost and found again several times.

Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God

First acquisition

At the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, an image of the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus in her arms appeared in a small church in the village of Pryazhevo. Since then, it has been called after the place of its first discovery - the icon of the Pryazhevskaya Mother of God. Until the beginning of the 18th century, it was brought annually to the cathedral of the city of Zhitomir, which is located 6 km from the place of the first apparition. Until the end of the century, the church in Pryazhevo was in the hands of supporters of the union between the Orthodox and Catholic churches. Historians believe that it was at this time that information about the acquisition of the revered image was lost.

In the second half of the 19th century, the miraculous image acquired a silver chasuble donated by Empress Maria Alexandrovna. After 30 years, with the permission of the Holy Synod, the Zhytomyr religious procession was resumed.

During the formative years of Soviet power, the Pryazhevo church and its main shrine were destroyed. But the image of the Pryazhevskaya Mother of God was not lost irretrievably, since several copies of the original have been preserved. Notable among them are the images located in the following holy places:

  • in the Church of the Transfiguration of the city of Zhitomir;
  • Trigorsk Spaso-Preobrazhenskaya Monastery;
  • Gornalsky St. Nicholas Belogorsk Monastery.
On a note! The second acquisition of the miraculous image is associated with the Gornal list.

Second discovery: Gornal list

Researchers believe that the Gornalsky copy of the icon of the Pryazheskaya Mother of God was made from the original shortly after its discovery. Initially it was located in the Divnogorsk monastery, located near the city of Ostrogozhsk. In 1671, after another raid by the Crimean Tatars, several monks left the monastery, taking with them the Pryazhesky image of the Mother of God. On the high chalk bank of the Psel River near the village of Gornal they founded a new monastery - the Belogorsk Nikolaev Hermitage.

A hundred years after its founding, the monastery was closed, leaving only the Transfiguration Church, which received parish status. It was to this time that the second acquisition of the image of the Pryazheskaya Mother of God dates back. According to legend, at the end of the 18th century miracles began to occur in the parish church. To avoid fire, all candles were extinguished at night, but in the morning, after the opening of the temple, they were found burning.

Miracle-working Icon of the Mother of God “Pryazhevskaya” (Gornalskaya)

The miracle was repeated until the discovery of the miraculous image, which was found after a revelation sent to the artist Ivan Belov. The painter and the rector of the temple found the shrine in exactly the place indicated in the vision. The artist, who received healing from a serious illness after finding the icon, updated the colorful layers of the image without affecting the face and brushes of the Virgin Mary and the divine child.

Veneration of the icon in the 19th century

The veneration of the Pryazhevsky image increased in the second half of the 19th century, when the Belogorsk monastery was revived. This event is connected with the miracle of healing of the Sudzhen merchant Kosma Kupreev. One night, the pious husband had a vision in which he was told that he would receive healing by serving a service before the icon of the Mother of God located in the main church of the closed Belogorsk monastery. Having completed everything that was said in the knowledge, the merchant received healing.

In gratitude for the miraculous deliverance from the disease, Kosma, together with his sons Fyodor and Vladimir, advocated for the restoration of the monastery. His efforts did not go unnoticed, and in 1863 the holy place returned to life. The former merchant and his sons became one of the first inhabitants of the revived monastery.

At the end of the century, a tradition of religious processions led by the Pryazhevsk Icon of the Mother of God developed.

During the year three transfers of the image took place:

  1. On the Feast of the Ascension, a procession of the cross was sent from the monastery to the city of Miropolye, where the miraculous image remained until the day of the Most Holy Trinity.
  2. In the fall, the shrine was delivered to the monastery chapel of Alexander Nevsky located nearby in Sudzha.
  3. During the period between the holidays of the Dormition of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Christmas, the holy image was carried throughout all settlements of the Sudzhensky district.

Especially for the shrine, a chapel of the same name was added to the Transfiguration Church. In winter, it was moved to the heated Church of the Intercession.

The fate of the icon in the 20th century

The Bolsheviks closed the Belogorsky Monastery in 1922, but the monastic brethren managed to live in chalk caves until 1937. As a result of increased repression, the monks left Gornal and, taking their main shrine, went to Sudzha. Initially it was placed in the Assumption Cathedral, but then it was moved to the Trinity Church. The latest information about the fate of the relic dating back to Soviet times dates back to 1946.

For fifty years, the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God was considered irretrievably lost. But in 1996, the ministers of the Trinity Church noticed a discrepancy between the face and robe of the image of the Smolensk Mother of God. During the study of archival records, it was found that under the salary there is a miraculous image considered lost.

Procession with the Icon of the Virgin Mary “Pryazhevskaya”

Today the image has returned to the Gornalsky St. Nicholas Belogorsky Monastery. In 1996, the tradition of religious processions was resumed.

Interesting! The traditional religious procession in Miropol'e began to be held again in 2002. But since 2015, due to political events in the neighboring fraternal state, it has been carried out along the border. At the same time, many Ukrainian pilgrims take part in it, praying for peace in their country.

Iconography and appearance

According to its iconography, the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God belongs to the “Hodegetria” type. It depicts the Virgin Mary with the baby Jesus sitting on her left hand. The image has several colorful layers of different times. The more skillfully executed faces date back to the 17th century, and the rest of the image was updated at the end of the next century. The relic is covered with a silver chasuble, which is decorated with numerous jewelry. Parishioners and pilgrims offer them in gratitude for deliverance from illnesses.

What to pray for

The Day of the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God is celebrated twice a year:

  • July, 12;
  • tenth Friday after Easter.

It is on these days that prayer at the icon has great power. When making a request to the Heavenly Intercessor, you can recite the words of a special prayer or the text of any Mother of God akathist. But even simple sincere words will be heard by the Mother of God.

They ask for help in front of the Pryazhevskaya icon in the following cases:

  • for diseases of the lower extremities and back;
  • diseases of the respiratory system;
  • for infertility;
  • in various everyday problems.

Although the icon of the Pryazheskaya Mother of God is considered revered in a certain area, the fame of its miraculous power spread throughout all Orthodox lands. Every year thousands of pilgrims come to Kursk to ask for help and protection from the Heavenly Intercessor.

Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “Pryazhevskaya”

It so happened that among the residents of Kursk, the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God is one of the most revered shrines. This image of the Mother of God, the history of which is lost in the mists of time, was located in the main cathedral of the Belgorod Nicholas Monastery until the October Revolution of 1917. During the subsequent period of persecution of the church, the Lord miraculously preserved it from the hands of the atheists and again revealed it to the believers at the end of the 20th century. Let us dwell in more detail on this unique relic and find out in what cases and to whom the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God helps.

Miracle Revealed in a Village Church

The date of painting of the Pryazhevsk Icon of the Mother of God has not been established, and the name of the creator has sunk into oblivion. Based on the results of numerous studies carried out in recent years by art historians in Moscow and Kursk, it was only possible to establish its Byzantine origin and conclude that it was written no later than the middle of the 14th century.

A legend is associated with its discovery on Kursk land, according to which, during the reign of Emperor Peter I (the exact date is not mentioned), parishioners of the church in the village of Pryazheva, located not far from Zhitomir, witnessed a miracle. During the holy liturgy, their poor village church was suddenly filled with a wondrous radiance, and an ancient image spontaneously appeared on the lectern. This was the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God, which received its name in honor of the village in which it was first revealed to parishioners. At the same time, a detailed description of this event was entered into the church book.

Escape from the burning monastery

Later, the icon was transferred to the Voronezh and then the Belgorod Monastery, where it became famous for the healings revealed through prayers offered to the Most Pure Virgin Mary before it. According to tradition, copies were made of miraculous icons, which were then sent to all parts of Russia. The Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God, located in Kursk, was no exception. However, in this case there were miracles.

The fact is that the inhabitants of the monastery in which it was located were monks who left the Voronezh Divnogorsk hermitage in 1672 after it was plundered and burned by the Tatars, who were still organizing their raids at that time. They left their former place of desert residence with great haste, without taking any property with them. As a result, everyone was sure that the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God died in the fire. In 1788, the Belgorod Nikolskaya Hermitage was abolished, and its main cathedral received the status of an ordinary parish church.

Second discovery of the icon

And then one day (this is how all the most amazing stories begin) miracles began to happen in it: as soon as the evening services ended, the candles went out by themselves, and in the morning they were found burning again. This continued until the Queen of Heaven appeared in a dream to one of the parishioners - the young Kursk painter Ivan Bely - and ordered him to find the icon hidden there behind the church iconostasis.

Having informed the rector of the temple about the night vision the next morning, the artist hurried with him to the indicated place and brought to the light the Pryazhevo Icon of the Mother of God, darkened with time, but perfectly preserved, which had previously been considered irretrievably lost. When the news of what had happened spread throughout the area, an order came from the diocesan administration to invite a skilled craftsman to restore the find and make a list (copy) of it.

Restoration of the icon

It didn’t take long to look for a suitable specialist, since Ivan Bely himself carried out the intended work with great success. Having removed extraneous layers, he renewed the entire pictorial layer, with the exception of the faces of the Most Holy Theotokos and Her Eternal Child, since they were perfectly preserved. He also made a copy of the Pryazhevsk Icon of the Mother of God, ordered by the diocesan leadership.

The Healed Painter

There is an interesting entry in the church book relating to that period. It says that upon completion of the restoration work, the painter himself was miraculously healed of a certain illness that had tormented him for many years and, according to doctors, was incurable. As it turned out later, he was not the only one who gained health by kneeling before the Pryazhevsk Icon of the Mother of God. The prayer offered to the Heavenly Intercessor acquired unprecedented power and, pronounced with true Christian faith, brought the desired fruit.

Miracles revealed through the icon and its popular veneration

As an example, we can cite the story of the merchant of the 1st guild, Prokhor Semenovich Kudryashov, recorded in a church book, who lived in Voronezh and suffered from rheumatism for many years. One night he was granted a vision in which an Angel of God commanded him to go to Kursk and, having found the miraculous Pryazhev icon in one of its churches, kneel before it. Having fulfilled exactly the will of the heavenly messenger, the merchant received healing and after that made a rich contribution to the production of a silver robe for the image of his Most Holy Healer.

In the second half of the 19th century, the previously abolished Belgorod St. Nicholas Monastery was restored, and the temple where the icon was located again became part of its architectural complex. This served as an impetus for a significant increase in the number of pilgrims coming from all over Russia, and for even greater veneration of the image. It is known that after the imperial family miraculously escaped death in a train accident in the Kursk region in 1888, this event was celebrated with numerous religious processions, at the head of which the famous icon was always carried.

Third discovery of the shrine

After the Bolsheviks came to power, large-scale anti-religious campaigns began to be carried out in the country, which resulted in not only the closure, but often the destruction of many monasteries and churches. This disastrous wave did not spare Kursk either. The Nikolaev men's monastery was one of the first to be closed, and many of its inhabitants became victims of tyranny. Several monks who managed to avoid arrest fled to Sudzha, a small settlement in the Kursk region. They also transported the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God there, but in subsequent years its traces were lost. Once again it was classified as an irretrievably lost shrine, and was miraculously found again.

This happened in 1996, when, in the wake of perestroika, the government’s policy towards the church radically changed. Monasteries rose from the ruins and temples were restored. It was then that the icon was found in the basement of the Holy Trinity Cathedral of Sudzha during its restoration work. This event became rightfully called her third discovery. After the restoration of the Belgorod Hermitage, the icon was returned to it and took its former place under the arches of the main temple.

What do they pray to the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God?

The Charter of the Russian Orthodox Church established the days for the celebration of the “Pryazhevskaya Icon”. They became July 12, as well as the tenth Friday after Easter. These days, especially many people flock to the miraculous image. What are the prayers offered to her? About all the needs of life. As before any other icon of the Mother of God, words spoken with deep faith and filled with warmth are heard.

That is why the text of the prayer to the Pryazhevskaya Icon of the Mother of God does not have any characteristic features. However, based on the records of healings granted to pilgrims preserved in church books, it is generally accepted that the greatest help can be received by people with diseases of the legs, spine and lungs. In addition, her help to women suffering from infertility was repeatedly noted. It is customary to ask for healing from all these ailments by kneeling before the Pryazhevsky image of the Mother of God.