A Kazan Icon of the Mother of God

Commemorated on July 8

A Kazan Icon of the Mother of God was given by tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (1645-1676) to the city of Penza at its founding in 1666. Those resorting with faith to this icon always received help in various needs. On the eve of 4 August 1717 during a time of incursion of the Nogai Tatars (the so-called "Kuban pogrom"), when no help remained in saving the city, all the people gathered in the cathedral for vigil, which did not cease the whole night. In the morning they carried out the icon to the fortress ramparts and began to sing an akathist. When the Nogai Tatars came in assault, the face of the Mother of God grew dim and the holy icon repulsed the enemy. During the time of the reading of prayers, in the Tatar camp there ensued confusion, and they fled. At the end of the XIX Century a feastday on 4 August was established to this icon. And in the all-night vigil was put the magnification: "We magnify Thee, O Most Holy Virgin, and thine holy image we do venerate, that by which we art delivered from the horrors of invasion".