The Monk Avraamii (Abraham) of Mirozhsk
Commemorated on September 24
The Monk Avraamii
(Abraham) of Mirozhsk was the builder and first hegumen of the Pskov
Saviour-Transfiguration monastery on the banks of the River Velika, at the
confluence into it of the Rivulet Mirozha. The Mirozhsk monastery was founded
in about the year 1156, during the princedom of Svyatopolk Mstislavich, by both
the Monk Avraamii and by Sainted Nyphont, Bishop of Novgorod (tonsured at the
Kievo-Pechersk monastery, Comm. 8 April), a brother by birth of holy Prince
Vsevolod-Gavriil (Comm. 11 February). This monastery, the most ancient in
Pskov, was the first seed of monasticism transported to the Pskovsk soil from
Kiev. On a chalice of the Monk Nyphont is inscribed: "Holy Bishop
Nyphont... enthroned, many an holy monastery and church did he build with
approval of prince Vsevolod of Pskov, and upon the demise of prince Vsevolod he
came.. to Pskov and did construct... the church of the Transfiguration of the
Lord, and a monastery of fame and beauty, and did gather brethren and establish
an hegumen". Towards the end of the XIX Century during a remodeling of the
Transfiguration cathedral there were discovered beautiful frescoes of the XII
Century, with which the church had been painted, and which now receive
universal reknown. (The Monk Nyphont built also a similar church at Ladoga,
dedicated to Sainted Clement of Rome, but in the present day only the
foundations there have been preserved).
About the life of the
Monk Avraamii the accounts contain little, since the monastery was situated
inside the city walls and often it was laid waste and served as quarters for
enemy soldiers. The monk died on 24 September 1158. His relics lay beneathe a crypt
of the cathedral church in honour of the Transfiguration of the Lord in the
monastery built by him.
Four centuries later,
on 24 September 1567, on the day of memory of the Monk Avraamii at the Mirozhsk
monastery there occurred a miraculous sign from an ancient icon of the Most Holy
Mother of God. The Mirozhsk Icon had manifest itself at the monastery in
the year 1198. But later, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, at a time when
a pestilential epidemic raged at Pskov, an ancient report tells how from this
icon, "Our Sovereign Lady Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary in mystery
did effect Her venerable sign: from the All-Pure image were tears from both
eyes, and like streams did flow, and many a benefit and healing for man did
occur from the image of the Mother of God". The Mirozhsk Icon was written
on the style of the "Orans" ("Praying"). In front of the
Most Holy Mother of God stand the Pskov Saints: on the right – holy Nobleborn
Prince Dovmont-Timothy (Comm. 20 May), on the left – his spouse, the holy Nun
Martha, in the world named Maria Dimitrievna (+ 8 November 1300). Tsar Ivan
Vasil'evich took away the wonderworking image from Pskov, but at the monastery
there remained a copy "measure for measure" – the so-called
"Great Panagia" from the Saviour-Mirozhsk monastery. The celebration
of the Sign Icon of Mirozh was established in that same year of 1567, with the
blessing of archbishop Pimen of Novgorod and Pskov. A special service to this
icon was compiled, published in the 1666 Menaion.
© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.