The "Passion" ("Strastna") Icon of the Mother of God

Commemorated on August 13 and on the 6th Sunday after Pascha

      The "Passion" ("Strastna") Icon of the Mother of God received its name from this, that around the face of the Mother of God are depicted two Angels with the implements of the suffering of the Lord. About the icon's glorification the following is known: a certain pious woman, Ekaterina, after entering into marriage began being subjected to seizures and madness: having lost her senses she ran off into the forest and more than once attempted suicide. In a moment of clarity she prayed to the Mother of God and gave a vow, that in case of healing she would enter a monastery. And after recovering her health she remembered about the vow only after a long time; afraid and mentally afflicted she took to her bed. Three times the MostHoly Mother of God appeared to her, commanding the sick woman to go to Nizhni-Novgorod and to buy from the iconographer Grigorii Her icon for prayer. Having done this, Ekaterina received healing, and from that time onwards miracles have occurred from this icon. The celebration of this icon is made on 13 August, on the occasion of its transfer in 1641 from the village of Palitsa to Moscow; at the place of its meeting at the Tver' gates there was built a church, and later in 1654, the Strastna monastery. A second celebration of the icon is on the 6th Sunday after Pascha, on the Sunday of the Blind Man, in memory of miracles which occurred on this day. Glorified also have been the Strastna-Passion icons of the Mother of God in the Moscow church of the Conception of Saint Anna, and also in the village of Enkaeva in Tambov diocese.

 

© 1996-2001 by translator Fr. S. Janos.