The Vydropussk Hodegetria Icon of the Mother of God

Commemorated on July 28

      The Vydropussk Hodegetria Icon of the Mother of God in the XV Century was situated in a temple of the GreatMartyr George in the village of Vydropussk, Novgorod governance. During the time of a conflagration of the church, this holy icon remained undamaged. After the taking of Novgorod by the Moscow GreatPrince Ivan III, his army returned to Moscow. One of the soldiers, a Murom native, having gone into the church took from it the icon of the Mother of God, and going to his own estate put it in a church of Saint Nicholas. When they served the first molieben before the stolen holy icon, after the reading of the words of the Gospel: "...and returned to Her own house" (Lk. 1: 56) suddenly a whirlwind flew, the canopy of the temple opened, the Icon of the Mother of God was raised up on the air and miraculously transported to the church of the village of Vydropussk.
      The guilty thief of the holy icon repented himself and came on foot to Vydropussk, beseeching the Mother of God to forgive him. In the XVI Century this holy icon was taken to Moscow, and from it an exact copy was made for the church of the village of Vydropussk, and the original was put in the temple of the Transfiguration in the city of Torzhek.

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