The Celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God

Commemorated on May 21, June 23, August 26

The Celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was established in memory of the saving of Moscow in the year 1521 from an invasion of Tatars led by khan Makhmet-Girei. The Tatar hosts approached towards Moscow, burning and destroying Russian cities and villages, and exterminating their inhabitants. Greatprince Vasilii gathered an army against the Tatars, and the Moscow metropolitan Varlaam together with the people of Moscow prayed fervently for deliverance from destruction. During this grim time a certain pious blind nun had a vision: from the Saviour gates of the Kremlin the Moscow sainted-hierarchs were exiting, forsaking the city and bearing with them the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God – the chief holy thing of the city of Moscow, – in the chastisement of God for the sins of its inhabitants. At the Saviour-gates the sainted-hierarchs were met by the Monks Sergei of Radonezh and Varlaam of Khutynsk, tearfully imploring them not to quit Moscow. All of them together offered up intense prayer to the Lord about the forgiving of transgressions and the deliverance of Moscow from its enemies. After this prayer the sainted-hierarchs returned to the Kremlin and they carried back the holy Vladimir Icon. There was a similar vision also to a Moscow saint, Blessed Vasilii, to whom it was revealed, that through the intercession of the Mother of God and the prayers of the saints, Moscow would be saved. The Tatar khan likewise had a vision of the Mother of God amidst a fearsome host, contending against his forces. The Tatars fled in fear, and the capital of the Russian realm was saved.
The celebration of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God is made likewise on 23 June and 26 August.