Celebration in honor of the appearance of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God (09/07)

The Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, according to legend, is one of the icons painted by the Holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke. In the 5th century, it was moved to Constantinople from Jerusalem, where the Blachernae Temple was subsequently built for it.

In 1383, 70 years before the capture of Constantinople by the Turks, the icon disappeared from the temple and appeared in radiant light over the waters of Lake Ladoga. Wonderfully carried from place to place, she stopped near the city of Tikhvin. At the site of the icon's appearance, a wooden temple was built in honor of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. In 1560, by order of Tsar Ivan the Terrible, a monastery was built at the temple, surrounded by a stone wall. In 1613-1614, Swedish troops, having captured Novgorod, tried more than once to destroy the monastery, but by the intercession of the Mother of God the monastery was saved.

So, one day, having learned about the approach of the Swedish army, the monks decided to flee the monastery, taking the miraculous icon, but could not move it. This miracle stopped the faint-hearted, and they remained in the monastery, relying on the protection of the Mother of God. The monastery's small defenders successfully repelled attacks from enemy forces that far outnumbered them. The advancing Swedes either imagined a large army of Russians coming from Moscow, or some kind of heavenly army, and they fled.

After a miraculous victory over the Swedes, royal ambassadors arrived at the monastery. Having removed the list from the miraculous icon, they went to the village of Stolbovo, 50 versts from Tikhvin, where peace was concluded with the Swedes on February 10, 1617. The main guarantee of the world on the Russian side was the list brought from the miraculous icon. Subsequently, this list was brought to Moscow and placed in the Assumption Cathedral, and then, at the request of Novgorodians who participated in the war with the Swedes, it was sent to Novgorod and placed in St. Sophia Cathedral.

In 1983, the Russian Orthodox Church celebrated the 600th anniversary of the appearance of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God. The All-Russian celebration of the Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God, glorified by innumerable miracles, was established by the Church in memory of its miraculous appearance and the defeat of enemies by the performance of the Mother of God.

During World War II, the Tikhvin Icon was taken from Russia to the United States of America. The miraculous Tikhvin Icon of the Mother of God returned to her homeland on June 23, 2004. On the day of the church-wide celebration of the appearance of the image on July 9, 2004, a solemn liturgy was served at the Tikhvin Monastery by Patriarch Alexy II of Moscow and All Rus.

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