Finding a Kursk indigenous icon. Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”

The celebration of the Kursk Root Icon “The Sign” is taking place March 21, September 21, December 10, at 9 Friday Easter (March 8, September 8, November 27 old style).

What do people pray for to the Kursk Root Icon “The Sign”: pray for deliverance from civil strife; during disasters and attacks by enemies; about the pacification of warring parties; for eye disease and blindness; during cholera.

Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”

Prayer to the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”

O Queen of Heaven! Who will count the great multitude of Your miracles, who will count the cries of prayerful petitions, streams of touched tears, grateful sighs shed before Your icon. For all of it is covered in the sorrow of the people, the tears of the oppressed and the joyful praise of the consoled. The people who bore the Hagaryan yoke fell to her, mourning Moscow in time of troubles, call Kursk, in the enemy invasion. The whole region cried out during the days of deadly illnesses and troubles, and you turned all sorrow into joy. Likewise, bless the Russian land now. Save our country from sin, destruction and temptation. Pour grace on agricultural labor and on every good social undertaking. Remember, O Most Holy Virgin, by the name of all those present and praying, and all the people who demand Your consolation, help and mercy. You weigh the secret of our hearts. Likewise, fulfill their requests to everyone according to their needs. Turn the more erring ones to repentance, and make us all wise with the light of Gospel love and good deeds. Archpastors and shepherds, and all the faithful in Orthodoxy, show them steadfast until death, guide them into the Kingdom of Heaven, and make them live with Christ forever and ever. Amen.

From ancient times, information has reached us about the appearance of the miraculous image of the Mother of God. This happened at a time of disaster for the Russian people, when many cities and villages were ravaged, devastated, and depopulated by the invasion of the Mongol-Tatar hordes of Batu. The Kursk region did not escape this sad fate.

...In 1295, on September 8, two hunters hunted in the forest 28 kilometers from Kursk. Suddenly one of them saw, the chronicler claims, “near the Tuskari River in a half-mountain, at the root big tree the icon lying prostrate, which he had only just lifted from the ground, when a source of water immediately flowed from that place; seeing this, this man erected the icon “The Sign”, which he had honestly acquired. Mother of God in the hollow of that tree, and then he himself announced this glorious miracle to his comrades, who, agreeing among themselves, built a chapel several fathoms higher than the mentioned place and, placing in it miraculous icon, returned home in peace.” This historical event is captured in the sculptural composition, which is installed on the right at the entrance to the monastery. Its author is our fellow countryman, famous sculptor, People's Artist of Russia, academician, president International Fund Slavic writing and culture Vyacheslav Klykov.

Pilgrims began to visit the place where the shrine appeared. Rylsk Prince Vasily Shemyaka ordered the icon to be moved to the city of Rylsk. The miraculous image was solemnly greeted by the residents of the city. However, the prince avoided the celebration and was punished for this with blindness. Having repented and received healing, the prince, touched by this miracle, built a church in Rylsk in the name of Christmas Holy Mother of God, where the miraculous icon was placed. However, she miraculously disappeared and returned to the place of her appearance. Residents of Rylsk repeatedly took the icon, but each time it again ended up in the Root Hermitage.

In 1383, the Kursk land was subjected to new plunder by the Tatars. The invaders decided to burn the chapel, but it did not catch fire. Then they grabbed the holy icon, cut it into two parts and threw it into different sides. The pious elder Bogolyub later found these parts of the icon, put them together, and they immediately grew together.

The fame of the miracles of the icon reached Tsar Fyodor Ioannovich. He drew attention to the fate of the city, which the miraculous image reminded of. In 1597, the sovereign ordered the restoration of the city of Kursk in the same place where it was located before Batu’s ruin. And the miraculous icon “with great honor, for the sake of worship” was transferred to Moscow. The king ordered a special cypress board with the image to be made around the icon Old Testament prophets with charters in hand. The frame was made in silver and gilded, it was decorated with pearls and precious stones, and also attached to the frame a shroud, personally embroidered with gold threads by Tsarina Irina and her daughter, Princess Feodosia.

In such magnificent decoration, the icon was returned back to the Root Hermitage, where the king ordered the construction of a monastery with a church in the name of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Then, during the invasion of the Crimean Tatars, the icon was transferred for safety from the Root Hermitage to Kursk, to the Cathedral Church, and a copy of it was left in the Hermitage.

When during the reign of Boris Godunov there was famine due to crop failure, the people of Kursk tearfully prayed before their heavenly intercessor and asked for the fertility of the lands with processions of the cross. And a miracle happened: the Kursk lands brought a big harvest for Russia. The people of Kursk also prayed before the miraculous image during the siege of Kursk by the Poles in 1612. In gratitude for the salvation, the townspeople built a monastery in the name of the Sign of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Construction of the large stone Znamensky Cathedral in Kursk began in 1816 and lasted 10 years. The temple in the form of a cross was crowned with a spherical dome. From the base to the top of the dome, the height of the cathedral is 48 meters. The interior space of the temple is filled with light, penetrating through the high and wide windows of the dome.

In the history of the Znamensky Cathedral there were difficult years when, due to human ignorance, great damage was caused to the architecture of the building. The first time this happened was in the mid-19th century, when unsuccessful reconstructions changed the northern façade of the building and grossly distorted the original architecture.

The building suffered secondary damage in the mid-30s of the last century. The paired bell towers and four corner domes were demolished. During these same years, the cathedral building began to be used as a cinema.

And only in 1992 the temple was again handed over to believers and the renewed Znamensky Monastery. The builders immediately began work: 12 columns and a false dome were dismantled. Finally, the first one entered the temple again sunbeam– after all, after the reconstruction of the magnificent temple into a cinema, its central part was illuminated only by artificial light. The builders had to remove more than 600 tons of reinforced concrete structures.

Artists from the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts worked on the restoration and renovation of the cathedral. Having carefully studied the former cathedral paintings from previous photographs, academic artists, led by academician of painting Alexander Bystrov, sought to give the paintings the former, historical view. Parishioners, the regional administration, entrepreneurs, and enterprise managers made significant contributions to the restoration. For the all-Russian celebrations in honor of the 250th anniversary of the birth of St. Seraphim of Sarov, the painting of the cathedral was completed. It has acquired such a magnificent appearance that the Kursk residents who visit it these days look with joy and delight at the majestic decoration of the main cathedral of the Kursk land.

The Znamensky Cathedral has always been not only a symbol, but the living heart of Kursk, responding to all events occurring in human destinies and in the destinies of the Fatherland.

In 1618, on the occasion of the consecration of the first wooden church The Nativity of the Virgin Mary in the Korennaya Hermitage, on the ninth Friday after Easter, the icon was first transferred from Kursk to Korennaya. This was the beginning of the religious processions. The winter location of the shrine was the Znamensky Cathedral of Kursk, and the summer location was the Root Hermitage. The icon is traditionally transferred to the Znamensky Cathedral on September 12 (25). Majestic and solemn religious processions attracted many thousands of people. There is a legend that when the first pilgrims entered Korennaya, the last ones were still in Kursk. So great was the boundless sea of ​​pilgrims flowing under the shadow of the icon. The picture of the religious procession is conveyed by the famous painting by Ilya Repin “The religious procession in the Kursk province”.

The Kursk shrine more than once became the patroness of the Russian army. Before the Battle of Poltava, Peter I, together with Count Boris Sheremetev, stopped by the Root Hermitage and prayed in front of the miraculous image for the granting of victories. In 1812, the Kursk City Society sent to active army to Mikhail Kutuzov, a copy of the miraculous Kursk icon, in front of which the commander fervently prayed.

In 1892, the Kursk Root Icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Sign” became famous for its gracious help and deliverance of the Kursk region from the terrible cholera epidemic that broke out at that time.

Great miracles from the icon continued to occur. On March 8, 1898, several attackers, wanting to undermine the people's faith in miraculous power icons, decided to destroy it by placing an explosive shell with a clock mechanism. At two o'clock in the morning a terrible explosion was heard in the Znamensky Cathedral. Its power was so great that the gilded cast-iron canopy above the icon was torn into pieces, and the heavy marble base was crushed into several parts. All the glass in the cathedral and even in the upper dome was broken. And amid all this destruction, the holy icon remained unharmed. Hoping to destroy it, the attackers only served to further glorify the miraculous image.

After the October Revolution, the icon was stolen from the Znamensky Cathedral in broad daylight on April 12, 1918. The search yielded no results. The shrine was discovered a few days later, at about 10 am. One woman, returning home, passed by a well (according to legend, dug in his youth by the Monk Theodosius of Pechersk himself). Here, on the stump of the well, she saw a package wrapped in a bag. There was an icon in it, but it was already without magnificent vestments, apparently planted by the kidnappers.

In the 20th century, the Kursk Root Icon, having shared the fate of Russia, became a companion of Russian people abroad. At the end of October 1919, the miraculous image left the Kursk region. From the Athos courtyard, the icon was transferred to Constantinople, then to the Greek city of Thessaloniki, then to the ancient capital of Serbia, the city of Nis, and to the suburb of Belgrade - Zemun. So it began way of the cross icons outside the Fatherland. The icon is currently located in the USA. The shrine visits parishes in the USA and other countries where Russian people live. She is truly considered the Hodegetria of the entire Russian diaspora.

The ancient tradition of holding religious processions behind the holy icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” of the Kursk Root was revived in 1990. A list of icons from the early 20th century takes part in modern religious processions - exact copy miraculous image. The holy springs on the territory of the monastery have not dried up either. As before, holy water from the life-giving springs of the Root Hermitage gives strength and strengthens Orthodox people in the faith.

Text source: http://pravda.kursknet.ru

Gallery of icons.

During the invasion of Russia by Khan Batu, the city of Kursk was so devastated that it was overgrown with forest, in which residents of the neighboring town of Rylsk often hunted. One day, on September 8, 1295, a hunter saw an icon facing the ground at the root of a tree. He raised the image, and it turned out that it was the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos “The Sign”. At that very moment, in the place where she lay, a source of spring water gushed out of the ground.

When Prince Vasily Shemyaka of Rylsky was informed about the appearance of the icon, he ordered it to be brought to the city. The people greeted the icon with triumph, but the prince himself did not take part in this meeting, for which he was immediately punished with blindness. When, after repentance, he received insight, in gratitude for the healing, he erected a temple in honor of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, where, after construction was completed, the miraculous icon was placed. At the same time, a holiday was established on the day of her appearance. The icon from the place of its appearance at the root of the tree began to be called the Root icon.

“The Sign” Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God. Gallery of icons.

But the icon did not stay in the temple for long: it miraculously disappeared and was discovered in the place where it was found by the hunter. Residents of Rylsk repeatedly took it and took it to the city, but each time the icon disappeared from the temple, and it was again found at the site of the apparition at the root of a tree. Then everyone realized that the Mother of God favored the place where Her image appeared, and a chapel was built on this place.

“The Sign” Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God. Gallery of icons.

In 1383, the Tatars who attacked the Kursk region captured the priest serving at the chapel, set the chapel on fire, cut the icon in half, threw one half into the fire and the other to the side. The priest was taken to Crimea, where he spent several years in captivity, performing hard work. One day, Moscow ambassadors, driving past the Tatar camp, heard Russian hymns to the Most Holy Theotokos. Having learned about the captured priest, the ambassadors ransomed him from slavery, and he returned to the place near Kursk, where there once stood a chapel with a miraculous icon.

At the site of the burnt chapel, the priest found one half, and after searching, he found the other half off to the side in the grass. With faith, he put the two halves together, and they grew together miraculously. From that time on, the icon remained in its place in the newly built chapel, and miracles did not stop from it all the time. Subsequently, a monastery was built on the site of the chapel - Root Hermitage. It is known that St. Seraphim of Sarov was cured in childhood before this image.

In 1898, attackers tried to destroy the Russian shrine. The explosion from the planted bomb was so strong that the temple collapsed, but the icon remained unharmed. To everyone’s amazement, even the glass on the icon case remained intact. In memory of the miraculous preservation of the icon during the explosion, another day was established for the celebration of the Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” - September 8 (September 21 in the new style).

After the revolutionary hard times, the miraculous image ended up outside of Russia. Nowadays it is one of the Russian shrines Orthodox Church Abroad.

Days of celebration: March 21 (March 8, old style), 21 (September 8), December 10 (November 27) and the 9th Friday of Easter.

His Holiness Patriarch Kirill delivered the miraculous Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” to Kursk on September 23, 2009.

More about the Kursk-Root Icon “The Sign”

The miraculous icon, the most famous copy-list of the Novgorod icon “The Sign”. The history of her veneration probably began in the 16th century. According to legend, in 1597 Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich ordered the “Sign” icon, revered in Kursk, to be brought to Moscow. In Moscow, the icon was updated: it was inserted into a frame with images of the prophets, Tsarina Irina Fedorovna decorated it with a precious frame. Soon the icon was returned to Kursk, where the Root Monastery was founded (named in memory of the appearance of the icon, which, according to legend, occurred in the 13th century “at the root of a tree”). The icon was again brought to Moscow by False Dmitry I, and returned to Kursk in 1615 by Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich. In 1898, the Socialist Revolutionaries tried to blow up the shrine, but it remained unharmed. In 1918, the miraculous Kursk-Root Icon and its copy in precious frames were stolen, but were soon found abandoned (without frames). In 1920, the icon was taken abroad: after a temporary return to the Crimea, to the army of General Wrangel, it was sent to Yugoslavia, where it remained for 25 years; during the Second World War in 1944 transported to Germany. Since 1951 it has been a shrine of the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad in the USA.

The surviving Kursk-Root icon “The Sign” is small in size, executed at the end of the 16th century; the images of the prophets on the frame are later. In the 17th-19th centuries, the icon was especially revered as the patroness of the Orthodox army; copies of it were taken on military campaigns. The icon was worn annually procession of the cross from the Kursk Znamensky Cathedral, where it had been kept since the 17th century, to the Root Hermitage. Numerous copies of the icon (mainly in the southern regions of Russia) were also considered miraculous.

“The Sign” Kursk-Root Icon of the Mother of God.

The Mother of God is revered and glorified by all believers without exception. The Kursk image of the Virgin Mary, otherwise called the “Sign,” is able to protect your home from enemies and all evil.

History of the icon

The miraculous icon “The Sign” was found in the forests near the city of Kursk by a pious hunter. The man saw the icon near the roots of the tree: when he lifted it, a clean spring opened in the ground under his feet. Having seen this miracle, the hunter called his comrades, and near the place where the image of the Mother of God was found they built a chapel.

At this time, the Tatars came to the Kursk lands. The chapel of the Mother of God did not escape plunder: the Tatars burned it and cut the icon into two parts. The priest serving in the chapel was captured by the Tatars. A few years later he was ransomed and the first thing he did was to look for parts of the miraculous icon. The priest found both parts, put them together - and the icon grew together, as if it had never been cut. The news of this great miracle quickly spread among believers, and the icon was placed in the Church of the Mother of God in the city of Kursk.

Where is the icon

After expulsion Tatar yoke The icon of the Mother of God was brought to Moscow at the insistence of the princely family. The image was decorated with velvet, gold ornaments and precious stones, after which it was returned to Kursk. Currently, the image of the “Sign” is located in the Kursk Znamensky Monastery.

Description of the icon “The Sign”

The icon depicts the Virgin Mary raising her hands in prayer. In Her womb is depicted the Baby Jesus, bringing salvation to the entire human race. This image reminds everyone Orthodox Christian about the great miracle of the birth of the Lord.

How does a miraculous image help?

The Kursk Icon of the Mother of God symbolizes justice and reminds all believers of the miracle of the appearance of the Son of God. That is why they pray to the image of the Mother of God “The Sign” for the healing of women’s diseases, the gift of children and family happiness. The icon is also approached with a request to protect home and family from enemies, ill-wishers and all evil.

Prayers to the miraculous icon

“Most Holy Mother of God, merciful intercessor and patroness of the unworthy servants of God! We humbly pray to You: ask Your Son and our God not to leave us in sin and unbelief. May the grace of the Holy Spirit descend upon us and humbly enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Amen".

“Virgin Mother of God, I humbly pray to You, running to You in tears: do not leave me in grief and sorrow, descend to my tears and grant me the happiness of prolonging our race! Amen".

This prayer can help a woman bring healthy offspring and raise a child in love.

Remembrance Day of the Kursk Icon of the Mother of God is March 21. On this day, prayers for healing and forgiveness of sins have special power. We wish you peace in your soul and strong faith in God. Be happy and don't forget to press the buttons and

29.06.2017 06:36

Negative points happen in the life of every person. In order for life to return to normal...

During the celebration Christian holidays Many people ask questions about the prohibition of certain actions. What...

The miraculous Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign”.

History of the miraculous Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” began a very long time ago - at the end of the 13th century, when the era of the Tatar yoke descended on Rus'.

Finding of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God

Finding Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God happened precisely at that time. 1295 Kursk ceased to exist half a century earlier, during the invasion of Batu. Burnt and plundered, it was overgrown with undergrowth. Local residents hid in the forests, expecting new troubles any day. At that time they did little farming, subsisting on beekeeping and hunting. The hunter accidentally came across an “elm tree”, at the roots of which lay an icon of the Mother of God that had come from nowhere.

In the “Tale of the miraculous Sign of the Most Holy Theotokos, the icon called Kursk” this event is spoken of as follows:

“In 6803 from the creation of the world, and from the Nativity of Christ in 1295, on September 8, it happened that one pious man came for the sake of his income to the forest, which overgrown the surroundings of the city of Kursk after its destruction, and by God’s providence he saw near the Tuskari river in a semi-mountain , at the root of a large tree, a prostrate icon, which he had only just lifted from the ground when a source of water immediately flowed from that place. Seeing this, this husband placed the icon of the “Sign” of the Mother of God, which he had honestly acquired, in the hollow of that tree, and then he himself announced this glorious miracle to his comrades, who, agreeing among themselves, built a chapel from forest, cut down in this place, and, having placed a miraculous icon in it, returned home in peace.”

Here the image remained for quite a long time, until in 1385 they attacked “Russian Ukraine” Crimean Tatars. Having discovered a secluded forest chapel, they decided to burn it down. However, this crazy intention was not so easy to implement: the chapel did not burn. The Tatars began threatening a certain priest Bogolyub, seeing the reason for their failure in his “magic arts.” The priest said that he had never practiced any magic, and that apparently the miraculous icon in it prevented the chapel from burning. The priest paid for his honesty: the Tatar icon was taken out of the chapel and cut in half, the building itself was burned, and Bogolyub was taken prisoner.

For several years the priest languished in captivity among the Crimeans, until finally he was redeemed by a Russian envoy who arrived to the Crimean Khan on some order from the Grand Duke. Together with the embassy, ​​Bogolyub returned to his homeland, and his first thought was to find the two halves of the chopped icon. He succeeded. And moreover: the parts of the icon grew together as soon as he put them together.

The priest went to Rylsk and told his fellow citizens about the miracle that had happened. The residents of the city were very happy and tried to transfer the Root Image to Rylsk. However, this attempt was as unsuccessful as the previous one, hundred years ago, when Prince Vasily Shemyaka “demanded” the icon for himself. The image of the Most Holy Theotokos did not remain in Rylsk, returning literally a few hours later to the place of its discovery. Despite this, several more unsuccessful attempts were made to place the miraculous icon in the city. But the Mother of God clearly showed a different intention: to leave Her icon where it appeared for the time being. And every time the icon disappeared from Rylsk, later finding itself on the shore of quiet Tuskari.

Travels of the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God

For the first time, the image of the Mother of God left its modest chapel for a long time in 1597, when Tsar Theodore Ioannovich ordered it to be brought to Moscow. Actually, this departure put an end to the permanent presence of the Root Image at the place of its appearance. Although, according to the royal instructions, a monastery was to be established here, the icon itself was soon installed in Kursk, which had been restored shortly before, where it remained until it was confiscated in 1604 by False Dmitry I.

After a ten-year absence, the Root Icon of the Mother of God returned to the city, founded by the Kursk people by vow after the memorable Polish siege of 1612. In 1618, the first “desert on the vine” took place. This is how the tradition arose of transferring the icon for a short time from the Znamensky Monastery to.

In Kursk, the Root Icon remained peacefully until late XIX century. And twenty years later the empire collapsed, all Russian life collapsed, which also affected the miracle-working fate. In 1918, the image and copy from it were stolen from the Znamensky Cathedral in broad daylight. The Bolsheviks ruled Kursk at that time, and the search for the icon was carried out sluggishly.

According to legend, the icons were discovered by chance in a well dug, according to legend, by the Venerable Theodosius of Pechersk himself... And so, just on the day of memory of the Venerable Theodosius of Pechersk, on Thursday of St. Thomas Week, May 3, one poor woman, a seamstress by profession, returned hungry from the market... Passing by the Feodosievsky well, this seamstress noticed an old bag in which there was something. Hoping to find something edible, the hungry woman went to the well and looked into the bag. It contained two wooden icons of the Sign of the Mother of God without vestments.

In mid-October, General Kutepov informed the local bishop that the city could be abandoned Volunteer Army, and invited him, as well as other clergy, to go south. It was decided to take out the Kursk Root Icon - first to Oboyan, and if the situation on the fronts worsened, then further. On October 31, 1919, the Root Icon left the Znamensky Monastery.

Together with the White Army, the icon retreated to the southern outskirts of Russia - through Belgorod, Taganrog, Ekaterinodar, Novorossiysk. On March 1, 1920, she departed for Thessaloniki on the steamship St. Nicholas.

The miraculous image returned to Russia once again - on September 14, 1920, at the earnest request of General Wrangel, he arrived in Crimea. However, the White movement was already in its death throes, and at the end of October the icon left the Russian shores for decades.

For the next quarter century she was in Yugoslavia. When the bombing of Belgrade became continuous in 1944, and Soviet troops came close to it, the icon was taken first to Vienna, and then to Munich. The icon stayed in Europe for five years, and at the beginning of February 1951 it was delivered to the New Root Monastery, a monastery built in the USA on the former estate of the Beloselsky-Belozersky princes.

Now the Kursk Root Icon of the Mother of God “The Sign” is in the Znamensky Synodal Church in New York. In 2009, in early autumn, she visited Russia for the first time after a long break.