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| Synaxis of the Icon of the Mother of God “In Giving Birth, You Preserved Your Virginity” (Feast Day - October 17) |
The Icon of the Mother of God “In Giving Birth, You Preserved Your
Virginity” (“A Virgin Before Birth and After Birth”) was transferred to
the Nikolaev Peshkov Monastery of the Moscow diocese by the Moscow merchant
Alexis Grigorievich Mokeev. Around the year 1780 Alexis joined the
brethren of the monastery. He had given all of his wealth to the abbot
of the monastery, Archimandrite Macarius, and the holy icon remained in
his cell.
After Alexis’s death, the icon was brought to the
archimandrite, who observed that the icon was painted in oil on canvas
and not according to the prescribed rules of iconography (using egg
tempera on wood), and he installed it over the exit door of the Chapel
of Saint Methodius, which was on a street not far from the monastery.
The
glorification of the holy icon began in 1827, when Captain Platon
Osipovich Shabashev, going past the chapel at night, saw an
extraordinary light coming from the icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.
Another time he had a vision of the icon at a time when he found himself
in difficult circumstances. In a dream, Platon beheld the radiant icon
of the Mother of God in the clouds above the Chapel of Saint Methodius
and heard a voice say, “If you wish to be delivered from temptation,
pray before this icon.” Platon obeyed the guidance of the Mother of God,
and the sorrow passed him by.
The pious Platon told the abbot
of the monastery about the miracles. He then transferred the holy image
into the monastery. When they went to put the icon in a ornamental case,
the image of the Most Holy Virgin, painted on canvas, stiffened taut
upon a board, on which was concealed a depiction of the Mother of God of
finest quality.
Numerous miracles are recorded to have taken place from
this icon in 1848 during an outbreak of cholera, when many praying
before it were healed. The monastery itself was then protected from cholera, despite the fact that its gates were always open to everyone, the guesthouse was full, and the monastics went on processions with the Cross to nearby villages and performed services in place of the sick or dead parish priests. In the same year, a service was drawn up and the day for the celebration of the icon was established - October 17. From that year on, the icon was located behind the church choir.
The icon became even more famous in 1888, since the day of the miraculous salvation of the royal family during the crash of the royal train was on October 17 - the day of the icon's feast. Returning to the capital, Emperor Alexander III ordered to have served a thanksgiving service to the icon of the Mother of God "In Giving Birth, You Preserved Your Virginity" in all churches in Russia. For those churches where such an image was absent, copies of it were urgently made.
In the pre-revolutionary period, the icon is placed in the Pokrovsky Monastery church, near the relics of Saint Methodius of Peshnoshsky. After the closure of the Nikolaev Peshkov Monastery in the 1920s, the original icon was lost.
In the pre-revolutionary period, the icon is placed in the Pokrovsky Monastery church, near the relics of Saint Methodius of Peshnoshsky. After the closure of the Nikolaev Peshkov Monastery in the 1920s, the original icon was lost.
In modern times, a new copy was created for the revived monastery by the iconographers of the Trinity-Sergius Lavra. This copy was put in the Saint Nicholas Cathedral of the monastery and also became famous for miracles. So, on Sunday, March 17, 2019, on the Week of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, during the Divine Liturgy, an abundant myrrh-streaming of the revered icon took place.
This icon of the Mother of God is of the Hodēgḗtria type.