How old is the miraculous Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God. Prayer to the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God

Museums of the Moscow Kremlin

Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, Blachernetissa(gr. Θεοτόκος των Βλαχερνών, Βλαχερνίτισσα ) is an icon of the Mother of God revered in the Orthodox Church. It is considered miraculous by believers, the icon is celebrated (dates according to the Julian calendar): July 7, July 2 (on the feast of the Deposition of the Robe) and on Saturday Akathist (on Saturday of the fifth week of Great Lent).

History of the icon

Byzantine period

Tradition attributes the creation of the icon to the Evangelist Luke. The icon was originally kept in the homeland of the evangelist in Antioch, and then was transferred to Jerusalem. Empress Evdokia brought it in 439 from Jerusalem to Constantinople along with other Christian relics. Given as a gift to Pulcheria, the sister of Emperor Theodosius II, the icon was placed in the Church of the Theotokos in Blachernae. The icon got its real name from the name of the temple.

The Blachernae icon was considered the patroness of Constantinople and the Byzantine emperors. In 626, during the siege of the city by the Persians, Patriarch Sergius walked around the walls of Constantinople with her. From that moment on, a tradition arose every year during Great Lent to transfer this icon from Blachernae to the imperial palace, where it remained until Monday of Bright Week.

They will put an icon upright on one person’s shoulders, and he will spread his arms, as if he had been crucified, and his eyes will roll back, so it’s scary to look, and he throws him back and forth across the square, and turns him in different directions, but he doesn’t even understand where his icon is. Then another picks it up, and the same happens to the other, and then the third and the fourth pick it up, and they sing a great song with the deacons, and the people cry out with tears: “Lord, have mercy!” Two deacons are holding ripids, and the rest are holding a kiot in front of the icon. A wondrous spectacle: seven or eight people put an icon on the shoulders of one person, and he, by the will of God, walks around as if not burdened by anything.

- "The Journey of Stefan of Novgorod"

There is no reliable information about the fate of this icon in the subsequent years of the Turkish conquest in 1453. Pavel Alepsky writes the following about the icon that was sent to Moscow:

When we were there (in Constantinople), a widow appeared in the courtyard of the Resurrection and presented the rector with the icon of the Lady, known as Blachernae. This is the same icon that the patriarch once surrounded the walls of the city, and at the same time she turned the enemies who attacked him into a shameful flight. The woman said that she found it in the wall of her house with a lamp burning in front of her ... Our Vladyka Patriarch used all his efforts, offering many chervonets to receive it from the mentioned rector, but in vain. Subsequently, the abbot sent her with one merchant to the Tsar of Moscow, who received her in the best way ... The Tsar in return for her sent that abbot 800 dinars, in addition to what he gave to the person who delivered it.

This story coincides with the legend of the period of iconoclasm, when the Blachernae icon, together with a burning lamp, was immured in the wall of the Pantokrator monastery, where it had been for about a hundred years.

Transfer to Moscow

Alexei Mikhailovich was sent a certificate of attestation about the icon, written by Patriarch Paisius of Constantinople, its original Greek text was found in the Russian State Archive of Ancient Acts.

The Blachernae icon began to be revered as an intercessor against enemy invasions: immediately after it was transferred to Moscow, Alexei Mikhailovich took it with him to the war, and upon his return, according to Pavel Alepsky, “ carried in front of you". During the Smolensk campaign, she was placed in front of the king in a sleigh.

Characteristics of the image

The dimensions of the icon are 46 x 37.5 x 4 cm. It is kept in the State Tretyakov Gallery. The Blachernae icon belongs to the Hodegetria icon-painting type and is made using the wax-mask technique, that is, it is a relief image. Pavel Aleppsky, who visited Moscow in 1655, wrote about her: “ not drawn with paints, but as if bodily or depicted with mastic, because parts of her body strongly protrude from the surface of the board, much to the surprise of the beholder, inspiring awe ... She seems to be embodied". The wax itself is made a mixture of holy relics and many other fragrant composition"that is, the icon is a kind of reliquary.

Lists

Three lists of the icon are known, made at different times:

The second and third lists are reliquary icons, crowns filled with many particles of the holy relics of various saints of God". In the descriptions, these icons are called wax-mastic, but their relief images are covered with gesso and painted with tempera, that is, they differ from the Byzantine prototype.

They pray for protection from enemies and ill-wishers, for protection in family life.

The Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God has been considered one of the most ancient in the whole world for many years. The creation of the shrine dates back to 302.
This icon from the Blachernae Church, which was located in Constantinople at that time, became the beginning of the Hodegetria (Guidebook) iconography.

When the Avars captured the capital, Patriarch Sergius (610-631) went around the city with prayers to the Intercessor for the salvation and liberation of his land. In memory of what the Mother of God fulfilled the petitions of the patriarch, they began to celebrate the holiday. The celebration took place every Saturday of the fifth week of Great Lent. The holiday is known as Praise to the Most Holy Theotokos or "Saturday Akathist".
At first, the celebration took place only in Constantinople, in the well-known Blachernae Church. Since the 9th century, the feast has been venerated in the monastery of St. Savva the Sanctified, and after that it was included in the Lenten Triodion. The celebration reached such fame that the entire Orthodox Church began to celebrate it.

Since 1654, the Blachernae icon has been in the power of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, who received the icon as a gift. Several versions of the further share of the icon exist. One says that when Constantinople was taken by the Turks, the icon was transferred to Moscow by Athos monks. Another version says that after the fall of Constantinople, in order to save the icon, it was transferred to a convent named after Christ Pantokrator. When the church with everything that was in it was walled up, a mosque was erected on the site of the temple. The icon was at that time in the church, and it was discovered only in 1616. After that, the shrine came to the Christians, who sent it as a gift to the Tsar of Moscow.
This icon is very unusual, because it is represented by a relief image of the Mother of God. On the left hand of the Virgin sits the Infant, who blesses with one hand and holds a scroll in the other.

Many icon painters, and even ordinary Christians, noticed that the icon, not painted with paints, parts of the body of the Virgin and the Baby protrude noticeably from the surface of the board. Pavel Aleppsky, who described the visit of Patriarch Macarius to Moscow, said that a certain fear is felt when looking at the icon.
For more than two centuries, the Byzantine treasure has been in the Assumption Church of the Kremlin. After the cathedral was closed to parishioners, the icon was transferred to the Exaltation of the Cross Church, which is located on Vozdvizhenka. When this temple was destroyed in 1931, the shrine was transferred to the Kremlin. The icon became part of the collection of the State Museums of the Moscow Kremlin (the shrine remains in this collection even now).

In the Tretyakov Gallery there is another Blachernae icon of the Most Holy Theotokos.

In the XVII-XVIII centuries, several honored lists were made.

Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, also called Blachernetissa, is one of the most revered Orthodox Church images. She is supposed to have miraculous powers.

The date of creation of the image is 302. According to historians, this is another creation of the Evangelist Luke. In 439, the icon was brought to Constantinople, and from that moment it began to be considered the patroness of the city and the emperors of Byzantium. Lik was named in accordance with the name of the area belonging to the western part of the city - Blachernae.

The leader of the Scythians, Vlach, was killed there, and in the 5th century, Emperor Leo the Great chose a place to build a church in the name of the Virgin. Somewhat later, it was there that Andrei Yurodivy observed the appearance of the Virgin Mary. In 1434, the temple was destroyed in a fire and the protector icon, which accompanied the emperors of Byzantium during the wars, was moved to another place, but the name Blachernae remains with it to this day.

Description of the icon

The image on the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God was created on the basis of a flat relief carved in wood. For this, the technique of waxing was used. The working material was wax mixed with the relics of Christian martyrs, which turned the icon into a reliquary. A layer of paint was already applied on top of the wax that covered the images of the Mother of God and the Savior.

Due to the special technique of making lists, few were made from the icon (less than five). This, in turn, led to the fact that churches in her honor were practically not built in Russia. According to Paul of Aleppo, who saw the image in 1655, the image does not look like a drawing, since it strongly protrudes above the surface of the board, giving the impression of a revived image. With appropriate lighting, it seems to take on flesh, which causes reverent awe in the soul of the beholder.

The iconographic type of the image suggests that it is a list of Hodegetria, very similar to the Smolensk Icon of the Mother of God. Estimated time of writing refers to the 15-16 centuries. The icon is supplemented with an inscription in Greek, which translates as "God-protected". After the restoration of 1813, a new text was added to the existing text (also in Greek): “Lady of the Blachernae Convent” and “Valuable Treasure”.

A distinctive feature of the Mother of God depicted on a wooden surface is the obvious massiveness of the figure. This also includes a large strip of halos covering part of the fields. The feet of the Infant are raised high and "contact" with the margins of the icon.

Location

At the moment, Blachernae is the property of the Tretyakov Gallery. A relief list was made from it (17-18 centuries), which was granted to the father of Grigory Stroganov, the founder of the Blachernae Church in Kuzminki, where the icon is still located.

Church in Kuzminki

In Kuzminki the church was rebuilt three times. The first time a wooden building was erected in 1716 under the command of the Stroganovs. It was lit in honor of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God, which was a family shrine for the family that owned Kuzminki. According to the name of the church, the area also received a new name - the village of Vlakherna.

In 1732, after a fire, the building had to be raised from the ruins. The renovated church was also wooden and soon (November 18, 1758) also burned down.

In the now known, third version, the temple was built for the third time (1759-1762), and then it was rebuilt due to the need for repairs (1784-1785).

Origin

The Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God was delivered from Constantinople in 1653. She was presented to Alexei Mikhailovich, the parent of Peter the Great. A document (letter) was attached to the Icon, which told about its origin (the Blachernae Monastery in Constantinople) and the history of veneration, correlating the image with the Hodegetria of Constantinople.

The icon was transferred for storage to the Assumption Cathedral (in the Moscow Kremlin), but when setting out on a military campaign, the tsar did not forget to take it with him.

What to pray for

The Blachernae icon of the Mother of God is revered, first of all, as a guardian from enemies and invasions. Her help can be expected not only during hostilities, but also in the fight against ordinary ill-wishers. She also patronizes family people, protecting them from any external intrusions.

The Orthodox Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God is considered one of the most ancient sacred images, since it was painted back in 302. The history of the creation of the icon is closely connected with the tragedy that took place in Nicodemia. Then, by order of the authorities, about 20 thousand great martyrs who had gathered for the celebration of Christmas were burned. Christians, residents of Nicodemia, collected the ashes left from the great martyrs and added it to the wax. From this wax they molded the image of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Divine Infant. The sculpted figure was very reminiscent of the image painted by the hand of the holy Evangelist Luke. The image was called “God-protected” and it was kept in one of the temples of Constantinople. The Christian Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God depicts the Most Holy Mother of God Herself holding the Divine Infant in her arms. With his left hand, the baby bestows a blessing on everyone, and in his right hand he holds a scroll. The Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God was erected in 1720 in the Kuzminki estate and has undergone numerous changes since its construction. Initially, it was built of wood, later the temple was rebuilt from stone. There were times when the Orthodox Church of the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God was rebuilt for housing. However, in the 1990s the temple was restored and consecrated.

The meaning of the church icon of the Mother of God of Blachernae

Sincere prayer to the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God and the pure thoughts of the asker will give him strength and indicate the way forward. It is customary to ask this sacred image to heal the soul from earthly vices. A believer who wants to repent of his sins will definitely read a prayer to the icon of the Mother of God of Blachernae. Sincere prayer helps to get rid of doubts and fear, gives self-confidence. Holy Mother of God always supports the pious in both joy and sorrow.

Where can I buy the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God?

Anyone can buy the Blachernae Icon of the Mother of God in the nearest church shop or in one of the Orthodox online stores. The choice is incredibly huge. A huge number of icons made of different materials and using various technologies are presented to the attention of buyers. Beaded icons of the Holy Mother of God of Blachernae have recently gained particular popularity. Such Christian icons look very festive, so they will certainly become an adornment of a home red corner.