On Tuesday, March 28, 2006, a film crew from Kazan, Russia, led by historian Dmitri Khafizov, visited the OCA Archives to film material for a documentary on the Kazan icon of the Mother of God. This film is being produced by a TV network in Kazan in close cooperation with the Russian Orthodox Church. Mr. Khafizov’s extensive investigations and publications on the Kazan icon over many years, including previous research visits to the OCA Archives, were instrumental in accomplishing the ancient icon’s return to Russia from the Vatican in 2004.
In the 1960s, this icon was in the US for several years under the care of Archbishop John (Shahovskoy) of San Francisco of the Russian Orthodox Greek Catholic Church of America (now OCA). During that period, it was notably made available for public veneration at the Orthodox pavilion chapel of the 1964 World’s Fair in New York City.
Filming at the OCA chancery included photographs and documents related to the icon’s US sojourn and interviews with Mr. Alexis Liberovsky, OCA Archivist on OCA history and the icon’s connection to Orthodoxy in North America. Late in the day, Very Rev. Leonid Kishkovsky was likewise interviewed at Our Lady of Kazan Church in Sea Cliff, NY. In the next two weeks, the film crew will be visiting several OCA parishes and other venues across the country that are closely associated with the icon’s US sojourn in the 1960s.
Photos by John Mindala
