Icon of the Mother of God “of the Passion”
On Tverskaya Street in Moscow there are beautiful buildings, a cathedral, high walls, and a small bell tower with the sonorous bells of the Passion Monastery. This Icon received its name because on either side of the Mother of God two Angels are depicted with the implements of the Lord’s Passion: the Cross, the spear, and the sponge.
A certain pious woman named Katherine1 was the victim of demonic possession after her marriage, After seven years she fell into such despair that she ran off into the forest and more than once she attempted suicide.
Somehow, she came to her senses and begged the Mother of God to deliver her from her affliction. She promised that if she recovered, she would enter a convent. She was healed, but then she forgot her vow for a long time, and remained married, had children and raised them. When she remembered her broken promise at last, she became ill again and took to her bed. At that time, someone approached the doors and made the usual prayer. The doors opened, and the Mother of God entered the room. She was wearing a crimson robe with gold crosses. A young girl accompanied the Sovereign Lady.
The Mother of God said, "Katherine, why didn't you keep your promise to enter a convent and serve my Son and God? Go now and tell everyone about my appearance, and tell them to abstain from malice, envy, drunkenness, and every impurity, and to live in chastity, and to have unfeigned love for one another, and to observe Sundays and Feast Days."
The woman did not obey this order. Then the Mother of God appeared to her twice more, and then Katherine was punished: her head turned to the side, her mouth was twisted, and her body was paralyzed. After this punishment, the Mother of God ordered her to go to Nizhny Novgorod and find a certain iconographer named Gregory, who had painted a Hodēgḗtria Icon. Katherine told Gregory about the apparitions of the Mother of God and, after she saved seven silver coins, she gave them to the iconographer to adorn the Icon. The Theotokos promised to heal her if she did this. Katherine found the iconographer and the Icon, and she was healed.
From that time on, miracles have occurred before this Icon. After this first miracle, it was transferred to the village of Palitsa, in the Nizhny Novgorod Diocese.
In 1641, by command of Tsar Alexei, the Icon was transferred to Moscow. A church was built at the spot where it was met at the Tver gates, and the Icon was placed in it. Then, in 1654, the Passion Convent was built.
The Icon's Feast Day is on August 13, in remembrance its transfer from the village of Palitsa to Moscow in 1641.
The Icon is also commemorated the sixth Sunday after Pascha (Sunday of the Blind Man) in remembrance of the miracles which took place on that day. Copies of the Icon "of the Passion" have been glorified in Moscow's church of the Conception of Saint Anna, and also in the village of Enkaeva in Tambov Diocese.
Lipetsk Icon "of the Passion"
In the city of Lipetsk, Tambov province, in the Nativity of Christ Cathedral, there is a very ancient and revered Icon of the Mother of God "of the Passion" In honor of this Icon, a chapel was built in the cathedral, where it is kept. In bygone years, the inhabitants of Lipetsk often flocked to this shrine with fervent prayer and often received healing from bodily illnesses and consolation in their mental afflictions. But later, they almost forgot their pious custom, and the blessings which the Queen of Heaven bestowed on them, were preserved only in a vague and dark tradition.
In 1831, in the Lipetsk district and in the city of Lipetsk itself, there was severe outbreak of cholera. Then everyone remembered the wonderworking Icon of the Mother of God and appealed to the Mother of God with tears, asking for her help and intercession. As soon as the Icon was taken from the church, it was carried through the city in a Cross Procession and brought into homes, there were not so many deaths, and soon the cholera stopped altogether.
The inhabitants of the city, in gratitude for their deliverance, made a silver riza for the Icon of the Mother of God, and adorned it with various precious stones.
Moscow Icon "of the Passion" in the church of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by the Righteous Anna
On February 20, 1547, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, near the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos by the Righteous Anna2 church in Moscow at the corner called Kitai Town, two fires broke out. These fires destroyed many homes, except for one wooden house which remained undamaged by the fire, where the Icon of the Mother of God "of the Passion was kept. Contemporaries and eyewitnesses of this event had no doubt that this wooden house had been preserved only by God's special providence, and that grace was bestowed on it from above, by the Icon of the Mother of God. Soon the news of such a miraculous event reached Ivan the Terrible. The Tsar had the Icon of the Mother of God "of the Passion" brought to the palace, where it became famous because of its many miracles.
Soon, at the Tsar's command, it was moved from the palace to the church of the Conception of the Most Holy Theotokos and placed on the iconostasis, to the left of the royal gates, where it is kept to this day.
"Of the Passion" Icon in the village of Enkaev
Once, during the flooding of Eremshi, or Ermish River, in the village of Enkaev, Temnikovsky district, Tambov province, a serf named Ivan, who belonged to the landowner Nesterov, happened to see an icon floating on the water. It is not known where the Icon of the Mother of God "of the Passion" came from. He took it out of the water and brought it to the landowner Nesterov, who ordered it to be placed on the gates of the manor house. Here those who were blind or somewhat paralyzed received healing after praying before the Icon. After these miraculous events, the Icon of the Mother of God "of the Passion" was moved to the church of the Annunciation at Enkaev. Since that time the Icon has been revealed as wonderworking.
Priluki Icon of the Mother of God "of the Passion"
During his lifetime, Venerable Demetrios († February 11, 1392), founded the famous Savior-Priluki Monastery five versts from Vologda, near a bend in the river of the same name. Now his shrine is in the Monastery he founded, and over it, in a kiot behind glass, there is an ancient Icon of the Mother of God "of the Passion." It is considered to be the Saint's cell icon.
Among other local icons of the Mother of God "of the Passion," we may mention an icon located in the city of Orel, in the church of the Archangel Michael, and another, in the city of Kolomna, Moscow province in the chapel, on Popovskaya Street. All these icons are accurate copies of the ancient wonderworking Icon of the Theotokos, which is now located in Moscow's Passion Monastery.
1 Some sources say the woman's name was Eudoxia.
2 The church's Altar Feast is December 9.