Icon of the Mother of God of White Lake

This holy icon belonged to Saint Cyril of White Lake (June 9), and he kept it in his cell.

Saint Cyril was living at the Simonov Monastery, but his soul yearned for solitude, and he asked the Mother of God to show him a place conducive for salvation. One night he was reading an Akathist in his cell before the Hodēgḗtria icon of the Mother of God, and had just reached the eighth Kontakion, “Seeing the strange Nativity, let us become strangers to the world and transport our minds to heaven.” Then he heard a voice say, “Go to White Lake (Belozersk), where I have prepared a place for you.”

He left the Simonov Monastery and at the desolate and sparsely populated White Lake, he found the place which he had seen in the vision. Saint Cyril and his companion Saint Therapon of White Lake and Mozhaisk (May 27), set up a cross and dug a cell in the ground near Mount Myaura at Siversk Lake.

The White Lake Icon is also commemorated on July 28.